Coaching Agile Teams, October 14-16 2013

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 and offer simple, practical ways to get there.

Journey with Certifications
The International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile), in collaboration with various thought leaders for the Agile industry, have defined a roadmap for facilitation and coaching skills that lead to an ICAgile Expert Coach designation. Recognizing that the journey through the roadmap is more than one course, there are topic certifications that are earned along the way when a defined set of learning objectives are met. The ICAgile Expert Coach designation is obtained once all the topic certifications within a track are completed.

The two topic certifications with the ICAgile Facilitation and Coaching track are:
• ICAgile Team Facilitation Certification. Please see ICAgile accredited courses such as Agile Coaching Certification Part 1: Facilitating Agile Practices.
• ICAgile Coaching Class Certification
This course has been accredited by ICAgile to cover all the learning objectives of the Coaching Certification (but not the Team Facilitation portion). Participants of this course will earn the ICAgile Coaching Class Certification. There is no preqrequisite per se to take either one of the classes first.

This course also contributes to Scrum Education Units (SEUs) toward the Scrum Alliance’s Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) certification.

Past students say:

”Lyssa and Michael really opened up a new world to me in this class. They gave me the tools that I didn’t know I was lacking, and most of all the tools that I really needed.” – Johan Stenmark

”If you have the slightest desire to help grow capacity in your colleagues this course is the best start you can get.”  – Ivan Jensen

”I highly recommend the agile coach training course. If you are a leader, or looking to take any leadership position on an agile team this course is a must-have follow up to any base agile training.” – Chris Leslie

Who this course is for

The Coaching Agile Teams course is meant for ScrumMasters, agile coaches and project managers in transition – people  who are ready to take the next step beyond practices and principles and move into activating teams to achieve the full promise of agile.
This course is tailor-made for you if:
• You’ve had a few experiences as an agile coach and it just doesn’t seem to be working for you.
• Your job has become routine and you notice the teams seem to be going through the motions, too.
• Your teams get the practices and are doing well, but not getting the fabulous results you were supposed to get.
• Your are an awesome agile coach and you want the skills that will help you earn the Certified Scrum Coach designation.
• You are spread across many agile teams because your managers think agile coaching is not a full-time job.
• You are not sure if the agile coach role is really right for you.

Learning outcomes for this course

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 in your daily circumstances.  We use your real world situations and scenarios throughout the class allowing you to craft powerful ways to address the challenges you face.  You’ll also 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.

• What is Agile Coaching? :: Why is it Important?
• The Being and the Doing of Agile Coaching
• Interlocking Roles: Agile Coach, Product Owner, Agile Manager
• When to Coach the Team, When to Coach Individuals
• Skills for Coaching Teams, Team Members, Product Owners, Managers, Stakeholders
• Coaching Styles and When to Use Them
• Setting the Environment for High Performance Teams
• Detecting and Solving Problems
• Starting up Great Teams :: Repairing Existing Teams
• Agile Coach Failure, Recovery and Success Modes

Prerequisites

You must be a practicing agile coach with at least 6 months of hands-on experience. Ideally, you will also have Certified ScrumMaster or equivalent agile training.  This is not an Introduction-level course and we will not be covering the basics of agile or Scrum.  In addition, you will be asked to use what you know about your real teams throughout the class so that you can leave with ideas for helping them as soon as you get back.