I think you’re probably correct in that assessment.

One thing I’ve noticed is that it makes a big difference whether there is a constant coaching presence.

Some employees can be taught a certain technique or pattern and they’ll immediately “get it” and utilize it in applicable scenarios. But those employees seem few and far between. The more common employees seem to be the type who, upon being presented with the next opportunity to apply their newly learned technique, revert back to the old standbys (like cut-and-paste). These employees, it seems to me, benefit a lot more from the presence of a constant coach and mentor. I think these folks benefit (and can thus grow) with tools like pair programming, code reviews, unit testing, etc. Left to their own devices they’ll just do whatever they know best and move on.

So I would say that while practice-practice-practice is critical to growth and success, it can’t happen without the appropriate guidance (and I think that further backs up your point on why self-directed teams need a manager).

Your comment is exactly what a great manager should do, find the correct positions and challenge the team, practice and get better. Although I have been surprised many times and have seen people who’s weak sides have turned to be great sides.

I think that in software development and in business in general, we put too much emphasis on positioning and not enough on the practice-practice-practice, challenge and growth of the team.
Positioning is only the first stage.

I have yet to see a self directed football team without a coach, I am sure that managing the self-directed team in the proposed way, with hard work, will lead to amazing results.

To me, this is the value of a good manager on any team, be it football or software. The manager has to first figure out what each employee is good at. What are the employee’s strengths? Then they have to put that employee in a position to utilize their strengths to be successful.

You talk about obstacles, but I think the more appropriate term might be “challenges”. Obstacles tend to be thought of as things you have to get around, or remove; stuff you have to avoid. Challenges are things you use your strengths to defeat; to tackle head-on.

A great manager will know the strengths of each employee and he’ll “manage” them by tasking them with challenges that play to each employees’ strength.

It’s kind of like a super-hero team. Like the Fantastic Four or something. You don’t task The Invisible Woman with a challenge that requires incredible strength; you hand that one off to the Thing.

A self-directed team might have enough knowledge of each others’ strengths to do this sort of tasking, but a great manager will be more astute at this.