The Agile Executive

Lack of executive support is often flagged as a major problem for Agile adoption. Jean discusses “checkbook commitments” from executive management in a recent post. Christophe Louvion has highlighted the issue during the Rally event in Los Angeles. I certainly have for quites some time been (and still am) of the opinion that executive support is critical for Agile success.

In the course of working on my forthcoming presentation at the Agile Roots conference, I took a fresh look at quite a few of the convictions I hold, including lack of executive support. Having such support, of course, is awesome. However, is the difficulty in securing executive support the fundamental problem or is it a symptom of an underlying problem?

A couple of years ago my colleague and friend Yechiam Yemini made a very astute observation on accountability in system management. Yechiam observed that system management applications of the “You got a problem on your hands” variety generally don’t get endorsed by IT executives if they do not indicate clear accountability. The last thing in the world an IT executive wants is finger pointing between his/her network management folks, the storage management team and the help desk expert. A lot of time and effort is wasted in resolving such situations. IT executives hate them with a passion.

I am starting to think a similar phenomenon might be manifesting itself with respect to  Agile adoption. For example, if things do not go well for a Scrum project, is it a matter for the Scrum Master, the Product Owner or the self-organized team? From an enlightened Agile perspective, the whole thing is about the wisdom and commitment of teams. It might however be seen in quite a different light by the executive who has not had the opportunity to immerse himself/herself  in Agile.

“We are all in it together” is a quip frequently used by executives in time of crisis. When the quip is sincere, it can provide the underpinnings on which to develop a deeper understanding of accountability in the Agile context. Part of being in it together is the executive’s accountability to follow Agile values and principles. The house metaphor Jim Highsmith proposed can be used very effectively in the context we are discussing . One starts building a house by laying the foundations – Agile values and principles in Jim’s metaphor. Pillars and roof come later.