My tips for new Agile Delivery Leads

In Australia there are a number of terms that are used to describe the person/people who are responsible for creating amazing agile teams. The most common is Scrum Master, but there is also Iteration Manager, Delivery Lead and Agile Development Manager to name a few.

At Campaign Monitor the role we have is called the Delivery Lead. It is really part Agile Coach and part Project Manager. But because there are so many opinions around what people in these roles do, I wanted to share with you my view of this role as well as some tips for people who are starting out in this role.

I had the benefit of joining the workforce before agile had become an accepted norm. This meant I had the opportunity to learn old school project management techniques that were designed to be used in waterfall projects.

I got to work with some really experienced project managers and be punched in the face a number of times (as our CTO would call it) which really helped me “grow” and see how tight governance could be valuable. At the same time I got to see how excessive governance helped create a risk averse environment.

I think the byline for that period of my working life would have been “manage by process to ensure perfection”.

But at some point along the way, you realise there is no such thing as perfection, nor is there a perfect process. Whenever you kid yourself into believing that either of those things exist, you actively work towards switching off people’s brains and pushing them to leave the thinking to the process.

I think my new understanding for that period could be characterised by “if you train monkeys, expect to get peanuts” (a slight re-imagining of the original saying).

Balance your need for perfection with your aversion to peanuts

The challenge when building a software product is that people aren’t really willing to pay for a product made from peanuts.

Maybe for a short period they are, but definitely not in the long term…

And while you are having monkeys add peanuts to your product, your competitors are overtaking you and killing your ability to differentiate.

So instead you want a team that has the freedom to create amazing things the best way they can. However getting punched in the face enough teaches you that you still need to strive for perfection because taking your hand completely off the steering wheel generally results in really bad crashes.

A bit of big picture thinking, governance and planning is still required to ensure things turn out right.

Personally I don’t believe traditional governance and risk management has been applied in a way that it can deal with the increasing pace of change we are observing in our industries today. I do however believe that the right delivery approach retains the value of governance and risk management but in newer smarter ways.

I characterise the main execution difference between Agile and traditional approaches as having a proactive approach to risk management instead of a more passive approach. This means you actually seek to eliminate, validate or realise risks as soon as possible, instead of letting them sit stagnantly on a Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies log (RAID log).

However because agile doesn’t tell you how to do governance and risk management, getting to work in a waterfall environment does help you appreciate what value not to lose when using an agile delivery approach.

So based on my own personal experiences around project delivery and the scars I earned, here are my top 8 tips for new Deliver Leads/Iteration Manager/Scrum Masters/Agile Project Managers etc.

The Delivery Lead

The Delivery Lead role is unique.
You are the grease that makes everything run smoother.

Tip 1 — The reality is that if anything goes wrong, you could’ve done something about it.

Be it having been firmer with Product Managers/Owners, been more inquisitive about issues, been more direct and controlling with your team, been more supportive and encouraging of your team members, having held better planning meeting to manage for risks.

The caveat,

Tip 2 — Although you could’ve done something about each thing, you can’t have dealt with everything

It’s impossible to know and plan for everything so don’t expect that you can. You should be looking to create an resilient environment that accepts we will always have imperfect information.

Because of the above,

Tip 3 — Anything that goes wrong ultimately rests on your shoulders

Irrespective of who “owns” something or is “responsible” to do something you will ultimately own the pain when shit hits the fan and this means you do OWN the activity even though you need to make sure other people feel they do.

This means,

Tip 4 — Everything required to be successful falls under delivery, not just the building of software.

Delivery includes ensuring contracts are signed in time so they don’t delay or impact your team, business processes are changed so that anything you build actually does what it was intended to do, and can be supported going forward, that marketing talks to the Product Managers so the product is launched well.

The list goes on… and because there is so much to do,

Tip 5 — Everyone will get stuck in delivering the now

Only you will care enough about the long term to make sure reality and expectations don’t diverge so far that your team can’t recover from it.

If you get stuck on the dance floor without taking time to be on the balcony — your team is in danger because no one else is doing it!

Tip 6 — Although you care about the long term — you won’t know enough about the details

So you will need to help your team understand the risks.

You are responsible for making sure we are always constantly and actively addressing the biggest risks.

Your team is responsible for helping you know what those risks are and helping you resolve them.

Because things change…

Tip 7 — You need to constantly review risks, and making sure you know what reality really is

It’s the only way you can make sure expectations match reality.

Integrations and new tech are often the biggest risks because they retain so many unknowns. Keep this in mind when you plan your release/slicing strategy.

Tip 8 — Don’t undervalue a good night’s sleep

Every stakeholder is willingly to pay additional costs if it means the elimination or significant reduction of risk — the value of getting to sleep soundly at night is huge, and this means any kind of option you can think of like additional temporary hardware or early productionisation of infrastructure is on the cards — as long as you can relate it to how much more confident you will be in delivering, and how much less painful it will be if something goes wrong.

Finally, when your team succeeds, it’s about them being amazing, and the sign of your success is that no one knew they needed you.

Where the rubber hits the road

The role of Delivery Lead is where the rubber hits the road, and although it’s a difficult role to master, it’s a very rewarding role.

You get to do amazing things, work with amazing people, and help them do more than they could ever do without you.

I wish you the very best of luck in choosing this role and hope you enjoy the roller coaster as much as I have.

If you are looking to join an amazing team that will give you the opportunity to do all of the things above, we are always looking for awesome people to join us.

Check out our open roles and I might see you around.