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I've been wondering for some time if it would be possible and effective to delegate all administrative and process responsibilities to line managers. Remove the

I've been wondering for some time if it would be possible and effective to delegate all administrative and process responsibilities to line managers. Remove the IC from the planning documentation process entirely and let them plan their own execution however they see fit within each Sprint. The only responsibility for the IC would be stand ups with their manager to discuss progress and agree to future timelines. The ICs wouldn't have to go to any other Agile meetings or write any business/project planning docs. Manager would scope and write all IC tickets. I think you would very quickly see a culture change with regard to process work. Having sole responsibility for both creating and completing the process work, it would be in the manager's best interests to make it efficient. I've never seen an org try the above, but it doesn't seem crazy to me. I expect you'd still be able to attract managers through increased compensation and opportunities for career progression. Note: I'm not saying the IC forfeits all planning discretion, I simply mean it would be the manager's responsibility to write it up into whatever documentation is required by the org, track progress, rewrite the plan as necessary, etc.

ThalesX 4y ago
> The only responsibility for the IC would be stand ups with their manager to discuss progress and agree to future timelines. The ICs wouldn't have to go to any other Agile meetings or write any business/project planning docs. Manager would scope and write all IC tickets. I think this would end up causing negative feelings both for developers and managers. I've almost seen this in one place where we were Waterfall and it created a disconnect between the dev's understanding of the product, resulting in frustration and bad decisions (the small ones that you make during the day where it's important to have context of the product). The other interesting thing I noticed was that managers had a lot less excuses for the higher ups and would do a lot less office politics and a lot more execution, but that ended up also not working amazingly because we've had instances of people playing only politics and winning vs. execution (surprisingly fast to get promoted when instead of defining tasks and taking care of execution scheduling, you grab a coffee with your manager's manager) and that ended up frustrating managers also. At this point in my life I've given up on believing in both gajillion dollar corporate projects that mostly satisfy egos of stakeholders and startups that are not customer focused. I've also stopped believing in co-workers that are not user focused. I don't care both for how many mountains a manager can move, neither for the sacred 10x developer, if their talents are not put to use in the customer's name. And, to your post's subject, I've also stopped believing in any sort of process, that is not done to deliver more value to the customer. IMHO, your vision (or any other vision) could work, or not, depending on the people involved in the process.
- badtension 4y ago
  > your vision (or any other vision) could work, or not, depending on the people involved in the process. I wonder is there a rule or a set of rules that would bring out the best in people, make us focus on creating great products while simultaneously caring about sustainable future. Profit-centric world seems to breed all kinds of pathology, on every level. Even our growing regulations seem not adequate and usually protecting the powerful.
doktorhladnjak 4y ago
I’ve worked on a team that was close to this. The main downside was that the engineers felt like cogs in the machine that had no agency. It’s like we were offshore contractors. The quality of the software wasn’t great. The team tended to focus on meeting deadlines. Turnover was high. Eventually the product manager was fired, the engineering manager quit, and the team got reorged into something fairly different.

ThalesX 4y ago

> The only responsibility for the IC would be stand ups with their manager to discuss progress and agree to future timelines. The ICs wouldn't have to go to any other Agile meetings or write any business/project planning docs. Manager would scope and write all IC tickets. I think this would end up causing negative feelings both for developers and managers. I've almost seen this in one place where we were Waterfall and it created a disconnect between the dev's understanding of the product, resulting in frustration and bad decisions (the small ones that you make during the day where it's important to have context of the product). The other interesting thing I noticed was that managers had a lot less excuses for the higher ups and would do a lot less office politics and a lot more execution, but that ended up also not working amazingly because we've had instances of people playing only politics and winning vs. execution (surprisingly fast to get promoted when instead of defining tasks and taking care of execution scheduling, you grab a coffee with your manager's manager) and that ended up frustrating managers also. At this point in my life I've given up on believing in both gajillion dollar corporate projects that mostly satisfy egos of stakeholders and startups that are not customer focused. I've also stopped believing in co-workers that are not user focused. I don't care both for how many mountains a manager can move, neither for the sacred 10x developer, if their talents are not put to use in the customer's name. And, to your post's subject, I've also stopped believing in any sort of process, that is not done to deliver more value to the customer. IMHO, your vision (or any other vision) could work, or not, depending on the people involved in the process.

badtension 4y ago
> your vision (or any other vision) could work, or not, depending on the people involved in the process. I wonder is there a rule or a set of rules that would bring out the best in people, make us focus on creating great products while simultaneously caring about sustainable future. Profit-centric world seems to breed all kinds of pathology, on every level. Even our growing regulations seem not adequate and usually protecting the powerful.

doktorhladnjak 4y ago

I’ve worked on a team that was close to this. The main downside was that the engineers felt like cogs in the machine that had no agency. It’s like we were offshore contractors. The quality of the software wasn’t great. The team tended to focus on meeting deadlines. Turnover was high. Eventually the product manager was fired, the engineering manager quit, and the team got reorged into something fairly different.