So, you’ve adopted Agile as your company’s method for project delivery. You packed up your books on traditional development best practices (lovingly referred to as waterfall or sequential) and put them in storage. You’ve invested sufficient time and money to ensure that every stakeholder has taken all the necessary training. You’ve setup all the required tools of the trade – installed white boards, hoarded bunches of post-it notes, identified space for stand up meetings, partitioned a large white wall with magnetic strips to show movement of work, etc.
Things should be ticking along perfectly now. Right? Releases should be visible, you should be getting the maximum value out of your development teams, clients should be satisfied, and the quality of your product should be exceeding your customer’s expectations. Did you say, “Not really”?
Well, you are not alone. Even matured Agile delivery organization find it difficult to extract the full value of Agile after years of delivery. I have had multiple client managers come up to me saying, “well it wasn’t that bad at first, but after two years, I feel like we have lost the sight of the core principles and value that we had when we adopted Agile.”
Unfortunately, knowing about Agile, implementing Agile, and implementing Agile successfully are three completely different things.
Agile coaching is an often debated role on forums today. While various experts have suggested that appointing an external coach can be the underlying key for successful Agile adoption programs,many organizations continue to focus on building up their internal Scrum Masters or Agile project managers - often appointing the most experienced among their ranks to serve as the Agile coach.
The difference maker here is to have somebody on the team who has enough experience to take a holistic view of the organization. They can quickly recognize the root cause of problems and implement solutions that not only resolves the inefficiency but furthers the adoption of Agile throughout the organization. These changes, often minor adjustments, sets the entire organization in a positive direction. Without these early course corrections, the inefficiencies continue and become part of the accepted culture and ultimately the value of Agile becomes diluted leaving many executives scratching their heads questioning why things are not improving.
An Agile coach can make all the difference when it comes to optimizing organizational Agile delivery. This role collaborates with teams and stakeholders at critical times to help the organization drive more value out of their Agile adoption then they can envision.
Unlike a Scrum Master or a Product Owner, Agile coaches are not bound to a project or portfolio. They work at an organization level and collaborate closely with executive stakeholders to ensure alignment and support to the Agile adoption. They have a broad view of the overall enterprise operating model. By keeping this holistic picture in mind, they provide practical solutions to team level problems that improve the overall agility of the organization, without getting trapped by the individual team dynamics. The result is focus towards implementing the long-term executive vision, rather than the short-term band-aid solutions that will temporarily work for the team.
The External Perspective:
Most enterprises hire Agile coaches external to the organization. This helps them to have a truly neutral perspective towards the viewpoints of various stakeholders. As an external consultant, they do not form a part of the internal organizational politics which enables them to form a trusting relationship across teams. They can assess the organizational Agile framework without bias.
Well Rounded Skills:
Agile coaches have the experience to deal with issues that arise from a range of different areas such as technical challenges, process gaps, cultural incompatibilities, support team challenges, low management support, etc.. They can analyze problems from different perspectives (people, process and technology) and can recommend both technical and non-technical solutions. Most Agile coaches also have a large network of Agile intellectuals, technical specialists and other experienced coaches, who they can draw on to provide additional expertise if they come across a situation that they have not experienced before.
There is no question that adopting Agile within your organization can provide tremendous value – across projects, teams, and departments. We have seen it happen first hand. Its more than possible. It’s completely realistic if you have the right structure, and access to expertise.
If you’re interested in learning more about Agile or discussing Agile coaching – please reach out to me directly. I’d love to talk to you more and learn about how you are growing Agile within your company.