A number of companies have based their processes on Agile Principles. Agile principles are easy to learn, but sometimes it is very challenging to adopt and master them in practice. Hence, this is the most common case when you need Agile Mentoring. Let’s say that you really have change agents at all levels of your organization; there are educated people concerning Agile development; and some of good Agile practices are implemented. However, the results so far are not satisfactory in terms of process improvement and business value provided.
How to recognize the possibilities for improvement? If development teams don’t deliver everything in Sprint; there is a misunderstanding between business and development; if there are lots of HOW questions regarding Agile implementation in practice (how to handle technical work, how to write product backlog items of right size and how to estimate them, how to lock down scope, schedule and budget, etc.); than you probably need Agile Mentoring.
Agile Mentoring means external support of an Agile expert, who helps individuals or groups in the most critical parts of the Agile transition. It is often organized 2-3 times a week for several months. However, final duration and type of Agile Mentoring depends on the specific situation in the company.
The role of an Agile Coach (Agile expert) in process of Agile Mentoring is to help organizational transformation into its self-organizing, more collaborative, and more flexible form.
Considering the current situation in the company, Agile Coach will:
- monitor the existing teams and processes,
- give the suggestions how to overcome the existing Agile anti-patterns and challenges,
- mentor and train individuals / groups (e.g. Scrum Masters, Product Owners, management representatives, Scrum teams, etc.),
- give suggestions for further improvement towards real Agile environment.
For more information email us at scrum@puzzlesoftware.rs