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