By James Billy 
Agile coaching blends traditional coaching with agile methods with the aim of helping the teams to meet challenges. An agile coach can help the teams to exploit their potential to the maximum by making the teams become self-organised and self-responsible in order to deliver efficient project outcomes. They use a wide range of techniques to coach agile teams through complex agile challenges.
Why is Agile Coaching Important?
Agile coaching provides clear guidance on agile adoption, making the team’s journey smoother and more effective. The agile coaching can accelerate agile adoption in the organisation by helping them implement agile practices more quickly. The agile coaches offer necessary guidance to embrace the agile mindset and sustain agile momentum. By fostering a collaborative culture, agile coaches will facilitate better communication between the teams. They work closely with the teams to identify obstacles and team dynamics and help them achieve higher levels of performance.
What are the Common Agile Challenges?
Cultural Shift
Change in the cultural shift is one of the major challenges in agile implementation. It needs the teams to have a shared mindset to scale agile. It needs a strong commitment from top management.
Technology Shift
The organisations that are scaling agile will face challenges in addressing the technology shift. The leaders need to create increased visibility and transparency and keep the information flowing while scaling agile across the organisation. They need to evaluate and replace the right technology solutions to underpin their work.
Change in Ways of Working
Along with the cultural and technological shift, organisations also face challenges in changing the way they work. Businesses need to shift their working process to enable value flow while scaling agile. In the agile approach, time and resources remain fixed, but the scope of the project becomes flexible as it involves constant learning and changes in the project. The teams will be allowed to experiment and receive feedback to incorporate changes.
Training Needs
The agile implementation also faces challenges with the skill gaps while adopting new ways of working. The teams in the organisation have to unlearn the old methods and relearn the new ones for successful agile implementation of agile practices in the organisation. Every team member has to invest time and effort, and they demand the right environment to match the delivery expectations. The leaders become certified SAFe Scrum Masters and gain the knowledge needed to balance all the requirements in agile environments.
What are the Techniques for Coaching Teams?
Facilitate Agile Meetings
Agile meetings are purposeful interactions that are aimed at driving collaboration, communication and alignment among team members. Every day, agile meetings like sprint meetings and retrospectives help the team members to share the project progress and plan for the upcoming tasks. By facilitating these meetings regularly, the agile coach helps the teams stay focused on the goals while becoming adaptable to agile practices. With this approach, the agile coach can handle bottlenecks and build a team that can pursue the objectives collectively.
Educate on Agile Practices
Agile coaching teaches agile principles and creates a deep understanding of the agile philosophy to foster a culture of continuous training and adaptability in the organisation. The agile coaches offer necessary training through online certifications and workshops and empower the teams to implement agile practices. Along with agile practices, the coaches will educate the teams about tools and techniques to equip them with the skills to operate effectively in the agile environment.
Assessing Agile Maturity and Needs
There is no standard approach to agile implementation in the organisation. The agile coach has to assess agile maturity and the unique needs of the team to implement agile. They need to understand the team’s knowledge about agile practices and the challenges encountered by them in implementation. By understanding the team’s familiarity with agile principles, the coaches can tailor their guidance and support so that the teams get the right support at the right time and grow in the agile framework.
Set Goals for the Team
The agile coaches should set achievable goals aligned with agile practices to aid the teams in achieving incremental progress. The coaches set the objectives that are both challenging and feasible. By defining clear goals, the agile coach can guide the efforts and allow teams to measure progress and achievements and change strategies as required. With this approach, agile coaches can empower teams to contribute more towards organisational success.
Helps the Teams Handle Conflicts
Agile implementation in the organisation is prone to challenges and conflicts. The agile coaches help the teams identify the root cause of conflicts and find constructive solutions. The coaches can empower the teams to navigate the challenges and conflicts effectively by offering necessary insights and strategies. This approach enhances the team’s problem-solving skills, enhances collaboration between them, and enables them to look at challenges as growing opportunities.
Create a SAFe Environment
Establishing a SAFe agile environment for the teams is a fundamental technique of agile coaching. The agile coach should make the team feel comfortable in sharing their ideas and concerns with the leaders. They should be allowed to experiment without the fear of job security. Agile coaches create a culture of a SAFe environment and facilitate open communication between the teams to build trust and collaboration.
Conclusion
Coaching the agile teams to manage challenges needs a comprehensive approach. Agile coaches play a key role in guiding the teams through a new agile journey. They help the teams address the complex challenges by educating them about agile principles and facilitating meetings to address their concerns. They create a SAFe environment for the teams to experiment and adapt effectively to agile principles through continuous learning. Agile coaching helps the teams enhance their performance and helps the organisations deliver business value.