Showcase Team Agility

Another useful avenue for development and strengthening teams is to create short videos focused on Scrum practices. Have  someone ask questions of willing Scrum Masters and team members and publish it on your organisation’s Intranet or YouTube (if authorised). For example, the focus could be Definition of Ready and Definition of Done. Ask questions like: What are they? What challenges has the teams faced? Looking at your Scrum board how are they used in practice? What would happen if you didn’t have them? Other teams in the organisation get to see what other teams are doing which may influence their practice.

These are just some of the ways you can influence change in your organisation. If you don’t have a Mentor I encourage you to find one and if you don’t have a Coach, get one. Your learning and development will dramatically impact those around you.

Professional Development

When the Scrum Masters have been working together for a while they may be ready to embark on competency based professional development. Working with their team Coach draw up a road map of what they expect their Scrum Masters to know and do over the course of three or so years. For example, in the first year as a Scrum Master your organisation may expect them to facilitate all ceremonies and produce metrics. In the second year the expectation may be that the Scrum Master is role modelling accountability and transparency. In their third year the expectation might be that they’re mentoring other Scrum Masters and in following years developing skills as a Coach.

This will provide clear expectations of what your organisation expects of its Scrum Masters. To provide a tangible coaching path, use the ICAgile competency framework to identify Scrum Masters’ areas for development. You may decide to start with facilitation as this is a necessary skill for all the ceremonies.

Give Scrum Masters the opportunity to self-assess their competency, perhaps seek peer feedback and ask them what they will do in response. The goal here is to show them that while they may be naturally gifted in certain areas, the competency framework provides an objective appraisal of what they are competent in. It will also open their eyes to development opportunities they may not have known about. Based on what the Scrum Masters want to focus on, work with them to observe them as facilitators and give them feedback. By working through the competency framework Scrum Masters will become more competent and confident which has a flow on effect to their teams and leaders.

Showcase Team Agility

Walking the Boards

Another technique that expands on the Agile Health Check is to hold daily stand ups with the Scrum Masters. We call this ‘Walking the Boards’. The idea is to rotate from board to board. The focus here is for the Scrum Masters to articulate what they see on each board and ask questions. This keys into what they see, which sparks interaction with other Scrum Masters. For example, the survey may show a team as high performing, yet the Scrum board shows that multiple stories are in progress. When questioned by their peers, it is evident the team members are siloed rather than swarming on stories to get them done. The role of the Coach during the stand ups is to be silent, holding the space for the Scrum Masters to think without influence and articulate what they see. The Coach writes down what they hear without judgement or comment.

At the end of the iteration the Coach presents each day’s questions (by team) to the Scrum Masters. At this time gather feedback about their experience of the stand ups – like a Retrospective. Next, ask them what they want to do with the information. This may open up opportunities for Scrum Masters to start mentoring their peers, especially if the exercise reveals issues or struggles a Scrum Master is having with their team.

Walking the boards is a powerful way for Scrum Masters to be transparent, accountable and to check their Agile mindset.

Another application for Walking the Boards is to do the same with Team Leaders, Managers and Product Owners perhaps 2-3 times each week during the Iteration. As the Coach you will learn what is important to them and also identify if there are any coaching opportunities. At the end of the Iteration present the feedback to the leadership group and also the Scrum Masters (separately). It is important not to alter the information. You are simply communicating the leadership team observations to the teams. Check in with the Scrum Masters and ask them what they will do with the feedback and what steps they want to take next.

From there, you can facilitate a regular Idea Incubator with Scrum Masters to provide a forum for trying new things and for strengthening them as a team of Scrum Masters. To help them develop their accountability have them create a social contract. You can then refer to this when what you see differs from what they agreed. The goal here is to help the Scrum Masters gain confidence and provide a safe environment for them to try new things.

