Managing Natural Software Development

Embracing Effective Management in the Natural Way

Management's New Role: In a Natural Way approach, the conventional tasks of a manager are redistributed, advocating decentralized decision-making within teams. Here, much of the usual managerial responsibility such as daily oversight and direction is handled internally by the team.

The Role of Product Champions: Within teams, the Product Champion takes on a pivotal leadership role, setting visions and priorities in collaboration with stakeholders and team members. They ensure the team is visible to other stakeholders, providing updates through regular demonstrations of working software, which also supports alignment and determines if additional support is needed.

Self-Organizing Teams: Teams are given the autonomy to manage themselves, including deciding how work is distributed and ensuring high quality in completion. Self-organization reduces the need for traditional management interventions and allows teams to respond dynamically to project demands.

Managerial Functions Reshaped: 1. Staffing: While teams may propose which new members to add, actual hiring and firing decisions remain a managerial prerogative. Managers are advised to empower teams in making these choices, enhancing suitability and fit. 2. Budgeting: Team involvement in proposing budgets is recommended, but final financial decisions are retained by management, ensuring alignment with broader organizational goals. 3. Strategic Direction: Despite delegation of many operational decisions, setting long-term strategic direction and making related adjustments remains a core function of management.

Regular Oversight and Adjustment: Management oversees developments by regularly reviewing produced software aligning progress with strategic business needs and user values. This setup emphasizes adaptability and course correction over strict adherence to initial plans.

Control Through Visibility and Support: Management ensures projects stay on track by observing outcomes and facilitating conditions necessary for team success, rather than through directive control. Interventions may include adjustments in resources or providing additional training rather than direct involvement in day-to-day tasks.

Summation of Management in the Natural Way: This approach calls for leveraging managerial oversight to empower teams by setting clear expectations and providing needed support while trusting them to handle day-tod-ay operational decisions. Both visibility of ongoing work and regular checks on deliverables are essential to ensure teams operate efficiently and align with organizational objectives. This management style fostrehgthens project outcomes by enabling proactive responses to challenges and opportunities.