The issue of leadership skills in the agile development environment is more important.

When we recall the process of software development, the first 10 years of the 21st century may be the Agile age. Agile Development developed from a large number of consultants who stated software development methods at the meeting. Now we have held a meeting dedicated to Agile development. Agility is no longer an exclusive discussion of a small number of people; the main interest of the entire software development organization is now extended to a wide range of technical and application fields. We are still faced with a serious problem of misunderstanding Agility, but this will happen whether there is a new trend or a change from novelty to general acceptance. If you know the story of the blind and the elephant, you can understand how difficult it is to understand Agility-and the true meaning of Agile leaders.

Everyone talking to me acknowledges that Agile software development is everywhere in today's society. Similar to large companies, small companies adopt Agility methods. This problem occurs in Communications of Association of Computing Machinery and military defense magazines of software engineering, such as Crosstalk. Agility is the same way as improving the development of software systems.

Just as the term "Agile" has different meanings for different people, so does the so-called "Agile leaders. The reference framework is developed by software developers. If we do not consider leaders, this problem will not be solved by ourselves. If we discuss how to be an Agile Project Leader, we must acknowledge that we are dealing with this "uniqueness.

In my speech, I usually ask my audience (just as I did recently in IBA) whether they are using the Agile method. In recent years, the audience raised their hands more and more. Then I will ask the people who use this method what is Agile. Although I was not surprised by the diversity of answers I received, I was shocked by the consistent answers to this question. Some problems come from the misuse of the word "Agile. I once made a simple investigation into the software development phrase containing the word. In about 30 minutes, the list I summarized includes: Agile development, Agile design, Agile modeling, Agile testing, Agile Project Management, Agile planning, Agile decision making, Agile Scrum, and Agile language, agile database, Agile programming, Agile integration, Agile game development, Agile thinking, Agile use, AgileIT... I may add an Agile overload to this list. Of course, we have all gone through this.

Therefore, with regard to leadership, I would like to explore initiatives and features that match the Agile features described in Agile Manifesto. The four main features of Manifesto, personal values, and links between processes and tools are most relevant to the following discussions.

We have different types of leaders, just like different types of software development. Another simple investigation into the word "leaders" has produced a series of words describing the characteristics of Leadership: bureaucracy, dictatorship, democracy, inaction, interpersonal relationship, task-based, and business-oriented, servant-leadership, transformation and environment. Maybe leaders like Agile have different meanings for different people, depending on their reference framework. How can we make them reasonable?

　　Figure 1: Some famous leaders

I started my presentation by listing some famous leaders in different fields. Figure 1 shows some such leaders. Readers may know some of them, such as WinstonChurchill, John F. Kennedy, and Adolf Hitler. Others, such as Lee Iacocca and LouGerstner, may only be known to specific groups.

Next, let's recall the technical leaders: These people are a group of people who have made reference in the software development industry. Developers want to understand this group of people, imitate them, and listen to their opinions. Figure 2 shows a list of technical leaders. Not everyone in this list comes from a modeling background. Some of them focus on the main companies running, as shown in 1. The reason why I listed them as technical leaders is that they completed what the developers wanted to do.

Figure 2: technical leaders

Next, let's take a look at the difference between the first group and the second group. These differences are not absolute. People can comment on them at will, but I am not prepared to give my opinion.

The characteristics of the first group of leaders (figure 1) can be described as follows:

Focus on management and companies.

Structure is very important.

The major area of attention is "Big scenarios ".

Strategy is more important than tactics.

Leaders are holy. Many of them are assigned to leaders or run for office.

Dependent on the leader. When you have a job or join a military organization, you promise to follow the leaders assigned by these organizations. You cannot make a choice.

The features of the second group (Figure 2) can be described as follows:

Knowledgeable.

Innovation is also a means to achieve the goal.

Welcome leaders. Members in this group can gain leadership because people think they are honorable leaders and willing to follow them.

Obedient leaders.

Every member of this group is an expert in a certain field.

People like Bill Gates and SteveJobs can easily describe two types of leaders. I put them in the second group because they put software developers in the same position by applying innovative views to technology to build companies. They learn to be good managers, but first they are leaders.

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1st page: Agile leadership background 2nd page: Holy leadership and phantom leadership

　　 Holy leadership and phantom leadership

Successful leaders must be able to motivate their employees. A successful military leader inspires soldiers by conveying the justice and victory of the war to his troops. This kind of leadership is a holy-God leader. Technical leaders can succeed by making employees believe that they can succeed as long as they adopt the opinions of leaders. I think this difference is critical to understanding how to become a qualified technical leader.

The main weapon of a company's CEO is very different from the core values and responsibilities of soldiers and company employees, even in the same team. However, the core value of a technical leader matches the value of an individual employee. This makes me believe that if you want to become a technical leader, you must first become a technician. If you want to become a leader in an Agile team, you must first maintain the same value as the team, rather than letting the team adapt to your value. This may be counterproductive. Figure 3 shows the differences between the holy leaders and the leaders, and the differences between the phantom leaders and the leaders.

　　Figure 3. How the values between leaders and the leaders are matched.

Based on this thinking activity, we can figure out one thing:

Management involves resource collection, cost management, allocation, and profit maximization. It is very important for all organizations that want to obtain success.

Leaders, especially technical leaders, lead people! There is a great relationship between technical leaders and the leaders. There are also good leaders who can deal with the relationship between leadership and management, but there is a big difference between good managers and leaders.

　　Leader features and Agility

Business Education Journal 2005/Bi Z Ed contains articles on leader characteristics written by TriciaBisoux. People can find such a list, but this article lists a series of features that match these discussions. We will check each of the following items and see what is best for Agile projects.

Self-awareness: a good leader knows himself the most. In particular, leaders know their position in the company or system, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Leaders regularly check their lives and values. This feature is most suitable for Agile, because reflection is the core principle of Agile. 8Agile leaders reflect their values and encourage them to constantly improve. On the contrary, when you have a well-defined, planning-driven process, reflection and harsh. When organizations follow the planning-driven approach for improvement, the process of improvement is also a process that is quickly planned. These companies should be responsible for a dedicated organization responsible for this work and constantly plan and improve the process.

Not all administrators approve of "self-scanning snow in front of the door ". In a traditional company, everyone plays a specific role. They only need to play this role, and their managers are willing to see this. The leaders of the Agile team are also different. They are happy to let the team decide how to do a job. Their leaders are willing to let them play themselves and do what they want when they work in the team.

One thing that arises from self-consciousness is the ability to judge what leads and when not leads. How many years ago at IBM? Rational? At UserConference, SusanButcher, the famous "people who pull sled", gave a wonderful speech. After defeating the Iditarod Dog to pull the sled many times, she assumed that the dog refused to drag the sled along the set route, and the set route was totally invalid, both her and her dog will eventually lose their lives. Her comments on this situation remain in my mind: "Sometimes you need to lead, sometimes you need to let the dog lead ". She must realize that she can give up her dog control.

If you are working in a team, will you be interested in doing things under your own hands? If not, you may not be the leader of an Agile team.

Individual beliefs any leader must have his or her own beliefs. Technical and Agile leaders are no different in this regard from those in other fields. A leader without personal belief is a liar. The relationship between employees and their leaders is like the relationship between children and adults.

Personal belief does not mean you are always right. When you take a certain position, you must believe that you are right, but you must have enough confidence to persuade others to do one thing in the best way. If you do not have your own beliefs and do not believe what you and your team are doing, what you can do is to walk away quietly and move the Team forward without you.

　　Courage

: Courage means "spiritual or moral power to strive for virtues, persevere, and resist danger, fear, or difference ". Without personal belief, you cannot have courage. Leaders must have personal beliefs and have enough confidence to stick to them. Courage is another Agile principle, but it is often misunderstood.

People usually think of courage, which means they can keep moving forward based on their plans, regardless of the consequences. In fact, courage means that you have the power and perseverance to find and follow the correct path. When you study different choices and analyze the consequences of your actions, you can make satisfactory decisions after you believe that you have done the right thing for the company, the team, and the investors. Knowledge comes from the application of tactics, intelligence, experience, and judgment of the situation. Good leaders are good at showing their courage.

In a planning-driven company, the goal is to follow a plan at all costs. The worst thing a person can do is to deviate from the plan. This will lead to incorrect comments on the project status. Being reported to be behind is a shame for managers. If you think you are falling behind, you will force your team to work overtime to catch up with the progress. Every week, leaders will announce that the team is running on a normal track. A week ago, we planned to report to the leader that his team was lagging behind and it would take two to three months to complete the remaining work.

　　What happened?

Of course, the team will not finish two months in a week. There are two problems. First, leaders do not have the courage to tell the truth. Second, the company's value does not allow them to deliver bad messages. If you want to lead an Agile team, you need the courage to tell the truth and encourage your team members to tell the truth. To make it easy, the company must favor the value that allows the Agile team to exist.

　　Innovation

: Innovation is my favorite one in this list. I am very fascinated by him, because our understanding of innovation does not actually express its nature. Innovation is not simply new or different. It is not novel. A major aspect of creation is to generate new notes, choices, and possibilities. Innovative leaders help teams make choices and evaluate their value.

　　Innovation

Generate value (thinking brings value ). Thinking produces greatness, but the results of such activities must produce something that is valuable to the team and the company. Simply finding a solution to the problem is not innovative. It is innovative to find a new method that is more efficient in solving the problem and more useful than the previous method. The most innovative people I have ever seen are those who can combine existing basic technologies and methods to solve new problems, or a more efficient solution can be created.

Many readers may be familiar with Dilbert's comic box. Who do you think is the most creative? I think it is Wally. It is not a leader, but a pure spirit of innovation. He can always make innovative choices to avoid work, but Wally is not a leader, because his innovation can only create value for himself rather than the company. An innovative leader always focuses on generating value for the company.

　　Innovation

It is not unique to Agility. A good leader must be able to innovate under any conditions.

