Page 26 - The Book

PORTFOLIO TO
MAINTAIN
CHAPTERS
Chapters are capability/competency based, they are about helping to structure the key competencies of the IT organisation into meaningful groups.
Chapters are focused on the maturing and scaling of competences
the IT organisation needs to be successful. Therefore they are typically permanent constructs with a relatively flat hierarchy, chapter leads and chapter members. Dependent on the size of the chapter there could be multiple chapters leads (I.e. 1 per portfolio or 1 per role type or both).
The chapter lead role is most definitely as a servant leader, their role is to develop and mature the competencies of the chapter and progress its members up the ladder of competency from novice to expert (in whatever quantities are appropriate). Chapter leads are essentially the line management (and associated pay and rations) of their members but they are most definitely not responsible for management, allocation or prioritisation of the work any member performs, this will come from their agile team or AAT backlog (prioritised by a PO).
Chapter leads ensure they have the appropriate competence and scale to meet the strategy, they have a development plan for the sizing, maturity and competence level for the chapters as a whole and each individual member (this is why its important to keep chapters to a manageable size, so relationships can be built).
Chapter lead is a role not a position/job, typically performed by people respected in their competency and will to take the time to mentor and coach members of their chapter.
Being a member of your chapter is not your primary home, this would be your agile team, AAT or ART. However being part of a chapter enables you to move between agile teams or AAT’s without changing your line management.
Chapters have specific boundaries based on competency I.e. Product Owner, Product Manager, Release Train Lean, Scrum Master, Enterprise Architect, Solution Architect, Technical Architect etc..
Chapter leads do not ‘manage’ anyone, they nurture, support, grow a competency needed by the organisation to be successful. They don’t ’tell’ anyone how things need to be done but are a role model for the skills and behaviours needed in the chapter.
Non delivery focused and shared services teams can also work as chapters in this way. As long as they adopt an agile (autonomous) team structure (I.e. Scrum master and TPO roles being performed)
CHAPTERS
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