“We’ve mastered the Agile way of working. The teams will continue doing their work, whether you coach them or not.” I just started a new assignment as an Agile coach and did my new manager just tell me that I wasn’t needed?
Agile has been around for many years and some organizations are pretty far in adopting the Agile practices and mindset. Others are just starting and many are struggling to make it work. In this transformation, I distinguish three waves that have their own challenges and scope. In part 1 of this article, we had a look at the first two: teaching Agile and training the teams, followed by cross-team alignment. The third wave comes with teams building a technical product and changing their focus to delivering value and boosting business performance. As in the first two waves, there might be a downfall in maturity as more people in the enterprise get involved, but this will enable a further acceleration in business delivery.
Understanding and recognizing the waves of an Agile journey helps to grasp the different perceptions organizations have and enables us to tailor our coaching approach. The first reviewers of this article started to map their organization on the waves and spontaneously indicated which practices were already in place and what they needed to work on. I, therefore, believe it will enable us to have a better grip on Agile transformations and help us to explain why we focus on certain aspects. It puts our interventions in perspective and provides a roadmap for the organization. It also offers insight into how the role of an Agile coach is developing.
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