Management by Flying Around | Glossary

Definition: 

When a company has multiple locations and dispersed customers, management by flying around (MBFA) is another facet of mobility which is a new fact of business life. Distributing leadership responsibilities to many people and dispersing activities to many centres of excellence makes travel a continuing necessity for managers and professionals.

MBFA states, managing a distributed organisation, there is no substitute for actually seeing your customers, both internal and external. Technology has come a long way in bridging the distance between people using conference calling, email, screen sharing, and video conferencing, but there is still a missing nuance of being in the same room with someone. Visiting customers, talking to them through where you see the company going and how you in IT help get it there. Then, listen to them. Listen to what works. Listen to what doesn’t work. Listen to what they want from IT. Making the conversation personal, you listen more than you talk, you’ll learn what you can do to do your job better.

Further Reading:
Book: SUCCEEDING WITH AGILE Software Development Using Scrum by Mike Cohn

Management by Walking Around | Glossary

Definition: 

Management by Walking Around (MBMA) referee to a style of business management which involves manages wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace at random to check with employees on the status of ongoing work. The origin of the term has been traced to executives at the company Hewlett Packard for management practices in the 1970s.

The emphasis is on the word walking as an unplanned visit, when employees are not expecting a visit from managers at a more systematic, pre-approved scheduled time. The expected benefit is that by random sampling of event or employees discussions, is more likely to facilitate improvements to the morale, sense of organisational purpose, productivity and total quality management.

Further Reading:
Book: SUCCEEDING WITH AGILE Software Development Using Scrum by Mike Cohn