Online coaching
This is the core of what we offer. Our experience shows that good Agile Coaches are only needed as a full-time resource for a limited period of time (as they transfer skills and expertise to the team). After that you may need smaller pieces of help, support in understanding and developing your Agile, 'nudges' to improve practice and other work focused on specific issues. If you have Scrum Masters then we work alongside them to complement what they do.
Unlike some people, we do not offer an "out of the box", "one size fits all" solution. We know that each organisation needs its own Agile and, while we have delivered a wide range of solutions, we are not tied to any approach. We beleive that you will find the best Agile approach for yourselves with our help. After all, we are Agile and Collaborative.
What we offer
Almost anything that an Agile Coach offers face-to-face can be available online, but some things are easier and more suitable to online access than others. Things we can do include:
Agile Tools (e.g. Jira/Confluence) - configuration and management
We can set up, configure, customise, maintain and adapt the tools to fit with your needs. Do not let the tools drive you. This includes customised models of working, issues, workflows, reports, live dashboards and integration to other systems.
Agile Tools - interpretation and analysis
The tools are a great way to plan, progress, manage, support and report on your work. But the information that they produce needs interpretation if you are going to learn from it. This means using surface data to dig into underlying issues and find root causes. Problems and issues are a good thing in Agile - it helps to bring hidden problems to the surface so that they can be addressed - but only if you know how to interpret the information clearly. We can sit inside the tools and provide that level and analysis of the information, bringing issues to the fore and using our extensive experience to recommend changes and improvements in working
Agile events
Stand-ups, planning, Show and Tell, Retrospectives or whatever other events you have in your Agile. We can be there electronically to observe and analyse, to engage and contribute if desired, and to lead on occasion (though in general we recommend that these things should be led by an onsite team member).
Agile Development
Our expertise is not just in abstract Agile. We always get involved in developing and delivering real solutions. All our staff are experienced software engineers, business analysts and developers. We write code every day. We can work in detail with the technical team on adoption of new technologies and processes, embracing the cloud, ensuring high security systems and much more. Agile must be grounded in real development.
Agile Planning
Do not buy into the idea that Agile does not involve planning. Of course it does. But it reacts against the way that planning, gateways and spreadsheets can over-reach their purpose and become objectives in themselves rather than contributing to successful software delivery. We help plan teams develop for weeks, months and even years ahead. We help with finding effective ways to manage deadlines, resources and priorities. Doing this while remaining compatible with Agile Values and still achieving the benefits of Agile is an essential part of making this work in a large organisation
Agile Management
It is not always recognised that genuine Agile requires significant changes in management thinking. Much of Agile is based on devolving Power and Responsibility. This can be a scary thing for traditional, hierarchically driven organisations. It does not happen overnight. We work closely with senior management to make sure that they understand and actively engage in the changes. Risk averse and Safety critical can be delivered comfortably within an Agile approach as long as the requirements are designed into the new Agile structure.
Digital Transformation and Strategy
Many companies are embracing significant changes in their technology base: replacing hardware, moving off legacy systems, embracing new development strategies, joining the cloud. We combine our detailed expertise in Agile and in Technology with experience in Organisational Psychology and effective innovation to help you create the transformation model and strategy that is right for you
Ways to interact
We can be flexible to find the combination of tools which are suitable for your organisation, but typically, we would expect to use one or more of these:
- Being a participant in your onsite systems (e.g. Jira, Confluence)
- Interactive text chat (e.g. Skype, Slack)
- Video conferencing (e.g hangouts, webEx)
- Telephones (people tend to forget them, these days)
- Our own online tools - client areas on this web site for documents, conversations etc., our own Jira/Confluence systems
Our objective is to fit with whatever you use - no point in having an extra overhead of using additional tools if it can be avoided