The competent agile coach must have a set of knowledge, skills, and basic traits. Table 1 lists some of the most common competencies. When hiring coaches, look for people who have these traits and can learn or develop the skills and knowledge to do the coaching.
The agile coach does not have to have these all at once but this is a good list for ongoing development.
Table 1. Competencies of the Agile Coach
Area |
Coaching competencies include… |
Traits |
Consistently honest Inspirational Motivational A people person Realistic and positive Willing to share power Focused Fair and impartial Confident Cool under pressure |
Agile principles and practices |
Committed to incremental realization of value Able to identify and define business value Understanding definitions of roles and their standard work Understanding value stream mapping and value stream management Understanding agile principles sufficiently to be able to interact with teams at least at the process level to facilitate problem-solving at the process level Understanding kanban, scrum and agile practices sufficiently to be able to help set up and establish the practices at the team level |
Knowledge transfer methods |
Coaching skills and approaches Pragmatic facilitation skills and Trim Tabs Adult learning and training techniques Agile training curriculum and how to tailor courses based on needs |
Transition management |
Metrics: Calculating and interpreting them Competency / proficiency assessments: Leading assessments, interpreting them, and setting goals Models of transition and change management Organizational dynamics and how to identify them Risk assessment and risk mitigation strategies for agile environments |
Business discovery |
Writing vision statements Decomposing requirements into capabilities, MBIs, features, and stories Sequencing work by business value Writing acceptance tests |
Inception |
Kanban: Board setup and management, analysis, SLAs, etc. Managing WIP Technical practices (general understanding and applicability) Virtual team collaboration Writing correct and complete features and stories |
Projects |
How to set up projects Feedback and continuous improvement Daily coordination (often referred to as “stand-ups”) Handling “failure” Kaizen Messaging Project board management Properly addressing impediments Iteration retrospective Visual controls and reporting |
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