Agile

Training is also available (i) in-house, (ii) in multiple geographies [UK; Europe; South Africa; Australasia; India; SE-Asia] and (iii) online. Please contact info@unicom.co.uk

Introduction:

Getting started with Agile is easy, driving to higher performance is hard.  This course gives you the tools to help your teams achieve as an Agile Team Coach. 

Agile Coaching clarifies the role of the agile team coach, exploring the relationship between Coach and Team.  As an Agile Team Coach you move beyond being the team's facilitator. You will serve as teacher, mentor, problem solver and conductor - it is a challenging role that needs to be well understood before undertaking it. 

Agile Coaching will enable you to gain deep understanding and practice of professional coaching techniques as applied to Agile.  You will learn and practice techniques such as presence; active listening; powerful questioning; silence and feedback.  You will learn to identify a team's development stage and adapt your Coaching approach accordingly.  You'll learn how stress can hinder the relationship and how the application of emotional intelligence will help.  You will take these techniques to coaching the immediate team and then also learn about mentoring the wider team such as product owner, agile project manager etc.  You will learn how to help a team get started so they get to norming and performing as quickly as possible by practicing powerful team startup exercises such as Market of Skills and Values and designing your own team startup.  Learn about characteristics of healthy teams such as trust; shared purpose; shared leadership; self organisation and more, and how to help the team better exhibit these.  

The course is aligned with the ICAgile Agile Facilitation and Coaching specialty track, which has been designed by leading international experts to outline the skills and knowledge needed to be an effective Agile Team Coach. 

Agile Coaching is deeply experiential, immersing the participants in hands-on coaching exercises and using that experience to apply and reinforce the discussions. It will prepare you to effectively undertake the role of Agile Team Coach in your organisation. 

Certification:

This course covers a number of learning objectives from the ICAgile Agile Facilitation and Coaching specialty track (see content headings below).  The remaining learning objectives for this track are covered in our Agile Team Facilitation course. 

To become a Certified Agile Expert (within this track), you will need to:

• Be a Certified ICAgile Professional (or be recognised at this level by ICAgile)
• Have obtained real-life experience in the track discipline
• Complete a knowledge and competency evaluation (through ICAgile). 

Prerequisites:

This is an advanced level Agile course which is not suitable for people brand new to Agile practices. 

Participants need to have completed formal Agile training and have at least 12 months experience working in an Agile team. If you are unsure as to your applicability for attending please contact us to discuss. 

Objectives:

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the mindset and role of the Agile Coach
• Apply techniques to coach and communicate effectively
• Effectively mentor and coach people
• Start up Agile teams quickly and effectively
• Grow and develop teams

Topics Covered By This Course:

The Mindset and Role of the Agile Coach
This topic will:

• Foster your (the coach) own self-awareness and understanding of team dynamics and the organisational system
• Prepare you to help Agile teams work with these structures to plan and manage Agile adoption
• Teach you to understand the relationship between Agile and coaching in order to coach, facilitate, mentor and teach an Agile team
• Explain the relationship of a coach to a self-organised team. 

Coaching and Communicating Effectively
The coach fosters a safe environment for open communication through setting an example and encouraging others to mimic it.

This topic will explore the value that effective professional coaching and communication brings to the team, including purposeful participation, effective use of silence, how to surface healthy conflict, and conflict management and resolution. 

Mentoring and Coaching People
Mentoring and coaching are decidedly different yet complementary.

In the Agile context, mentoring and coaching helps people step into their Agile role fully and to transition to the Agile mindset. As team members transition to (or become more adept at) their Agile roles, the Agile coach is in a position to mentor their personal and professional growth by sharing the knowledge and insights they have learned.  In addition, using professional coaching skills, the Agile Coach can help them find their own pathway to agility.

Starting Up Teams
Effective coaching starts by helping Agile team members see what is occurring within themselves, with others, and around them in their environment. The purpose of this topic is to create a level of comfort with exploring individual and team preferences, perform start-up activities such as project and team chartering, self-organisation team constructs, being comfortable in learning through doing, starting before you have all of the answers, creating definition of done and other social contracts, defining roles and responsibilities, etc.

Growing and Developing Teams
An Agile Coach understands how high performing teams are formed and maintained, as well as how to grow and develop teams toward their potential, given each team's specific circumstances.

The Agile Coach understands the difference between a group and a team, when to build a team, how to facilitate the different stages of team development and how each stage may impact the adoption of certain Agile practices. Effective Agile coaching means understanding when to seamlessly alternate between pushing for results and stepping back to focus on the team's development, or dancing between teaching, facilitating, mentoring or coaching. 

Who Would We Recommend This Course To?

Scrum Masters who want to improve their agile coaching skills

Experienced agile team members who aspire to the role of Agile Coach

Agile Project Managers who want to build their coaching muscles

Trainers

Vivek Jayaraman is a passionate coach, trainer and accomplished technical Leader with 16 plus years of relevant experience in Agile delivery, Coaching, Training, Software testing, Quality management and Automation testing. He has proven ability in handling start up assignments and stakeholder management, with specialisation in Lean principles, Scrum framework, Systems thinking and Kanban. Vivek helps and guides teams always to think differently and has the ability to guide and change one’s perception of looking at things.

Graham Dick is an Agile Coach, Facilitator, Mentor, Trainer and Consultant with over 25 years' experience leading and participating in business-critical change programmes and projects. He is an ICAgile Authorized Trainer.