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Who Is Chapter Lead

A Chapter Lead is responsible for developing and guiding people within their competency area or role across multiple squads in an agile organization. As a coach and mentor, they help people grow in their careers and ensure they have the skills needed for their roles. Chapter Leads are responsible for recruiting new talent, evaluating performance, and building shared tools and standards while promoting a collaborative culture. Though they still participate as members of their squads, Chapter Leads have additional responsibilities for communication, growth, activation, and hiring that require extensive meetings and networking to support others in reaching their full potential.

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Irshadulla Khan Kyamkhani
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342 views3 pages

Who Is Chapter Lead

A Chapter Lead is responsible for developing and guiding people within their competency area or role across multiple squads in an agile organization. As a coach and mentor, they help people grow in their careers and ensure they have the skills needed for their roles. Chapter Leads are responsible for recruiting new talent, evaluating performance, and building shared tools and standards while promoting a collaborative culture. Though they still participate as members of their squads, Chapter Leads have additional responsibilities for communication, growth, activation, and hiring that require extensive meetings and networking to support others in reaching their full potential.

Uploaded by

Irshadulla Khan Kyamkhani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Who is Chapter Lead ?

The Chapter is your small family of people having similar skills and working within the same general
competency area, within the same tribe. Chapter Lead, it is a role rather than a position. The chapter
lead is the line manager for the chapter members, responsible for developing people and the things
happening in the chapter but still is a member of the squad and does day-to-day work.

Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and


under-performance. Everything else requires leadership.

— Peter Drucker

Why to choose this role?

Well, in agile you don’t have traditional teams headed up by a manager. Teams consist of various roles
working together on projects. Squads. They define their own goals independently and decide how to
reach them. A number of squads make up a tribe. As for a Chapter Lead, one must support people
within a tribe but in different squads, who are in the same role.

Because the chapters are responsible for hiring they must deploy talented people to the appropriate
squads, based on their expertise and demonstrated competence, but once the talent joins the squad,
chapters can not tell them how to set priorities, what to do within the squads, how to assign a task or
how to spend a day.

Each chapter is responsible for: developing talent — guiding along their career paths; evaluating and
promoting people; and building common tools shared by squads, standardize developer culture and
ways of working. Chapter synchronization meetings take place once a week or bi-weekly.

With me so far?

1. A Chapter Lead Is a Manager.


Yes, but not in the way you think. People need coaching and self-development, quite apart from their
projects. That is why Chapter Leads take care of specific roles within a tribe. In my case, until recently
these were the product owners. That was quite helpful for me, because I had been a product owner for
a long time.

2. A Chapter Lead Is a Specialist Expert.


They might be, but they don’t have to. As long as you have enough knowledge of the world in which
your people are operating. You do at least need to understand what they are doing so that you can talk
to them about the content of their job or their expertise. Without getting too technical about it. In fact,
it could be better if you are not actually an expert, because then you will look at things from a different
angle.

3. It Is All about People.


That’s right. If there is something that really energises me (and helped me to make my choice), it has to
be working with people. Helping them to arrive at new insights. Making sure they feel OK. Helping
them to grow. Working together on a development plan. Coaching. So people are the thread that runs
right through everything you are responsible for.

4. So a Chapter Lead Is a Coach.


Of course. However, we are also responsible for recruiting new people for the squads. And we have to
consult with the tribe management about strategy, budgets and risks. Finally, all the Chapter Leads
together make up a guild, in which they can share experiences and learn from each other. But we also
gather feedback and suggestions for HR from what we have experienced. In a nutshell, it is a very open
culture

5. A Chapter Lead Does Not Have to Provide Guidance.


Of course they do! People are responsible for their own personal development. If I notice it is not
happening, I let them know. In the end, we are working for a company that has ambitions, strategies
and results that need to be achieved. The freedom that you are given at work also entails a
responsibility that you have to take up.

6. A Chapter Lead Is Not Concerned about Strategy.


Incorrect. Motivating people to put their weight behind the business strategy is actually very important.
You need to be able to explain the “why’s” in terms they understand, so they know in practice what it
will mean for them and their tribe. Of course we discuss that with the tribe management first, to make
sure we are all on the same wavelength.

7. Building Confidence Is Crucial.


Yes, but that is of course true for all forms of leadership. Certainly if you are new or going through a job
switch. The people don’t know you yet, so it is important to be vulnerable and create a safe
environment. That will help them to talk about things that might not be going so well. Together you
can gradually work out which are the stronger areas and which ones are not so strong.

8. Agile Is Chaos.
Not at all! Agile means a lot less hierarchy than in the past, which means you can change tack faster
and work more effectively. That is much better. I don’t understand how some companies are still able
to work in the traditional way. After the switch, it does take a while for it to really become a way of life.
The role of a Chapter Lead is very important in making that transition.

What about responsibilities?

Besides being a member of the squad which includes standups, meetings, and tasks, here are some
other responsibilities as a chapter lead.
 Communication — You are going to spend a good part of your working day in meetings. One-on-
one meetings with chapter members, retrospective (retros), POCLACs(Product Owner +Chapter
Lead + Agile Coach), chapter sync meetings, sync with other chapter leads and everyone who
needs the help of competent opinion from your field.
 Growth — You should care for everyone and their career growth. Not only salary or growth in the
field but assign them to the appropriate squad where they can find the balance and display the
strength.
 Activation — You will be the one who leads chapter members to their desired growth step; you
will be the one who activates their skills, helps them to perform better, learn and reach new
heights.
 Hiring — You are going to need developers, lots of them. You should convince them to work for
squads and for your organization. It means you should be joining conferences, attending meetups
(in a non-covid world), and other activities to get to know the community and blend in.
Sometimes you can attract talents who know you and want to work with you.
 Less Testing — You will significantly Test less, because of all the other responsibilities you will
have. The main objective becomes to find several consecutive hours to focus solely on the tasks
because of an overwhelming amount of context switching you will have during the day. And I
think it’s ok because you contribute to the project and organization in a different way. But also it
means you should study hard to keep your tech skills sharp because as a chapter lead you have to
stay sharp and know the field very well.

Is it worth it?
It depends on the person. I see people growing, happy and dedicated. You have a different measure to
scale the success, you help others to do their job better, you contribute to the organization to build
better products. Being the chapter lead is a great place to hone your soft skills.

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