　　Curiosity

: Curiosity cannot kill cats, but it can inspire technical leaders. A good development team and their leaders are curious. It is not good for them to simply execute a set of solutions. They created a better software system by asking "What will happen if this happens. They want to know how the system works, why things happen in such a way, and how they do better. They can do their jobs the best if they are satisfied with their wonders.

Leaders must allow curiosity. A successful leader must know when to reduce the reward and guide the team's curiosity. A good developer wants to produce excellent software and is the best person who knows how to evaluate the product. A team that adheres to the Agile principles builds a system in a way that easily knows when it is best for customers.

The ability to inspire morale living in mascript usetts gives me the opportunity to observe some outstanding leaders who are able to boost team morale. BillBelichick, coach of the New England and Patriots football team, produced a brilliant football team. Belichick is not a high-profile coach and is not always exposed to the spotlight. He worked hard to specify and execute the competition plan and prepare for each competition. He constantly encourages his team and proves it to his team. He has experience and records to support him. He has strong principles and beliefs. When appropriate, he will show his team sympathy and affection.

Good technical leaders, both Agile and more traditional, are people like BillBelichick. They have obtained their leadership positions from past successes. They have a successful record and a strong core value. I have worked with such people and are the ones I Would Like To remember most. I soon forgot the "cheerleaders" who have never been a leader but have made a high talk.

　　Listening Ability

: People who lead a group of people must be able to listen. SusanButcher listens to her subordinates and serves them. Listening is a learning technique, but you must have a desire to learn. Make your own theme appear again. If you take listening to them as a task, you will be in trouble.

Let me explain the differences between listening and listening. "Listen" means that when someone talks to you, you understand what they say, but you do not agree or take specific actions, and you do not give back to that person. In short, you may have heard his conversation but did not pay attention to its content. On the other hand, if you listen, you need to understand and communicate with another person. Suppose someone puts forward suggestions for modifying the process. If you hear this suggestion and you are a good listener, you need to provide constructive feedback. This may be a good note. You want to encourage him to continue. Or further improvement is required. If you think this is a bad note, you need to let him know the cause and propose ways to improve it. Good leaders, especially leaders of the Agile team, need to do so. They participate in the entire team activity and help the team members better complete their activities.

Because the Agile team attaches great importance to face-to-face communication, you need to develop your listening skills. Asking for status reports to people sitting next to you doesn't add much benefit to the team, especially to the Agile team. The Agile team found the best way to communicate with others and continuously improved their current activities.

　　Innovation

: Innovation can promote changes, while Agile teams need changes. The phrase "need to change" becomes a feature of the eXtremeProgramming team. Such teams encourage changes in requirements, technologies, and other aspects of the project throughout the project lifecycle. If you do not encourage programs, you cannot encourage changes. Reform and Innovation, and mutual support. A good leader should encourage the team to continuously reform and innovate and focus on delivering value. If you want to find a standard that proves what you are doing now, reform is the most suitable. Is the team creating, reforming, and continuously delivering value?

The reform has penetrated into the Agile team. When a leader integrates all or most of the above features, synergy will take place. Leaders do not reserve the ability to change themselves. Agile leaders encourage all team members to make changes. Agile technical leadership, like a good manager, gets success through team efforts rather than personal heroism.

Desire for experience: The Other Side of change is stagnation. If you don't change, you are stuck. If you are stuck, you will lag behind. A vigorous team is constantly improving its practical activities and pursuing new knowledge ..

　　Experience is knowledge

: More than increasing experience with practice. It is best to evaluate the experience through diversity. Extensive experience gives you a broader mind and the ability to accept different ideas and cultures. In my college, we encourage students to visit our project center extensively to obtain at least one project experience. The knowledge they have gained from learning and working in Thailand, Hungary, Morocco, and Namibia is invaluable. They will change a lot when they return to campus. They have a new view of life, learning, and how to return to society.

Some years ago, the University was on vacation for years to increase experience. This kind of experience can be in the industry, in another educational institution, or elsewhere. When they return to their original location, they will get a lot changed. I often wonder why the company does not implement the annual vacation system for his employees. I firmly believe that the return on such investment will be even greater.

What do you want as a team leader? Do you want them to experience jobs without passion? If not, consider whether your leadership approach is appropriate.

　　Introspection

: This makes us go back to the beginning: self-consciousness. You gain self-awareness through reflection. This is the cycle between us and our team. However, this loop is not a simple repetition. It is spiral, and we either spiral up to new and good experience results, or fail. Reflection may be the most important character for Agile teams and their leadership.

The Agile team constantly responds to their actions and changes their practical activities. They do this in the process. After each repetition of the Agile team, check the repetition and check whether any problem exists. If necessary, they will try again. They will not wait until the project becomes a thing of the past.

　　Conclusion

These features are not always new, nor are they limited to leading Agile teams. If you find that you are working in an Agile team, You need to evaluate your status and what you need to be the leader of a project. Here is the most important thing to remember: it is not about Agile, but about success! Agile is a tool, not a means to reach the end.

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