From Project Manager to Agile Coach

It’s a matter of fact that agile project management approaches are getting more and more popular – not only for managing IT projects, but also in other PM application areas such as product development projects.

Lyssa Adkins is a very experienced project manager and PM consultant with over 15 years of experience in a wide variety of industries and teams – large and small. In the following video she talkes about how the role of a project manager should develop towards an agile coach – quite interesting.

I summarized the key points of the video for you. Hope this helps…

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Some rules and key success factors of being an agile coach:

1) Be detached from outcomes: don’t only focus on WHAT the team works on (outputs and outcomes) but also on HOW the team works

2) Take it to the team: let the team solve the project’s issues and problems

3) Be a mirror: reflect back to the team, ask questions

4) Master your face: practice non-violent communication, be relaxed

5) Let there be silence: get comfortable with un-comfortable silence

6) Model being unreasonable: be wild, be big, be bold

7) Let the team fail: teams that fail and recover together are much stronger, trust!

8) Be your team’s biggest fan: …and tell your team

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What is it to be an Agile Coach?

– Bulldozer: sweep problems and issues out of the way for your team

– Shepherd: get them back on the path

– Servant Leader: serve the team, be a facilitator; „Make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.“

– Guardian of quality and performance: watch WHAT and HOW your team is producing

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And this is part two of the presentation: