Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition – Lyssa Adkins
Who should read this book?
Agile Coaches. Only Agile Coaches.
Why you should read this book (or not)?
This book is a reference for Agile Coaching. It covers a very broad range of aspects that are relevant to an Agile Coach. The author refers to many other models that are out there, with a practical overview of references for further reading. The fact that it is so complete is for me also the biggest downside: the book contains so many concepts making it harder to crawl through it. And it is not that the author uses complex sentences or so. If you are not familiar with ‘Agile’, the many references to ‘Agile’ concepts will make some chapters harder to read. Other chapters do not require a basic knowledge of ‘Agile’
The book is also very practical, with many hands-on ideas to try out. IT also provides great guidance to assess a situation, such as the level of conflict a team is in.
In short, this is a must read for Agile Coaches, junior & more senior.
This book is a reference for Agile Coaching. It covers a very broad range of aspects that are relevant to an Agile Coach. The author refers to many other models that are out there, with a practical overview of references for further reading. The fact that it is so complete is for me also the biggest downside: the book contains so many concepts, making it harder to crawl through it. And it is not that the author uses complex sentences or so. If you are not familiar with ‘Agile’, the many references to ‘Agile’ concepts will make some chapters harder to read. Other chapters do not require a basic knowledge of ‘Agile’
The book is also very practical, with many hands-on ideas to try out. IT also provides great guidance to assess a situation, such as the level of conflict a team is in.
In short, this is a must read for Agile Coaches, junior & more senior.
Interesting extracts
“As Agile Coach, we become their facilitator, teacher, coach, mentor, conflict navigator, collaboration conductor and problem solver.”
“Rock climbers know that gravity works. They understand it. They accept it. They plan for it. I was made newly aware of this as I hiked past a group of rock climbers in action, with all their gear deployed, ropes hanging down, and people clinging to the side of a vertical rock face far above me. As I later made my way around their cars in the parking area, I noticed a bumper sticker that said, simply, “Gravity Works.” Yes, it does. Rock climbers know this and plan for it. So do agile coaches. I use this metaphor to illustrate that, in our physical environment, some things are simply taken as a given. Constant. Always present. Undeniable. So, too, in our work environment.
- Clients’ needs change. Gravity.
- What the team can do is known only to them and changes over time. Gravity.
- The world moves at an unbelievably fast pace and creates situations no one could have foreseen. Gravity.
- You cannot make a commitment on anyone else’s behalf and expect committed behavior from them. Gravity”
“Don’t Speak First. Instead of speaking, count to 10 (or 100). Use this classic exercise with a twist: While you count, pay keen attention to see whether someone else in the group will speak your thought. If you wait several minutes, you will likely hear your thought, or the core of your thought, expressed by someone else. If you wait several minutes and no one expresses your thought, wait a few more and then see whether it is still relevant or helpful. If so, speak it with clarity and simplicity. You’ve been thinking about it for a while now, so you should be able to express it in an incredibly short, precise, and impactful manner. Aim for the type of statement that will send the group into a whole new realm of discovery or action.”
“I’ve coached plenty of teams whose definition of agile has been twisted around the dysfunctions of the people in and around the team and the organization itself. As their coach, I hold out a clear picture of what agile done well looks like, and I do not ever compromise that vision. If they don’t want to get there, OK, but they will never hear me say that where they are is “agile enough.” I hold fast to the vision of agile done well for their sake—for the sake of their greatness as an agile team member, as an agile team, and even as an agile organization.”
| Do | Don’t |
|---|---|
| Say “what” needs to get done. | Say “how” the work will get done or “how much” effort the work will take. |
| Challenge the team. | Bully the team. |
| Demonstrate a commitment to building a high-performance team. | Focus on short-term deliveries only. |
| Practice business-value-driven thinking. | Stick to the original scope and approach “no matter what.” |
| Protect the team from outside noise. | Worry the team about changes until they become real. |
| Incorporate change between sprints. | Allow change to creep into sprints. |
“An agile coach is a …
- Bulldozer: Helps the team bulldoze impediments to get them out of the way (Cohn 2005)
- Shepherd: Guides the team back to agile practices and principles when they stray (adapted from Schwaber 2004)
- Servant leader: Serves the team rather than the team serving you (Cohn and Schwaber 2003)
- Guardian of quality and performance: Examines both what the team produces and how they produce it to offer observations that help them tune the human system they are (Douglas 2007)”
“Agile Coach Failure Modes
- The Spy spends just enough time observing the team to pick up topics for the next retrospective and then slinks off into the night.
- The Seagull swoops in at stand-ups, poops all over the team with well-intentioned observations or advice, and flies away again.
- The Opinionator expresses opinions often, gets attached to them, and loses the objectivity needed to coach the team to have great discussions.
- The Admin undermines team ownership by becoming an unnecessary middle man for meeting logistics, access requests, and other administrivia.
- The Hub acts as the center of the universe for communication between team members and for task-level coordination.
- The Butterfly flits around from team to team, landing just long enough to impart a pearl of wisdom or pose a philosophical question. !
- The Expert gets so involved in the details of the team’s work that the forest gets lost in the trees.
- The Nag helpfully “reminds” the team to start stand-up, update the storyboard, complete the tasks they committed to, and so on.”