The challenge of moving into an agile direction is not to underestimate. During a transformation is important for any company to hire agile professionals to help in this process. The decision to start using agile methodologies may have different motivations, however most of the companies talk about increasing ownership, structure the teams better, and believe that agile will bring them the quality that customers and users expect, without losing speed.
I have seen companies trying to go through this process by themselves…and these are some challenges that happened and you could avoid:
- If one doesn’t have the exact expertise and experience of how Agile works, one will probably be investing time and money to, at some point, be forced to hire an agile coach/scrum master
- People tend to be reluctant to such changes because they are not well informed, and companies do not have the knowledge to give them credible and structured information – this is part of the agile coach’s job, to be with the teams and educate everyone in this direction
- The people in companies don’t have the experience to understand the possibilities that we could have to build agile teams. We have the product knowledge, but how many of us went through this process before? Agile coaches are there to be part of a transformation team. This means they don’t have to have the knowledge that the team has about the product. They do have the expertise and experience of processes, challenges, and needs, to bring everyone onboard and to make sure teams are correctly built and working together. More to this below.
Tasks that an agile coach owns, and how one could help companies in their way to Agile:
Organizational change
“Work with senior management, HR, and other business groups to implement the necessary organizational changes required to fully leverage agile practices and empower product people, possibly as part of an agile transformation or improvement program”
Process & Collaboration
“Teach agile values, principles, and practices to the product person, development team, stakeholders, and management. Make sure that everyone understands the role they play. Help people use the right processes in the right way. Encourage them to reflect on how they collaborate and discover ways to improve their work – for instance, through sprint retrospectives”
Roles
“Ensure that the right roles are in place and their responsibilities are clear”
Meetings
“Prepare and facilitate meetings, including sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective. Establish ground rules. Ensure that everyone is heard and that nobody dominates or hijacks the meeting”
Agile coaches are there to be part of a transformation team. This means they don’t have to have the knowledge that the team has about the product. They do have the expertise and experience of processes, challenges, and needs, to bring everyone onboard and to make sure teams are correctly built and working together. More to this below.
Staffing
“Help find people with the right skills and motivated to work on the product”
Product Vision – What is it and why is it vital for organizations to have a strong a strong vision
User Personas for empathising with our customers and taking better product decisions
Source of Agile Coach Jobs: How to Lead in Product Management