a simple guide to start up your agile team and how to coach them to be a great Agile team

1. Coaching & Facilitation
Hosted by:
Vinh Bao Quang

2.  What’s Coaching
 What’s stages do Agile teams go through?
 Agile Coach skills?
 What does Agile Coach do?
 Facilitation Agile meetings
 Q&A
Agenda

3. What’s coaching?
 Coaching is a form of development in which a person called a coach supports a learner or client in
achieving a specific personal or professional goal. The learner is sometimes called a coachee.

4. What’s stages do Agile teams go through?

5. What’s stages do Agile teams go through?

6. What’s stages do Agile teams go through?
Do your team master Agile through stages called Shu Ha Ri ?
Where are your team on Shu Ha Ri stages?

7. What’re Agile Coach skills?

8.  Instilled agile practices
 Started up agile teams
 Coached team members one-on-one
 Coached the whole team
 Coached product owner
 Coached outsiders
 Coached the team through change
What does Agile Coach do?

9.  Bring team to reach to high performance
 Mastered yourself
 Accepted their ideas above your own
 Modeled agile values and principles
 Navigated conflict
 Facilitate Agile meetings
What does Agile Coach do?

10.  Instilled agile practices
– Team keep in mind the agile manifesto, 12
principles of Agile when working
– Receives the expected benefits from the practices
What does Agile Coach do?

11.  Started up agile team
– What are your problems when establishing a new Agile
team?
– What do we teach the team during the start-up (or Sprint
0)?
– How much time should we expect to spend preparing for
the start-up session ?
What does Agile Coach do?

12.  Started up agile team
– Learn about process/agile framework to be used
– Learn about the team, individual to get understand
– Learn about the work ahead
What does Agile Coach do?

13.  Coached the whole team
– At the Beginning
– In the middle
– In the end
What does Agile Coach do?

14.  Coached team members one-on-one
– When we coach one-on-one?
• When a team member has problem and reach to Coach
• Coach address issue and proactively have conversation
– Start coaching conversation with them immediately
• Meet a half-step ahead
• Guarantee safety
• Partner with managers
• Create a positive regards
What does Agile Coach do?

15.  Coached Product owners
– Should Agile coach cover and fill the role of PO? Why?
– Coach PO one-one
• Interacting with team
• PO understand their role and responsibility
• Business-value-driven thinking
• Spend time on creating, grooming, and using the product
backlog
• Removing impediments
• Managing stakeholders
• Hold the team to their commitment
What does Agile Coach do?

16.  Coached outsiders (Sponsor, Manager, Stakeholders
outside team)
– Why we should coach outsiders?
– How to Coach them
• Use one-one coaching
• Recognize them
• Best support from them to team
• Not affect to be impediments to team
• Do not let them fix the team’s problems
• Understand and Support Agile
What does Agile Coach do?

17.  Coached the team through change/failure
– Let team wallow in the depths of disappointment over a
change/failure or unwanted circumstance
– Help them get through despair and emerge with a new
plan for regaining their lost footing and stronger using
agile practices, values
What does Agile Coach do?

18.  Bring team to reach to high performance
 Mastered yourself
– Are you Command-And-Control-Aholic?
– Your verbal communication wound people?
– What’s servant leader? Can you be their Servant?
– How you react to conflict?
– Will you respond intelligently?
 Accept their idea above your own
 Modeled agile values and principles
What does Agile Coach do?

19.  Navigated conflicts
– What’s conflicts ever happened in your team? And how did
you solve it?
– 5 levels of conflicts (Speed Leas)
– What’s level of conflict present in your team?
– HOW to solve?
• Pay attention, hear complaints
• Assess level of conflict
• Do nothing and witness if they can navigate conflict themselves?
• If they can’t, then we intervene
What does Agile Coach do?

20.  Navigated conflicts
– A member complaint about that the TA on the team has such bad body smell
that she cannot stand to work near her. As the team’s coach, what do you do?
– A developer comes to you fuming because Joe, a developer, broke the
build—yet again. He is convinced that Joe is careless and doesn’t care about
anyone but himself. He says that the rest of the team is ready to “vote him off
the island.” As the team’s coach, what do you do?
– A member complaining about the PO taking personal calls in the team room
loudly. She wants you to make it stop. As the team’s coach, what do you do?
– A member complaint about a member goes to work too late consistently.
What do you do?
What does Agile Coach do?

21.  Facilitation Agile meetings
– Facilitate Standup meeting
– Facilitate Sprint Planning meeting
– Facilitate Sprint Review meeting
– Facilitate Retrospective meeting
What does Agile Coach do?

22. – Facilitate Standup meeting
• Agile ills in Standup meeting? And How to fix? If Not fix?
• Teach the team
– Standup meeting?
– Peer pressure
– Interchange during standup to coordinate well
– Focusing on the few WIP
– Daily commitment
– Raising Impediment
– Eyes contact and support
• Light-touch facilitation (not intervene) and keep the time-box
• Observe, take note and offer to share the notes to team
What does Agile Coach do?

23. – Facilitate Sprint Planning:
• Agile ills in Sprint Planning? And How to fix? If Not fix?
• Coach the PO understand of the importance of PBI ready
• Ensure PO prepare the product backlog and ready (clear,
prioritize)
• Give team the Agenda for the sprint planning meeting to achieve
– Know the work (understand, choose , tasks, volunteer for it) of sprint
– Get a fresh start
– Commit to shared goals
– Sense of right amount of work
• Split User story effectively
• Light-touch facilitation (not intervene) and keep the time-box
• Observe, take note and offer to share the notes to team
What does Agile Coach do?

24. – Facilitate Sprint Review:
• Agile ills in Sprint Review? And How to fix? If Not fix?
• Teach team
– Rehearsal
– Show minimum amount of work done
– Clear call out what accomplished, what not
– Show real product and tell what accomplished
– Get direct feedback
– Ask for help
• Light-touch facilitation (not intervene) and keep the time-box
• Observe, take note and offer to share the notes to team
What does Agile Coach do?

25. – Facilitate Retrospective meeting:
• Agile ills in Retrospective meeting? And How to fix? If Not fix?
• Keep the purpose of Retrospective in mind
– Inspect and Adapt
– Look back at HOW they work together, not WHAT
– Do better next time
• Prepare agenda with notes from Coach and other members
perspective
• Team to come up agreements and write down
• Pay attention whether the last Retrospective agreement is
incorporate or forgotten and call it out
• Observe and take note for next retrospective
• Light-touch facilitation (not intervene) and keep the time-box
What does Agile Coach do?

28. Vinh Bao Quang – HarveyNash Viet Nam
Project Manager
Scrum Master
quangvinh111285@yahoo.com