Francis Underwood
Agile coaching is a multifaceted, complex process, but the core idea is simple enough for everyone to understand. Agile methods, strategies, and their applications are always focused on and around the idea of incremental development and gradual improvement, as opposed to a grand launch date.
An agile team delivers faster, better, and more cost-effective results for the company. The product initially delivered provides immediate functional values that cater specifically to the client’s needs, while also holding massive potentials for incremental improvements on an as needed basis. So, how does all that help in creating and improving teamwork? As it happens, that’s one of the first objectives that all agile coaches will focus on.
Teamwork is Essential for Building a Productive Agile Team
An agile coach seeks to help both project managers and their teams learn about and implement the principles of agile. However, working as an agile team is not easy, unless everyone is onboard with the idea, and on the same page. Therefore, building teamwork is an essential and inseparable part of the agile team building process itself.
A team that is not working in perfect sync with each other cannot be called agile, so changing that is one of the fundamental requirements for agile coaches. For example, a critical element of agile is quick and responsive development, which can never be achieved without teamwork.
Agile Coaches Know How to Build Cohesive and Responsive Teams
As explained previously, an agile team can only be considered so if it is cohesive and responsive, capable of delivering incremental but quick value over time. An agile coach is not just an educator or academic that teaches project teams about agile processes; they are professionals with the knowledge, experience, and skills needed to help individuals in a team work as one.
As is to be expected, such specific teambuilding skills to actively build and maintain teamwork within a short timeframe are not inherent. Take a look at the Agile Coaching Certification from the Technology & Leadership Center at Washington University. You will find that agile teambuilding, leadership, and mentoring are very much a part of the course itself. Therefore, agile coaches with the right education behind them are trained and certified teambuilders by the very definition of their profession.
Agile Coaching Alleviates Pressure
The traditional method of working for the “big release” is an idea that most teams are used to, even though it has failed so many times in the past. However, that always puts tremendous pressure on each individual member of the team, as well as the team as a whole. This often leads to intradepartmental conflicts, which ultimately wastes time and hampers their productive capacity.
Agile coaches introduce a new method to the process — a process that does not emphasize as much on the big release date and alleviates pressure from the team in doing so. Instead, they are taught to work in full communication and collaboration with their clients. It’s a lot easier for teams to work cohesively under an agile mentor who is teaching them how to produce better results with fewer efforts.
Initially, agile was developed and used exclusively for managing software development projects. Nowadays, variations of agile principles are frequently used in projects belonging to other fields as well. Therefore, the right education and certification can certainly help existing agile coaches to become excellent teambuilders and mentors in a wide range of sectors.
