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Coaching and training are indispensable to Agile transformations. This can be difficult for some organizations to accept.Agile frameworks are simple to understand, but there are many nuances to handling the complexities involved in an Agile transformation.While it is often helpful to tap into outside resources (books, websites, courses or consultants), the organization will need someone who understands the subtleties of Agile transformations and the context of the organization to make the transition as successful as possible.We refer to this role as the “internal Agile coach” and we often encourage clients to identify one or more such individuals as the organization's need for Agile knowledge and understanding grows. Being an Agile coach requires a wide range of human qualities, skills and experience, and selecting one for the company should be done carefully.In this article, we discuss when you need an Agile coach, what an Agile coach does, and a few tips on how you might create your own internal Agile coach.

What is the Purpose of Coaching?

In our work environments and personal lives we’re always looking to make clear, thoughtful choices, speak them clearly, and execute them in effective ways. We want to optimize our time and energies to create valuable outcomes. All this can happen spontaneously and without a plan, but with foresight to think and plan before taking actions, especially for larger goals, there’s a higher probability for getting quicker and more reliable results.

Nirav P Assar uses Malcom Gladwell's best selling book , The Tipping Point to discuss what's necessary to fully, and successfully implement agile, in order to take advantage of all that it can bring to a software development team.

If you've been tasked with creating an agile team, first consider what differentiates an agile team from a non-agile team. In this column, Johanna Rothman highlights six behaviors of people on successful agile teams that candidates for an agile team should possess.

ADP West 2010 - Jean Tabaka -Linchpin

Moving to agile development (or doing anything new) is not easy. Beyond learning some of the technical stuff, the new terms like SCRUM, stories and so on, it is about changing mindsets. How do you change mindsets? How do you understand mindsets, and to do so quickly?

The CEO of a financial services company had blocked off a day to take his management team offsite for a dedicated session focused on using agile to run the organization. After devoting the first half of the day to understanding agile practices and principles, the balance of the day focused on taking the specific initiatives and goals of this financial services company and translating them into tangible stories. These stories could be used to populate the company’s new Kanban board, one of the tools they would use to begin applying what they learned.