8 Agile and Scrum-related misconceptions many middle managers have

Based upon my engagements with hundreds of them in the past year

I am an agile coach for a large company. This company has many different brands. The departments working on those brands are largely autonomous. Their product environments all have specific traits. A major part of my role is to facilitate the many agile journeys. This brings me a lot of energy.

Other important responsibilities are coaching, mentoring and teaching people to (help) create valuable products in a complex world. Many of these people are middle managers. They are crucial for the success of their teams.

But often, these middle managers struggle with their roles. They don't fully understand how they can best serve their teams and are squeezed between traditional thinking and Agile thinking.

Here are the 8 most striking Agile and Scrum misconceptions many middle managers have shared with me during my classes and one-on-one conversations.

Most don’t know what Scrum really is about

I have talked to many middle managers from all over the organisation. Most know the traditional approach of creating products doesn’t work most of the time. These managers see detailed plans and long delivery timelines as outdated and ineffective.

Most of them have heard that agile approaches, like Scrum, are more effective. But still, they often have misunderstandings about what Scrum is.

Two of their most common misunderstandings are:

• Scrum is superior to traditional project management approaches.
• Scrum is about faster delivery.

Both statements are untrue.

Scrum and traditional approaches are for different domains. Traditional approaches are best suited in complicated domains, where thorough analysis gives you the information to proceed.

Scrum is for complex domains, where you can’t predict what will happen, so you need to experiment. On top of this, Scrum exists to build the right thing, not to deliver faster.

Many believe Scrum doesn’t handle long-term thinking

Although sympathetic to Scrum and other Agile approaches, many managers believe they are not suited for looking beyond 1 or 2 months. They see this as a major issue. They consider long-term planning crucial.

But this idea is incorrect. Scrum does have long-term objectives. These are the Product Goals, that describe the future state of the product. Teams are committed to working towards the Product Goal. They should find ways to understand whether they are on track and how to optimize the chances to meet the goal. It is a major point of discussion during the Sprint Review.

They don’t know how important their role is

The Scrum Guide doesn’t discuss managers. But indirectly they are mentioned. They are key stakeholders of the Scrum Teams.

As key stakeholders, they collaborate with their Scrum Teams to make the best decisions. They also may have important insights that impact the best way to proceed.

But they often have a more prominent responsibility — like providing the team with the company vision, fostering an environment of trust, and helping the teams in self-management and cross-functionality. They should be closely aligned with the Product Owner and the Scrum Master.

In some cases, managers could even have one of these accountabilities themselves.

They are squeezed between agile teams and top management

Middle managers are between the higher echelons of the organisations and the teams. They wish to support their teams but receive contradicting messages from above.

The top level promotes Agile in name, but not in actions. They often are rigid with their processes, expecting detailed plans. They manage the organisation on timely and on-budget delivery.

When middle managers bring these top-level messages to the teams, the teams often object. Teams wish to challenge processes that hold them back and plan and work to achieve outcomes. Teams consider these processes outdated.

The middle manager should support her/his teams and find ways to connect the desires from the top with the practices of the teams. This is not easy. But it is crucial.

They are loaded with so many things they can’t focus on supporting their teams

Managers are busy. Reporting, meetings, and administration are taking half of the working week. They want to lead and serve their teams and give them the environment and support they need, but they simply have no time.

They don’t dare to say, “No,” to their administrative responsibilities eating up their time. There’s no easy way out.

Managers should look at their calendars and try to make room for their team by having the courage to say, “No,” to some of their non-value-added meetings. No organisation is served by yes-men.

They don’t know how to assess success in Scrum

Middle managers also brought forward their struggle to assess how their teams are doing. An indication of this is they measure the velocity of the teams and view the Sprint as a success when all planned items are finished.

They rarely realise that Scrum is an answer to complexity and velocity and burndown charts aren’t good measures.

Scrum does offer other ways to assess success, namely:

• Whether the teams achieve their goals (Product Goal and Sprint Goal).
• The impact of the product. Questions like “Are customers happy with the product?” are key.

Productivity is important. But in the end, it is about the impact the teams make with their product. Efficiently delivering the wrong thing does not matter.

They believe all Agile approaches are sort of the same

Many of the managers I engaged with don’t know the big differences between the many Agile approaches. Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and FAST Agile (and other approaches) exist for different environments. Combinations of approaches are certainly possible (Scrum and Kanban, FAST Agile and Scrum) but depending on the situation.

Managers should understand that every team has unique characteristics which call for a tailor-made approach. For some, Scrum may be the best fit. For others, Kanban or something else may be more appropriate.

But even within Scrum, teams should be allowed to find their best way forward. For example, managers should allow them to find their own ideal Sprint length and their own approach to creating their product.

Scrum is a canvas. This canvas allows your team to create a world of their own — Sjoerd Nijland

They don’t know they are not alone in their struggles

I have been talking to middle managers from many parts of the organisation. They often don’t realise how much their struggles resemble those of other managers. They are not alone.

It can be liberating to understand more people have the same struggles as you have. I always suggest finding these people in the organisation and aligning with them. I often offer to act as the intermediary across siloes to connect managers to counterparts with similar situations.

You can make an impact with numbers. This also applies to managers who address their issues together. They will find they have the power to bring change this way.

Conclusion

I have spoken to hundreds of middle managers. And what struck me was that they all wanted the best for their teams. Most of them saw the merits of Agile and Scrum. But they had significant misunderstandings of the terms and the role they could play.

In most organisations, middle management is crucial. But they are often forgotten. And squeezed between the directions from top management and the desires of the teams.

Middle management should be actively engaged. Without their active support, any endeavour in the company is bound to fail. So, to succeed in building high-value products in a complex environment — to succeed with Scrum — we should remember to also focus on teaching, coaching and mentoring middle management when they (hopefully) start requesting it.