If there are people in the organization who are still tasked with organizing people then they are bosses (or at least, they will eventually act like bosses again).
It is possible to remove the management role, at least at a project level, by using technology. For instance, the first time I saw Trac our team effectively did this.
To be practical however, a technology solution really does require the right group of people. You can’t have people who are uncomfortable logging into web sites, or too lazy to write good descriptions for things, and so forth. You need people who are (frankly) professionals, who look at something like a giant task list and do a fair job of distributing things sensibly amongst themselves. A solution like Trac really starts to shine when people learn the little niceties, like additional formatting in wiki entries or the magic sequences that set up links between things. Again though: you need a team that is willing to work with such a tool in the “right way”. If they do then you don’t really need a manager at all.
It is possible to remove the management role, at least at a project level, by using technology. For instance, the first time I saw Trac our team effectively did this.
To be practical however, a technology solution really does require the right group of people. You can’t have people who are uncomfortable logging into web sites, or too lazy to write good descriptions for things, and so forth. You need people who are (frankly) professionals, who look at something like a giant task list and do a fair job of distributing things sensibly amongst themselves. A solution like Trac really starts to shine when people learn the little niceties, like additional formatting in wiki entries or the magic sequences that set up links between things. Again though: you need a team that is willing to work with such a tool in the “right way”. If they do then you don’t really need a manager at all.