Re: Do C-Level managers, and business drivers really need to know about XP?

it might well depend on the particular individual.  a marketing/sales 
executive might care more if the application under development implements 
functionality his department needs.  especially if he is accustomed to 
seeing "complete" functional specifications early in the process.  a CFO 
might not care as much if the XP champion presented a defensible argument 
for how XP yields a better project ROI.

i think most C levels would defer to the department heads most likely to 
have a qualified opinion about the proposed methodology and how it differs 
from current practice.  it might be possible to explain to, and convince, a 
C-level on the benefits of XP, but how do you get around obstacles created 
by IT managers who are of a waterfall mindset?  an IT manager (or even the 
business "owner" for that matter) who is required by policy to sign off on 
specified milestones may need significant support in order to bless an XP 
approach for a highly visible project.  likewise, some IT managers may use 
artifact requirements to gain and/or exercise control over a project.

given this situation, it would make sense to cultivate awareness of XP 
within C circles, and solicit department/manager level folks to support the 
message. a ready supply of recognizable, real-world, non-IT examples of 
agile techniques in practice would go a long way in C level discussions.

maybe its obvious from my angle that most of my experience has been as an 
outside consultant, rather than as part of an corporate IT team.  to gain 
an exception from the client's existing methodology can require a strong 
trust relationship with a cross section of IT managers, and quite possibly 
at least the technology C.  ideally these relationship-building and 
political activities take place before and apart from project time.


pat brenner



At 04:50 2003-01-27 -0800, you wrote:
>My CEO and CTO both described it this way to me (I'm
>VP R&D).
>
>"I don't care how you do it. But I need to know enough
>about it, so that when I explain it to the
>board/investors/analysts, I can talk intelligently
>about it."
>
>-Sandy
>
>--- "Scott Worley <[email protected]>"
><[email protected]> wrote:
> > Hi all, a slightly diffrent tack of approach on the
> > issue of XP
> > Adoption.
> >
> > Do the high level managers in a company need to know
> > about Agile this
> > or XP that?
> >
> > In my opinion (I am a C-Level Manager) NO, what
> > they/we want is
> > results if its due to a new process that the dev
> > team or indeed any
> > other team is using, thier team lead/PM should know
> > about it, but
> > above that it is not necessary.  A PM can request
> > resource from
> > higher management and in most cases the
> > justification is of the
> > standard Time/Cost/Resource type. A PM should act as
> > a consultant to
> > the teams they ENABLE and the management they
> > provide a service for.
> >
> > I have worked at various levels in development over
> > the past 10+
> > years, and in most cases the dev team I have been
> > in, HAVE NOT TOLD
> > the PM what exact process they follow :) including
> > myself.
> >
> > Normally the time spent trying to educate people on
> > process, is time
> > we should have been coding, politics are fine when
> > there is time.
> >
> > As a final note, I am not saying Senior management
> > should not know
> > what is being done process wise, just not in a low
> > level and somewhat
> > evangelistic way (btw: I am very evangelistic about
> > agile process not
> > just in development)
> >
> > Scott Worley
> >  CTO, Speaker, Consultant, Trainer, ENABLER of
> > Process.
> >
> >
> >



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