Lyssa Adkins - Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition

The subtitle of this book says it is for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers, however, its guidance and advice extend to anyone associated with an agile (Scrum) team. It will also certainly help team members better understand their relationship to the work ScrumMasters, agile coaches, and project managers do for the team. And, beyond this, the book can be valuable to anyone working in a coaching capacity with any group of people, expanding the books application beyond agile-based efforts.

Scott Duncan, Agile Coach

Lyssa explains brilliantly how skills from professional coaching can be applied to coaching agile software development teams. What I love about this book is how Lyssa brings practical advice to life by relating it to everyday experiences we all recognize. An essential guide for every agile managers bookshelf.

Rachel Davies, author of Agile Coaching

As I read this book I could actually hear Lyssas voice, guiding me and sparking precious a-ha moments. This truly is the next best thing to having an experienced and wise coach sitting by your side, helping you be the best coach you can be for your team.

Kris Blake, agile coach

Lyssa Adkins presents agile coaching in a gentle style with firm underpinnings. She resolves the paradox of how coaching can help a team to self-organize, and shows how a nurturing environment can push teams to perform better than ever.

Bill Wake, Industrial Logic, Inc.

I love Lyssas three qualities of an agile coachloving, compassionate, uncompromisingsweet. Every chapter offers a compelling blend of philosophy and action, framework and freedom, approach and avoidance, as any agile book should. Coaching Agile Teams is a good candidate to become dog-eared on my desktop rather than looking good on my bookshelf. The depth and quality of expertise that Lyssa sought, sampled, and sounded out along her own coaching journey have been synthesized in her own voice of experience.

Christopher Avery, Responsibility Process mentor, www.LeadershipGift.com

In my experience with agile projects, the agile coach is one of the most important roles to get right. Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins gives the details and practical insights for what it takes to be a great agile coach.

Dave Hendricksen, software architect, Thomson-Reuters

I remember the first time I met Lyssa at a Scrum gathering in Orlando, and realized very quickly how inspirational she would become in the agile community. This book encapsulates her thoughts and ideas into a fantastic literary work that, I believe, fills a void in our community. We knew the role of a coach was needed, but for a long time we were not sure what that role actually was. We struggled as a community to explain what to do, when to do it, and what to do next. Lyssa not only collates all of the things we as coaches aspire to be, but has provided some great advice with realistic direction on how to be the best coach you can be for your team.

Martin Kearns, CSC + CST, Principal Consultant, Renewtek ply. Ltd.

A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition

Lyssa Adkins

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Adkins, Lyssa.
Coaching agile teams : a companion for ScrumMasters, agile coaches, and project managers in
transition / Lyssa Adkins.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-63770-3
ISBN-10: 0-321-63770-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Executive coaching. 2. Teams in the work
place. 3. Project management. I. Title.
HD30.4.A35 2010
658.3'124dc22
2010009922

Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to:

Pearson Education, Inc.
Rights and Contracts Department
501 Boylston Street, Suite 900
Boston, MA 02116
Fax: (617) 671-3447

by Gail Cocker and Kathy Harman. All other illustrations by Gail Cocker.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-63770-3

ISBN-13: 0-321-63770-4

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

First printing, June, 2010

To emerging and experienced agile coaches alikemay you find something here to help you on your way.

The buzz at the 2008 Scrum Gathering in Chicago was all about a presenter who was new to that conference. On Monday afternoon she presented a session called The Road from Project Manager to Agile Coach. By Tuesday everyone was talking about it.

The reason that the presenter of that sessionLyssa Adkins, whose book you hold in your hands right nowcreated such a stir was the obvious passion, knowledge, and experience she brought to the critical topic of agile coaching. As a classically trained project manager and director of a large corporate project management office before discovering agile, Lyssa is the perfect guide for becoming a skilled agile coach.

Watching a great agile coach is like watching a magician. No matter how closely you watch, you cant quite figure out how she does it. In this book, magician/agile coach Lyssa Adkins takes us behind the curtain and shows us the tricks of her trade. Whats even more amazing is that there is no sleight of hand or cards up her sleeve. What youll find are simply wonderful techniques for guiding teams toward ever greater success.

Lyssa breaks down the magic of coaching into concrete terms. She not only explains the distinction between teaching, coaching, and advising, but she also shows us when and how to move between them. Lyssa provides guidance on how to choose between coaching one individual or the whole team. She also tells us how to identify coaching opportunitieschances to make a powerful impact on the team.

Guiding us past the white rabbits and black hats, Lyssa reveals how to initiate tough conversations using powerful questions designed to get team members talking constructively about a problem. This is one of my favorite parts of the book. Lyssa shares practical advice about collaborationa rare find, because so many other books on the subject say merely that collaboration is necessary yet offer no advice on how to make it happen. But as important as all the tools she gives us is Lyssas reminder that part of the coachs job is knowing when to sit back, observe, and let the team work things through.