Erfolg im Agilen

Projekt - eine

Sache des

Führungsstils?

Mark Menzel

University of Liverpool

Management School (ULMS)

February 2013

Mark Menzel

Private

43 Years old, married, 4 month old son

electrical engineering, FH Aachen

M.Sc. in Information Technology, UoL 2005

Business

current position Managing Consultant at imbus AG

15 years experience as tester, testmanager for Ericsson, Allianz, and 1&1

experience in agile and classical projects

Motivation for this Study since 2010 part-time doctoral student with University of Liverpool – Doctorate in

Business Administration (DBA)

DBA thought with 8 Modules (each ten weeks long), with F2F residencies in

Liverpool and one conference paper and a finale doctoral thesis (exp. 2014)

thought via action learning (Action and Reflection)

leadership style study topic for the conference paper

Introduction & Motivation

1. Leadership Model

2. Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)

3. Research Gap & Research Questions

4. Research Design & Methods

5. Results & Discussion

6. Conclusion & Outlook

Outline

1978 James McGregor Burns developed a leadership model

describing

Leadership Model (Burns 1978)

*J. M. Burns: ‘’Leadership’’. Harper & Row: New York 1978

Laissez-faire Leadership

Transformational Leadership

Transactional Leadership

Transactional Leadership

Style of leadership in which the leader promotes compliance of his followers through

performance and rewards

Transformational Leadership

Transforming (Transformational) Leadership is a process in which leaders and followers

help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.

1985 Bernard M. Bass and Bruce J. Avolio developed

the Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)

Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire

*Avolio, B. J. and Bass, B. M., Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire, Manual, Third Edition, Lincoln, 2004

Tool for empirical validation of leadership model (Burns)

21 questions on 5-point Likert scale

>50 case studies since 1995

Supports tendency that leaders applying

Transformational Leadership are more successful

So far only applied in classical project setting

Project Leader

Project Team Member(s)

Full Project

Authority

Full Project

Authority

Agile Team Member(s)

Task X Task Y

Research Gap / Questions

*Moe, N. B., Dingsyr, T. & Kvangardsnes, O. (2009) 'Understanding Shared

Leadership in Agile Development: A Case Study', System Sciences, 2009.

HICSS '09. 42nd Hawaii International Conference on), 1-10.

Is there a leader in an agile project?*

Is there a difference in leadership styles employed in classic vs. agile projects?

Which leadership style is used by agile leaders?

Are leaders using transformational leadership style more successful?

Research Design & Methods

published in agile and project management groups on LinkedIn, Xing,

Twitter, and to all imbus employees

survey open for eight weeks (21. August – 21 October 2012)

Total responses 236, completed 122

58 agile and 64 classical managers

Design of web-survey with 21 questions on MLQ

Additional questions on

demographics

project success factors (time, cost, scope)

industry sector

project management certifications

self-assessment of project management capabilities

35 questions in total (Likert scale)

group-wise evaluation with SPSS

Gender

Results: Demographics

Age Classic Agile 18 – 25 0% 5% 26 – 35 26% 31% 36 – 45 36% 35% 46 – 55 28% 20%

> 55 10% 9%

Age

Results: Demographics

Current Company Position

Experience with Agile Practices

VersionOne, “State of agile Survey”, 2011

Results: Certifications

Project-management Certification

Agile Certifications

Results: Agile Methods / Sector

Agile Method

Industry Sector

VersionOne, “State of agile Survey”, 2011

Agile

Results: Project Experience (years)

Classical

How many years of working experiences in Agile / in Classical projects do you have?

VersionOne, “State of agile Survey”, 2011

Results: Project in Budget (%)

Agile

Classical

How many of your projects you have worked in as a leader have been in budget?

Results: Project Time (%)

How many of your projects you have worked in as a leader have been in time?

Agile

Classical

Results: Project Scope (%)

How many of your projects you have worked in as a leader have been in project scope?

Agile

Classical

The independent sample t-test has shown that there is a significant difference between the

“Transformational Leadership Style” factor values for agile and classical leaders:

• Intellectual Stimulation

• Individualized Consideration

Results: Leadership agile vs. classical

Results: Correlations agile / classical

Leadership Style (high values for

transformational leadership)

uncorrelated Project Success (time, budget, scope)

agile

classic

Laissez-faire

leadership (high values)

Management Practice (self-evaluation)

uncorrelated

Transformational

Leadership (high values)

agile

classic

agile

classic

agile

agile

classic

correlated

uncorrelated

Certification (PMP, Scrum Master, …)

uncorrelated

Transformational

Leadership (high values)

agile

classic

agile

classic

uncorrelated

not significant

Leadership Style (high values for transactional

leadership)

classic

not significant

• The independent Sample t-test has

shown that there is a significant

difference between the

“Transformational” Leadership style

Factor values for Agile leaders:

• Intellectual Stimulation

• Individualized Consideration

Results: Leadership Styles Values

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

Leadership Styles Values (mean)

Agile

Classic

Results: Leadership Styles Values

1,5

1,7

1,9

2,1

2,3

2,5

2,7

2,9

3,1

Leadership Styles Values (mean) 1-5 Years Experience

Agile 1-5 Years

Classic 1-5 Years

1,5

1,7

1,9

2,1

2,3

2,5

2,7

2,9

3,1

Leadership Styles Values (mean) 5+ Years Experience

Agile 5+ Years

Classic 5+ Years

Strong transformational leadership style was not correlated with project

success (classical and agile projects) in this study, although proven for

classical projects in literature.

Agile leaders have stronger transformational leadership skills overall.

Agile leaders (>5 years experience) show strong transformational

leadership skills compared to their classical counterpart, especially

“intellectual stimulation” and “individual consideration”

Future research on project success related to transformational

leadership skills in progress – how to define project success precisely?

Conclusion & Outlook

Antonakis, J., Avolio, B. J. & Sivasubramaniam, N. (2003) 'Context and leadership: an

examination of the nine-factor full-range leadership theory using the Multifactor Leadership

Questionnaire', The Leadership Quarterly, 14(3), 261-295. ScienceDirect - [Online].

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984303000304

Bass, B. M. (1985). 'Leadership and performance beyond expectations'. New York: Free Press.

Bass, B. M. (1990) 'From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the

vision', Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), 19-31. EBSCOhost - [Online].

http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edsel

c.2-52.0-44949286746&site=eds-live&scope=site

Moe, N. B., Dingsøyr, T. & Dybå, T. (2010) 'A teamwork model for understanding an agile team:

A case study of a Scrum project', Information and Software Technology, 52(5), 480-491.

Sciencedirect - [Online].

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950584909002043

Moe, N. B., Dingsyr, T. & Kvangardsnes, O. (2009) 'Understanding Shared Leadership in Agile

Development: A Case Study', System Sciences, 2009. HICSS '09. 42nd Hawaii International

Conference on), 1-10.

Selected References

Many thanks for your attention

Mark Menzel

DBA Student

Student ID 15710649

University of Liverpool

Management School (ULMS)

Web: http://www.liv.ac.uk/management/

Tel: +49 (0) 173 543 1921

Email: mark.menzel@my.ohecampus.com