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Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition
- By Lyssa Adkins
- Published May 18, 2010 by Addison-Wesley Professional. Part of the Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn) series.
- Copyright 2010
- Dimensions: 7 X 9-1/8
- Pages: 352
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-63770-4
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-63770-3
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Product Author Bios
Lyssa Adkins has taught Scrum to hundreds of students, coached many agile teams and served as master coach to many apprentice coaches since 2004. Coaching coaches one-on-one and in small groups, she enjoys a front-row seat as remarkable agile coaches emerge and go on to entice the very best from the teams they coach. Prior to agile, Adkins had more than fifteen years of expertise leading project teams and groups of project managers in large and small consulting firms, commercial software companies, and the Fortune 500, yet nothing prepared her for the power of Agile done simply and well. She teaches the “Coaching Agile Teams” training course which allows agile coaches to learn, practice and deepen the skills and mind-sets offered in the book.
The Provocative and Practical Guide to Coaching Agile Teams
As an agile coach, you can help project teams become outstanding at agile, creating products that make them proud and helping organizations reap the powerful benefits of teams that deliver both innovation and excellence.
More and more frequently, ScrumMasters and project managers are being asked to coach agile teams. But it’s a challenging role. It requires new skills—as well as a subtle understanding of when to step in and when to step back. Migrating from “command and control” to agile coaching requires a whole new mind-set.
In Coaching Agile Teams, Lyssa Adkins gives agile coaches the insights they need to adopt this new mind-set and to guide teams to extraordinary performance in a re-energized work environment. You’ll gain a deep view into the role of the agile coach, discover what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to adapt powerful skills from many allied disciplines, including the fields of professional coaching and mentoring.
Coverage includes
- Understanding what it takes to be a great agile coach
- Mastering all of the agile coach’s roles: teacher, mentor, problem solver, conflict navigator, and performance coach
- Creating an environment where self-organized, high-performance teams can emerge
- Coaching teams past cooperation and into full collaboration
- Evolving your leadership style as your team grows and changes
- Staying actively engaged without dominating your team and stunting its growth
- Recognizing failure, recovery, and success modes in your coaching
- Getting the most out of your own personal agile coaching journey
Whether you’re an agile coach, leader, trainer, mentor, facilitator, ScrumMaster, project manager, product owner, or team member, this book will help you become skilled at helping others become truly great. What could possibly be more rewarding?
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Great book that teaches how to think like a coach, By
This review is from: Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn)) (Paperback)
Coaching of all forms--whether of kids playing basketball or software professionals learning to ScrumMasters or other agile leaders--is difficult. The advice given often boils down to "here's how I do it..." or "you should always do..." The first style of advice fails because the coach's personal style may differ dramatically from the apprentice's style. Techniques that appear honest and sincere when one person uses them may appear forced and artificial when used by another. The second style fails because it is directive and ignores important differences in context between two coaching opportunities. In "Coaching Agile Teams," Lyssa Adkins avoids both of these traps.It would be easy to write a book like "101 Coaching Situations and What to Do in Them." Such a book would present a problem and offer good advice for that situation. If the book was done well, readers could leave the book knowing what to do in precisely 101 situations. But the reader of uch a book would not... Read more
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Love the Shu Ha Ri Model, By
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This review is from: Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn)) (Paperback)
This is a very helpful resource for Agile coaches. Some of the principles are old hat for students of leadership but the packaging is fresh and relevant to Agile teams. The most useful section for me is Agile Team Stages; I love the Shu Ha Ri model:"One good model for mastering anything (if that's possible) comes from martial arts. A martial arts student progresses through three stages of proficiency called Shu Ha Ri. Shu: Follow the rule. Ha: Break the rule. Ri: Be the rule. These stages also describe Agile teams as they first practice and then get good at Agile...A team can be in one or all of these stages simultaneously...Each person on the team inhabits one or more of these stages simultaneously, too..." The most common mistake I see Agile teams making is bending the rules before mastering the rules--what we call ScrumBut. "We do Agile Scrum but..." can get your team and your project in all kinds of trouble. This book will help you get back out... Read more
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Not for me, By Louis A Parisi (Round Rock, TX United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn)) (Paperback)
I was very excited to read Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins. I knew Lyssa's name as one of the big names in coaching and with the raving forwards by both Mike Cohn and Jim Highsmith I had very high expectations. I am a beginning coach and this is my first book specifically geared toward coaching. My feeling after reading the book is it must be for someone who has had a couple of years experience coaching and has read some of the more "instruction" based books on the subject. There were some nuggets of good information and a very heavy emphasis on self-awareness and introspection but in general this is not the how-to book for coaching that I anticipated. The self-awareness emphasis helped me understand the importance of this subject to be a good coach but the book only touched on the subject throughout and I am left to go out and look for other resources to fill the void. This is not the type of book I was looking for or did I expect based on the table of contents...
