What is agile coaching?

by Taymour Miri | Dec 26, 2024 | Coaching Articles

Agile is a management and development approach for projects that emphasizes incremental delivery, flexibility, and close collaboration with the customer. This method originated from the Agile Manifesto in 2001 and aims to improve product quality through continuous delivery and rapid customer feedback. Agile focuses on managing complex and changing projects using self-organizing teams. In this approach, projects are divided into smaller parts and continuously developed in short cycles (usually 2-4 weeks). Popular Agile methods include Scrum and Kanban. Agile was initially used in software development, but today it is also used in many industries such as marketing, product development, and operations management.

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The Importance of Agile in Personal Life and the Workplace

In today’s changing world, responding quickly to challenges and changes, and adapting to them is crucial both in personal life and in organizations and their various departments and work teams. In today’s world, where changes are rapid and unpredictable, flexibility is an essential characteristic for success. Agile helps individuals to view problems as opportunities for growth through continuous learning and process improvement, instead of reacting negatively to them. In organizations, Agile increases team collaboration, reduces costs, reduces project risks, and improves customer satisfaction. This approach enables teams to act faster and more effectively based on continuous feedback. Furthermore, being Agile reduces stress and extra pressure and allows people to work with more motivation and energy. In personal life, flexibility helps us to better cope with unforeseen changes and identify new opportunities. Overall, being Agile leads to improved quality of life and increased efficiency in organizations.
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What is Agile Coaching and Who is an Agile Coach?

Agile Coaching is a process in which an Agile Coach helps teams and organizations use Agile principles and methods to improve performance, collaboration, and adaptation to change. The goal of Agile Coaching is to enhance individual and team capabilities, increase productivity, and facilitate change processes.

In recent years, Agile Coaching has gained significant popularity. Thanks to the widespread adoption of Agile, the Agile Coaching market has grown rapidly. In 2017, according to LinkedIn’s report on the most promising jobs, Scrum Master (a type of Agile Coach) ranked tenth with a job growth of 104% compared to the previous year.

An Agile Coach is a coach whose focus and expertise are in the field of Agile. This means a person who has completed coaching training at one of the levels defined by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), possesses coaching competencies, has obtained the relevant credentials, and has project management or Scrum Master experience in an organization, and based on their experience, has chosen the Agile niche for entering the market. An Agile Coach helps project managers or Scrum Masters improve their performance quality. If an Agile Coach has previously worked with a team and wants to work with Agile teams in organizations, they can participate in the advanced team coaching course defined by ICF and, with the received team coaching credential, announce to the market that their expertise is coaching Agile teams.

Agile Coaching does not include training, consulting, facilitation, or other methods. These are different professional support mechanisms that can complement the work of an Agile Coach in providing various services to clients.

An Agile Coach can provide training, consulting, or facilitation if needed by the client and the circumstances, by stating that these services and approaches are not coaching. Knowing when each of these approaches is needed is the tricky part. An Agile Coach probably cannot master all of them, but it is necessary to have a basic level in each of them to provide services if needed by the client.

Most Agile Coaches are from project management, product management, IT, or have a background in software development. They usually have extensive experience with various Agile frameworks and methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) [2]. They are also skilled in coaching and can help people choose the best solutions for their problems. Agile Coaches can be employees (internal Agile Coaches) or external Agile Coaches.

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Why do you need an Agile Coach?

As mentioned in this article, an Agile Coach, along with the project manager and Scrum Master, is responsible for creating and improving Agile processes in a team or organization. An Agile Coach is usually needed when a company is transitioning from current business activities such as the waterfall model to Agile methodology principles.

Although the Agile methodology seems simple, it is surprisingly difficult to implement without the help of an Agile Coach or a team Agile Coach with in-depth knowledge. Agile is a fundamental change from familiar team methods, and the team is expected to manage this change, learn Agile, and increase productivity at the same time. The coach helps the team adapt to this change and move towards self-management while the team members learn the methodology.

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Although Agile was initially designed to simplify software development projects, organizations realized that it is not enough to just have technical Scrum Masters. They need people who know how to empower the team to move towards high performance through collaboration while adapting to the Agile methodology. This is an important opportunity for experienced team coaches who are interested in Agile training. Although organizations active in the technology sector still make up the majority of Agile users, this methodology is expanding outside the technology world. For an Agile Coach with team experience and trained in the ICF team coaching course, any organization that uses Agile project teams to perform work can be a potential client.

As you know, the Scrum method (from Agile frameworks) is very widely used. Because it seemingly offers a readily implementable solution to all problems, but the solution for each situation is different from another, and many project managers find themselves in a situation where, although they have implemented all the correct Agile processes, they still feel that something is wrong. Thus, there are times when Agile seems to work in one business but not in another. This is where the Agile Coach is a valuable element alongside the project manager or in the team.

What skills should an Agile Coach have?

• Experience in the software industry: Most Agile Coaches have many years of experience in the software industry in various roles. • Agile and Lean values, principles, and practices: This includes knowing technical practices as well as process, management, and leadership. • Change management: Because most Agile adoptions mean changing “how we do things in the usual and current way.” • Individual and team coaching. • Facilitation techniques (to provide requested support services to the client).
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What services can an Agile Coach or team Agile Coach provide to organizations?

• Developing Agile implementation plans. • Coaching Scrum Masters. • Coaching Agile teams. • Developing and managing organizational coaching programs to build a coaching culture suitable for Agile. • Using Agile and team coaching techniques to coach leadership teams. Agile is a proven methodology that adds to the team coach’s toolkit and provides them with a competitive advantage in the market.

Types of Agile Coaches

Many names are used in this field. Sometimes, Agile Coaches are called: Agile facilitators, Agile consultants, Scrum Masters, Scrum Coaches, Kanban Coaches, or organizational Agile Coaches. The simplest way to understand Agile Coaching is to see who is being coached by whom.
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How to become an Agile Coach?

If you have work experience in project management and Scrum and have experienced Agile in your organization, you can participate in a level one or level two coaching training course approved by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), learn coaching skills and competencies, gain experience in coaching, and focus on Agile and improving the performance of team leaders who want to implement Agile in their team or teams that want to be agile.

To find ICF-approved coaching training providers, you can visit the ICF website [3]. FCA Coaching Academy UK is one of the ICF-approved institutions and the first Persian-language coaching training institution in Iran, with more than 10 years of experience in providing coaching courses, business coaching services, and providing valid certificates under the ICF Federation, provides coach training courses.

To find information about training courses, select the following link: Coach Training Course Information

Some resources:

https://coachingfederation.org/blog/agile-coaching www.toptal.com [1] International Coaching Federation. [2] Scaled Agile Framework. [3] coachingfederation.org
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Taymour Miri is an ICF master coach and a Gallup certified strengths coach and more recently one of the first 136 coaches world wide to be awarded an Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching. He has 30 years’ experience in leadership roles and 20 years of experince in coaching. Taymour has trained over 1,500 coaches across five continents and is the founder of International Coaching Education (ICE).