To further strengthen teams encourage Scrum Masters to run workshops for teams to reinforce Agile practices. For example, if teams are struggling with the Definition of Ready a Scrum Master may run a workshop that demonstrates the impact of an incomplete or inadequate Definition of Ready. It also exposes Scrum Masters and teams to other teams which further builds wider team relationships.

Professional Development

If developing high performing teams is the goal how can we, as Agile Coaches, facilitate this?

A useful place to start is to understand how Scrum Masters see their teams, especially if they’re embedded in their teams. Scrum Masters are the ones who know first-hand what’s working and what’s not, what the interpersonal relationships are like and what buy-in exists in the team to whatever Agile method the company uses.

A useful tool to gather their information is Survey Monkey. Create a series of questions that will give you a ‘health check’ of how Agile is used in your organisation. When you receive the results you’ll see how the Scrum Masters rate themselves on their agility and how they see the various practices adhered to within their teams. Looking across the teams it is then possible to see common themes. For example, the results may show that there is no dedicated Product Owner and this is evidenced by non-attendance at Sprint Planning Reviews and Stand ups.

Whatever the results, with careful analysis, it will point toward areas for focus. If a team doesn’t have a Definition of Ready, for example, you may find they’re also failing their Sprints. Working with the Product Owner and team develop a DoR following the INVEST principle.

Next, establish whether the responses match what you see. For example the results might show that the Scrum Master sees their team as high performing when observations indicate they’re under-performing with a siloed approach to getting user stories done.

Work out a plan with their Coach to help the team see what they’re doing vs what they’ve said they want to be. If the team hasn’t created a social contract, do this so you know what is important to them. We used Lyssa Adkins High Performance Tree as a model to identify the behaviours, traits/characteristics and evidence team members wanted for their team. Of course there are many factors that are bundled up in this process. It will depend on the openness of the team, the experience of the Scrum Master and the Coach. The goal here is to reveal what you see back to the team so they have an opportunity to adjust their practices (or not). Remember, the Coach is helping the team be accountable and transparent, rather than telling them what they should do.

There is likely to be enough material from the health check to inform the highest value areas to focus on. This happens at a meta level. The team continues to make incremental adjustments each day by inspecting and adapting based on the latest information, and more deliberately at the end of each iteration during the Retrospective.

An Agile Health check is a useful way to understand how the Scrum Master sees their team/s.

Walking the Boards

What is an Agile Coach?

Research that led to the development of the Leadership Circle™ model found that leaders in top performing organisations focus on outcomes, whereas leaders in low performing organisations focus on the problem (Anderson, B. 2006). An Agile Coach works with leaders to uncover blocks to self-awareness, leading to stronger collaboration skills, trust and confidence. Complementing the outcome focused leader, the Agile Coach uses their skills to increase interpersonal intelligence through coaching, mentoring, facilitation and training.

An Agile Coach will quickly identify the strategic goals and vision that are important to an organisation’s leaders. They will uncover what matters most and will set to work with teams and their leaders to clear the way for delivering concrete results.

The Agile Coach

• understands that value delivery and time to market are critical in maintaining the organisation’s edge in the market.
• has an agile mindset and will role model accountability and transparency.
• will articulate what they see so leaders can make informed decisions.
• is focused on the other person.
• will facilitate difficult conversations, remaining neutral so that everyone is heard.
• will be a mirror to the team so they can recalibrate if they so choose.
• undergoes a rigorous, competence-based evaluation process and is part of a global network of Agilists.

If developing high performing teams is the goal how can we, as Agile Coaches, facilitate this?

What do you do?

When I meet someone for the first time I’m often asked if I work and when I say yes, I’m asked what I do. My response, “I’m an Agile Coach.” At times I’m met with a blank gaze (usually outside my profession). I then begin to explain what being an Agile Coach means. It struck me that people outside my industry (and sometimes even inside it) don’t know what an Agile Coach does.

In this blog I’ll uncover some of the mystery associated with the role and share my journey with you. You may wonder what a rugby team has to do with being an Agile Coach. I’ll unpack that too.

What is an Agile Coach?