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Online Sample Chapter
Coaching Agile Teams: Expect High Performance
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 2 and Index)
Table of Contents
Foreword by Mike Cohn xiii
Foreword by Jim Highsmith xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction xix
About the Author xxv
Part I: It Starts with You 1
Chapter 1: Will I Be a Good Coach? 3
Why Agile Coaching Matters 4
The Agile Coaching Context 5
Let’s Get Our Language Straight 8
Move Toward Agile Coaching 9
An Agile Coach Emerges 15
Native Wiring 16
Make Agile Coaching Your Personal Expression 18
A Refresher 18
Additional Resources 19
Chapter 2: Expect High Performance 21
Set the Expectation 22
Introduce a Metaphor for High Performance 23
The Destination Never Comes 29
A Refresher 30
Additional Resources 30
References 31
Chapter 3: Master Yourself 33
Start with Self-Awareness 35
Recover from Command-and-Control-ism 40
Prepare for the Day Ahead 43
Practice in the Moment 46
Be a Model for Them 53
Support Yourself 53
Always Work on Yourself 54
A Refresher 55
Additional Resources 55
References 56
Chapter 4: Let Your Style Change 59
Agile Team Stages 60
Agile Coach Styles 64
Feel Free to Let Your Style Change 67
A Refresher 70
Additional Resources 70
References 70
Part II: Helping the Team Get More for Themselves 73
Chapter 5: Coach as Coach-Mentor 75
What Is Agile Coaching? 76
What Are We Coaching For? 77
Coaching at Two Levels 78
Coaching People One-on-One 83
Coaching Product Owners 97
Coaching Agile Coaches 107
Coaching Agile Managers 109
A Refresher 114
Additional Resources 114
References 115
Chapter 6: Coach as Facilitator 117
Wield a Light Touch 119
Facilitate the Stand-Up 119
Facilitate Sprint Planning 123
Facilitate the Sprint Review 128
Facilitate the Retrospective 132
Facilitate During Team Conversations 136
Professional Facilitator and Agile Coach 142
A Refresher 143
Additional Resources 143
References 144
Chapter 7: Coach as Teacher 145
Teach During the Team Start-Up 146
Teach New Team Members 169
Use Teachable Moments 170
Teach Agile Roles All the Time 170
A Refresher 180
Additional Resources 181
References 181
Chapter 8: Coach as Problem Solver 183
An Agile Problem Solving Rubric 185
Problems Arise and Are Sought 186
See Problems Clearly 192
Resolve Problems 196
A Refresher 200
Additional Resources 201
References 201
Chapter 9: Coach as Conflict Navigator 203
The Agile Coach’s Role in Conflict 204
Five Levels of Conflict 204
What Level of Conflict Is Present? 207
What Should You Do About It? 211
Carrying Complaints 217
Unsolvable Conflict 221
A Last Word on Conflict 225
A Refresher 226
Additional Resources 226
References 226
Chapter 10: Coach as Collaboration Conductor 229
Collaboration or Cooperation? 231
From Cooperation to Collaboration 232
Build Individual Collaborators 233
Surplus Ideas Required 238
Build the Team’s Collaboration Muscle 239
Reveal the Heart of Collaboration 251
A Refresher 253
Additional Resources 253
References 254
Part III: Getting More for Yourself 257
Chapter 11: Agile Coach Failure, Recovery, and Success Modes 259
Agile Coach Failure Modes 260
Where Do Failure Modes Come From? 261
Recover from Failure Modes 263
Agile Coach Success Modes 266
Practice, Practice 268
A Refresher 269
Additional Resources 269
References 270
Chapter 12: When Will I Get There? 271
Agile Coach Skills 272
Beyond a List of Skills 279
A Refresher 285
Additional Resources 286
References 286
Chapter 13: It’s Your Journey 287
Agile Coach Journeys 288
A Refresher 305
Additional Resources 305
References 305
Index 307
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