Coaching Agile Teams

by | Aug 16, 2014 | 0 comments

We are pleased to announce that we’re partnering with the Agile Coaching Institute for a 3-day Coaching Agile Teams class in Toronto!

Coaching Agile Teams

Coaching Agile Teams is a three day class for experienced Agilists who wish to dramatically increase their overall agile coaching skills, including in the areas of Teaching, Mentoring, Facilitation, and Professional Coaching. Further, the class covers basics of team dynamics, team startup/reset, the individual change cycle, helping people through agile role transitions,and working with team conflict. The course is highly interactive and experiential: we have never had anyone complain of being bored! The 3-day course results in a class certification in Agile Coaching by the International Consortium for Agile within their Agile Facilitation and Coaching track and counts as 21 SEUs by the Scrum Alliance.

Registration through ACI

Outcome

While mastering agile coaching skills will require both time and practice, our class will allow you to:

  • Understand and utilize the four key Skill Areas and four Knowledge Areas applied by the best agile coaches (ACI’s Agile Coaching Competency Framework)
  • Practice techniques for deep listening and asking essential, powerful questions.
  • Practice the distinction between coaching and mentoring and know when to apply each most successfully.
  • Observe a live, professional coaching demo on a situation in the agile context.
  • Understand how to address some of the dysfunctional approaches to conflict team’s sometimes develop.
  • Understand a model for human change and a method for working with such change.
  • You’ll walk away from the course with your personal coaching improvement backlog – a tangible plan you can use to thoughtfully improve your coaching when you’re back on the job.

 

You’ll have many new things to try with your teams and you will probably depart with a few provocative ideas to chew on (in fact, maybe wrangle with for a while). All of these outcomes add up to your ability to become the excellent agile coach your teams need.

Who Would Benefit from the Class

  • Experienced ScrumMasters, Agile Project Managers or Iteration Managers who want a fuller understanding of the complete range of agile coaching skills.
  • Agile Coaches who want expand their skill set and gain the ability to break-through previously intractable problems on their teams.
  • Agile managers, Product Owners and others wishing to access a broader range of skills in working with their teams.

Additionally, this class is for you if:

  • You’ve had a few experiences as an agile coach and it just doesn’t seem to be working for you.
  • You are not sure if the agile coach role is really right for you.
  • Your job has become routine and your teams just seem to be going through the motions.
  • Your teams understand the practices and are doing ok, but not getting the fabulous results you imagined.
  • You’re are an awesome agile coach who wants additional skills to help you become a Certified Scrum Coach.
  • You are spread across many agile teams because your managers think agile coaching is not a full-time job.

Course Content

Coaching Agile Teams is a training experience that covers both the being and the doing of agile coaching. There’s a lot to learn, experience and practice! At the end of the course, you will be capable of applying many new tools and techniques, as well as your own mindset changes, to coach agile teams to high performance. As practical as it is provocative, the Coaching Agile Teams course challenges agile coaches to rise to the fullest expression of their role. Topics include:

  • What is Agile Coaching? :: Why is it Important?
  • The Being and the Doing of Agile Coaching
  • Skills for Coaching Teams, Team Members, Product Owners, Managers, Stakeholders
  • Advanced facilitation techniques for team startups
  • Basic professional coaching skills and their use
  • Key role transitions for project managers, testers, tech leads and managers
  • How people change and what it means for agile role transitions
  • Coaching Styles and When to Use Them
  • Setting the Environment for High Performance Teams
  • Team dynamics & health
  • Detecting and Solving Problems
  • Starting up Great Teams :: Repairing Existing Teams
  • Working with Conflict Rather than Mediating or “Fixing” IT
  • Agile Coach Failure, Recovery and Success Modes
  • Agile Coaches as Professionals

Prerequisites

This is decidedly not a beginning agile class, but also not an advanced one. It is an intermediate course for practitioners with at least 6 months of hands-on agile experience. You should also be grounded in Agile Fundamentals (ICAgile Certified Professional), a Certified ScrumMaster, or equivalent agile training. The course builds directly on your agile team experience – without this, you and your colleagues will get a less than fulfilling experience. The class prepares you to act as a leader on agile teams and leave with ideas for helping them as soon as you get back.

Certifications

  • Coaching Agile Teams is accredited by the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) as fulfilling all Learning Objectives in the Agile Coaching track. After successful completion of Coaching Agile Teams, you can apply for ICAgile Professional continuing education certifications in Agile Coaching, provided you meet ICAgile’s prerequisites. Learn more at ICAgile.
  • Coaching Agile Teams is also approved by the Scrum Alliance and yields 21 SEUs toward your Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) or to support your existing Scrum Alliance certifications, such as the CSM. Learn more at the Scrum Alliance.
  • Any learning in Agile is typically acceptable to the Project Management Institute as continuing education. Coaching Agile Teams yields 21 PDUs that you can claim toward your PMI-ACP or to support your existing PMI certifications, such as the PMP. Learn more at the PMI.

 

Cancellation Policy

We make business decisions based on how many people have registered for a given event. If you must change or cancel your registration, please know that it impacts everyone. Still, we know that sometimes things happen. Here’s how it will work if you must reschedule of cancel:

If you notify ACI at least 15 business days prior to the event, you may receive full credit for a future event -or-a full refund.

If you notify ACI less than 15 business days prior to the event, you may receive full credit for a future event minus a $25 rescheduling fee -or- a full refund minus a $100 cancellation fee.

If you notify ACI less than 5 business days prior to the event, you may receive full credit for a future event minus a $150 rescheduling fee plus any additional expenses incurred for catering and event charges resulting from your cancellation. No refunds.