From an Agile Coach to a Value Delivery, Continuous Improvement Coach

#FromAgileToValueDelivery #WhatIsInATitle #MoreThanAgile

We need to stop being Agile Coaches and start being Value Delivery Continuous Improvement Coaches. Agile principles remain extremely important, but they are but a part of a much bigger ecosystem that needs a full alignment for success.

In 1996, Ron Jeffries, Kent Beck, and Ward Cunningham created a software development technique called Extreme Programming, "XP." A few years later, the Agile movement subsumed XP, and it became just one of the tools in the Agile toolkit.

Fast forward to the mid-2000s, and competing approaches emerged for "scaling" Agile. Scaled Agile Inc., introduced more developed and integrated ideas around Lean Portfolio Management and Product Management. Competing scaled agile frameworks such as LeSS, DAD, Spotify, Nexus, SAFe, et al., challenged us to stop obsessing on local optimization (e.g., just making this or that team "Agile"). Instead, we should think of the entire flow of value, from concept-to-cash as a system in its own right (AKA "Systems Thinking").

Meanwhile, Toyota' Lean Manufacturing principles began blending with Agile principles. Then the DevOps movement arrived. Architectural evolution continued along with new ways of working on a team. Mike Cohn just put out an article declaring that Sprint Reviews need to go away or be reimagined in light of the evolving tech landscape. 

A flurry of creativity around approaches to ideation and prioritization began a few years ago. There are East coast and West coast variants of the UX Design Strategy, and other variants are popping up that try to split the difference between them.

Karen Martin, Mary Poppendick, et al. taught us how to do value stream mapping. This tool helps to dissolve silos and get organizations to take ownership of their improvements. However, this is just one tool in a coach's toolbox.

We've been called out for focusing on narrow facets of the flow of value. Rather than seeing the multiple disciplines that, together, facilitate working on the right thing, we tend to only focus on the emphasis-du-jour (OKRs, Value Stream Mapping, RAPID, and other useful tools and techniques). It takes the broad view to deliver value expediently with quality to delight the customer.

Add to that the excellent facilitation skills that coaches must possess, and it's not nearly sufficient to know Agile practices. Coaches have to be masters at listening, at helping others to solve their challenges themselves, rather than being process policemen that force compliance on an organization. 

Given what is needed to help an organization succeed, the title, "Agile Coach" grotesquely ill-frames what our clients need. We must help them learn how to improve, continuously, at delivering value that delights the customer. That's a complicated journey involving the executive team down to the janitorial staff. It needs factory-like efficiencies, yet it's an entirely human endeavor. Cultivating success requires wisdom, magic, patience, humility, passion, and persistence.

As coaches, we must not deliver Agile processes. With constant reflection and improvement, we must help equip an organization to deliver continuously improving value to the customer. We can use Agile, Lean, DevOps, Lean Portfolio Management, UX Design Strategy frameworks, and a myriad of other tools, but we aren't just glorified team coaches. We must engage the entire enterprise with more than one tool, and that's more than merely being an "Agile" Coach.