Coaching for Independence

The growing success of agile projects has increased the pressure for today's development organizations to explore the use of agile techniques. There are any number of resources where people can turn to for help. I believe that the best way to make agile a success is to find a coach that will teach and guide your organization to "build new muscle" and fuel the growth of successful agile practices in the organization. The culture changes can be sparked by an advisor, but they must be driven by the people that live in the organization. Helping teams, managers, executives, customers, and stakeholders identify and create the right conditions for change will serve the interests of the organization.

Resolving Organizational Conflict

Many organizations start to use agile techniques and subsequently begin to see conflicts occur in the organization. They become disappointed in the results of using agile due to the many conflicts. This often causes the organization revert back to traditional methods. This conflict must be recognized as a natural and expected outcome and the organization must be coached on how to resolve the conflicts as a means of getting to a state of high-performance. Developing a process to resolve conflict is a key factor to achieving agile organizational behavior and building a high degree of trust.

The Agile Infusion Approach

The method is built on the success experienced at Primavera Systems. An initial infusion of agile values, principles, and practices followed by periodic coaching for teams, managers, executives, and customers. This establishes the basic skills to get an agile project off the ground and then the continued coaching of an objective outside expert advisor. This helps to create the learning environment which is critical to long-term success with agile practices.