Don’t (Water)fall!
My bio and my business cards say, “Agile Coach.” I wonder when I say that title if the image of a dance or gymnastics instructor appears in the hearers’ minds. Do they hear me say, “Don’t fall”? Am I concerned about balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, strength, endurance, and stamina?
With my current client my role is Agile development coach, and in the context of software the meaning of Agile is clearer, a contrast to waterfall. As part of Enterprise Agile Adoption, an Agile development coach works on-site assisting teams in learning the engineering practices required for Agile software development. An Agile development coach differs from a Scrum process coach, who works more with ScrumMasters and the Scrum process. An Agile development coach focuses on technical issues like coding standards and ownership, system design, object orientation, technological risk, unit and acceptance testing, refactoring, integration process and frequency, optimization, and defects.
I’ve long encouraged participatory decision-making among knowledge workers. However, at Gray Hill Solutions, Inc., I led as an Agile development manager. A coach, in contrast, is not a manager. Coaches “lead from behind,” inspire expanded possibilities. They often lead with questions rather than statements.
Working as an Agile development coach also puts me in the role of teacher, mentor, and consultant. As a teacher delivering training I focus on a progression of learning goals on a subject–in this case, XP practices. In addition to teaching an entire team it is often appropriate to identify and mentor individual developers, providing examples and suggestions in specific situations. Finally, teaching and mentoring are in the context of consulting, providing expertise to address a short-term need.
This, then, is the role of Agile development coach: consulting, mentoring, teaching, and coaching developers in practices that enhance Agile software development and avoid the waterfall model. As a coach, technical issues are my concerns: “Don’t waterfall!”