Agile is a powerful way of thinking about software development - and other things. Once you get it right you deliver more effective, responsive and cost-efficient solutions. Sadly, many people and organisations give it a try but do not get it 'right' and so do not get the benefits of the approach.
We are here to help you realise those benefits for your team and organisation.
A Coach is not the same as a Trainer or a Scrum Master
People get confused about this. There is a cross-over, but there are definite distinctions.
Scrum Master
A role which exists if you are using scrum methods (which is only one way of doing Agile). The scrum master is part of the team and helps ensure that the team are following best Agile practice, getting the best benefits from it and innovating and improving effectively. A scrum master does not do agile for you, but helps you do it well for yourselves.
Agile Trainer
An Agile trainer comes in, deliver some courses and goes away. This is not a great thing for lots of reasons. Their goal is to deliver training and get paid, not to make you genuinely Agile. They often have a specific approach which they try to enforce. Wrong. Agile is about working out what suits your organisation best. It evolves over time. Most competent people can read a book or a website and learn everything that an Agile trainer has to tell them for free.
Agile Coach
An Agile Coach engages deeply with the organisation and the teams. They succeed or fail depending on whether your organisation succeeds or fails in realising the benefits of Agile. Of course, Agile coaches can provide training, act as scrum master and do (mostly) any role you might find in an agile organisation, but this is not what defines them as coaches.
Agile is probably not what you think
People who have heard of Agile but are not using it often have mis-conceptions about it. Agile is a way of thinking about problems which is flexible and responsive to user needs. It sets very high standards on code quality, testing, security and many other key issues. It is worth taking time to understand what Agile really is before you dismiss it or adopt it. Here are some common misconceptions:
Why do we offer an online service?
We have been offering online/remote Agile coaching since 2015, and delivering on-site coaching much longer. We are happy to offer mixed-modality coaching as appropriate.
If you have the time, resources etc. then you should get a full-time on-site Agile Coach. Agile works best with co-located teams of experts. Not everyone can do that, and it is not appropriate for all situations. In truth, an Agile Coach should only be a temporary requirement. They help you understand where you are, facilitate you getting to where you need to be, transfer skills to permanent staff and then move on.
But there are reasons why you might want or need an online coach. Here are some:
- Team is not geographically co-located
- Cannot justify cost of full-time on-site coach
- Need focused advice and support
- Only need occasional help: not enough for a full-time role
Why not just have a chat with us and see if there is any way we can help?