Developing Agile Coaches, 14-week Training Program with Jon Ward

Course Overview

This highly interactive fourteen-week program is designed to assist experienced Scrum Masters and Product Owners to become more effective as Agile Coaches enabling them to support multiple teams and teams of teams. This training activity employs an apprenticeship style of learning consisting of theory and supported practice.
By design, this course encourages a deep understanding of Agile conventions and practices through the practical application of skills, observation, analysis of team behavior and performance, and undertaking a range of interventions based upon Agile wisdom.
We have a structured curriculum so that there is a two-hour training module every week for fourteen weeks. The participants will be working with teams for the practical application of new and existing skills. In addition to interactive classroom sessions, there are significant elements of self-study, reading academic articles, referring to Agile wisdom, and instructional videos.
This training is an in-depth capability development activity. Each week, working with learning buddies, participants will review their learning and plan practical interventions with their teams. The course involves blended learning and coaching practice, using intervention techniques, involving advanced Agile wisdom.

Course Content

The course starts with some self-awareness exercises, moving on to the creation of foundational knowledge of coaching Agile teams and then builds upon that knowledge in the subsequent training sessions and practical exercises.
Most modules comprise behavioral analysis, team performance improvements, and intervention techniques based on The Agile Coaching Competency Framework. The training establishes the use of evidence-based coaching and coach’s performance improvement using techniques such as self-analysis and reflective practice.
Related self-study sessions comprise the readings of papers, instructional videos, and practical exercises. This course provides a learning-by-doing experience. An amount of ad hoc support is also available for participants who encounter practical challenges when working with their teams.

Learning Objectives

This framework-agnostic course is intended to give individuals’ a clear, pragmatic understanding of the art of Agile coaching. It encourages coaches to become life-long learners aware of Agile innovations and current practice. It outlines how to inspire, train, and empower Agile practitioners as individuals, as teams, and as teams of teams.
Throughout this program, individuals learn and practice progressively more complex skills increasing their Agile mastery, self-awareness, and behavioral understanding. Through reflective practice and working with their coaching buddy, they seek self-development and continuous improvement. A fundamental tenet of this course is seeking performance improvement of the coach and their teams. Following this course participants will be able to:
• Understand a four-level coaching impact model; self, team, program, and enterprise in the context of defining a coach’s development path.
• Be aware that Agile wisdom is vast, impossible for an individual to master its entirety. Knowing when to look for help when additional mastery is required.
• The Coach as an Agile role model with the emotional intelligence able to enable, support, and develop single teams and teams of teams.
• Be able to plan and coordinate big room planning events for Agile programs.
• Understand how to use the techniques of team analysis, intervention planning, and reflective practice to improve coaching performance and prevent team performance plateaus.
• Understand the techniques and skills needed to create a safe environment for meaningful collaboration and healthy conflict resolution within an Agile team.
• Advise teams on the use of advanced Agile techniques using guided retrospectives.
• Understand the approaches to Agile QA and be able to coach teams in their application at a foundational level.
• Understand how value streams are used in Lean to define and evaluate opportunities to increase efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Audience

This training is designed for individuals, senior executives, and Agile Coaches who wish to optimize and organize their Enterprise Agility design.

Pre-requisites

This course is for people who have experience in agile ways of working and who wish to improve as Agile coaches. Beyond this, there are no other pre-requisites.

Course Preparation

This course does not have any pre-course preparation.

Training Roadmap: