There is much confusion in the industry around Agile Coaches and how to target the right capability to solve targeted improvement opportunities.
There are essentially 3 types of coaches;
Team Coach
Enterprise Coach
Specialised Coach
They are not necessarily mutually exclusive however it is important to understand each type to be able to assess a Coach and ensure they have the capability to influence the problem/s at hand.
One similarity between all levels of coaching is; the Coach should put themselves out of a job to be able to then go on to focus on the next problem. They should focus on building capability, process and tools to allow the teams to be self sufficient and on a continuous improvement journey even when they step away.
Team Coach
A Team Coach has the responsibility of one or more end to end delivery teams. They need to have both business and technical acumen.
A team Coach is responsible for ensuring they support capability uplift in;
A value aligned backlog
Team velocity and estimating
Establishing synchronisation and cadence
Team level events such as backlog grooming, Adapt and Inspect, stand ups
Team readiness for program level events such as program incremental planning, scrum of scrums
Culture and mindset
Enterprise Coach
An Enterprise Coach is responsible for creating Organisational clarity and visibility to allow the teams to execute. They focus on strategy alignment and creating the operating model/organisational design to support accelerated execution of end to end value stream/s. They create the guardrails to support a flatter structure for decision making.
Identification of Organisational value streams
Value aligned portfolio backlog
Portfolio synchronisation and cadence
Lean budgeting
Lean governance
Executive coaching of relevant frameworks
Culture and mindset
Specialised Coach
A “specialised coach” is someone who focuses on specific improvement opportunities for the organisation. For example simplified Architecture, Re-use engineering, lean portfolio management, lean risk management, DevOps, SecOps etc. These are often referred to as centres of Expertise. They need as much focus as delivery teams as they have the opportunity to create blockers.
As mentioned, these coaches are not mutually exclusive however it is crucial you know what your looking for and what problems you are trying to solve to ensure the right capability is on deck to support you.
If you require support with Agile Coaching, feel free to contact us at hello@ideaologyconsulting.com.au or see more information at www.ideaologyconsulting.com.au