Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/gevjen/archive/2016/07/31/188014.aspx
Book Notes from 'Coaching Agile Teams' By Lyssa Adkins
Coaching Product Owners on
Running their Business
Agile frameworks teach us to
harp on business value delivered.
We hold business value
delivered as the one and only measure of progress and value.
Product owners need short
term goals to act as a stepping stone toward business value.
Business value
micro-definitions.
Goals on the ground level
that determine where the product owner points the team - sprint after
sprint
Expresses the next critical
business objective we must achieve on the way to creating the whole
product.
When prioritizing the
product backlog - the items that support the micro-definition rise to the
top of the list.
Require product owners to k
now the business value micro-definitions at all times.
Help them recognize when
they are about to make a short-term tradeoff decision that compromises
their ability to get what they want in the long term.
You don’t have to do the
product owners job - you just need to use your impediment resolving
responsibility to get them what they need.
Gaming the Business Value
System
Product owners prioritize the
product backlog
Weighs many things to figure
out the priority - only one of which is business value to the company.
Who the product owner
promised a feature to
Product owners personal
performance evaluation
Which features the product
owner has been attached to
Which external groups are
ready
Which external groups are
resistant to working with team
Hard dependencies
Somewhere lurking at the
bottom - is business value.
You job is to get business
value to the top of the list.
Backlog - two passes in
prioritization
First pass - instruct
product owner to order only by business value.
Second pass - let
impediments in - invite the team to join in.
Anything else - falls
through into category of 'we'd like to help you but…'
Coaching Product Owners on
Being a Good Product Owner for the Team
When I am asked to help agile
teams figure out what is wrong with them - I often notice that the agile
coach and product owner roles are jumbled up..
When the agile coach fills
the void left by an absent product owner
An agile coach cannot make up
for an absent or poor product owner by filling in the gaps.
If the agile coach remains on
the hot seat for a schedule and budget information. - easy trap to fall
into.
Don’t take the hot seat with
you into the agile world.
These are not your questions.
Why the team will not
deliver a certain feature.
Whats coming next
How and where is money being
spent
These are product owner
questions
Everything related to the
direction, schedule and budget of the product falls into the product
owners job.
The product owner makes the
business decisions that impact these aspects of the product.
A whole host of team problems
can be remedied by teaching the roles of the agile coach and the product
owner.
As an agile coach - make sure
the product owner knows how to prioritize the backlog and when to have it
done.
If you step in to cover the
product owner by preparing the backlog - the results will be disastrous
No choice but to guess how to
prioritize the backlog - and you will be wrong.
Teach the role, coach the
role, and ask the team to expect the product owner to uphold the role.
Coaching Product Owners on
Getting Good at the Role
Being a good product owner
means more than fulfilling the role definition, grooming the backlog,
working with the team and working with everyone else to create a
profitable vision of the product.
By attention to the way you
do these things
When pressure rises and
expectations become unrealistic, the team must recognize it and raise the
situation as an impediment.
As the coach - be prepared to
clash with a product owner when his stress behavior kicks into gear.
Move from schedule-driven to
business value driven thinking
Most product owners have
probably been conditioned to demand dates and features.
Transition from schedule
driven to business value driven
Teach the product owner to
slice product features into thin slivers of value
Cultivate business value
driven thinking in all interactions
The business value driven
mind set works not just for prioritizing the product backlog and slicing
it into profitable releases.
Agile framework puts teams
under significate pressure to build something of value and quality in a
matter of weeks
Time feels precious to a
healthy agile team.
Be of one mind with the
sponsor
The product owner and
product sponsor must be so completely synchronized on the current and
future direction of the product
When these two get off
track with one another, the team and the product often suffer.
Ask for more (or less)
rather than micromanaging
Alarm goes off in your head
- when the product owner thinks she needs to get into the details of how
the team members are performing the work
The product owners best
control comes from how much - she asks the team to do, not how they are
doing.
Stay out of the details in
the meantime.
Hold the team to their
commitments
No one ever said a product
owner should 'make nice' all the time.
When the team members fail
to meet commitments they set for the team and the product owner feels
disappointed.
Leverage critical moments.
Having a vision for the
product and a well-groomed product backlog helps the product owner
convey the direction.
Coach the product owner to
be with the team to answer questions or make trade-off decisions in the
moment.
Create no-nonsense
communication and prize honest.
Be allies in the cause of
helping the team create astonishing results.
Coaching Agile Coaches
Taking on an agile coach
apprentice can be a great opportunity for your own growth.
No better way exists to
deepen your coaching skills than to teach them to someone else.
A useful framework for
coaching other coaches - three parts
Exploratory
Apprentice
Coach
Three months good time frame
for apprenticing a new agile coach to independence.
First month:
Perform the role and debrief
your actions with apprentice
Second Month:
Start turning over agile
events to the apprentice coach
By end of the month coach
has become the teams primary coach and you are now advisor.
Provide helpful tips and
insights so that their voice can come through.
Comparing notes rather than
giving notes.
Coaching Agile Managers
Coach agile managers in three
fundamental areas to adopt agile mind-sets and behaviors
Managing Teams :
Intersection between a
team's self-organization and the manager's leadership intelligence.
Managing Investments:
More focused on what is the
best investment now..
The agile mind-set
regarding managing investments is 'what is the best investment now'
Managing the environment
About helping the
organization think 'lean'
When agile teams begin
operating with newfound speed and agility, the rest of the organization
tends to slow them down.
How do you coach agile
managers
Train them to know their
role, let them know which behaviors will be useful and hurtful to the
team
And when their actions will
have a positive impact
Most managers got where they
are because they are good at solving problems,
This often means doing
things for the team or to the team
Agile enacts a natural cycle
in which the team plans, works hard, produces a real product
Then looks back to improve
the way they work.
The natural time for
problems to come up and get resolved are built in.
The wisdom you teach agile
managers, because you are learning it yourself, is to take it to the
team.
Above all - do not let
managers 'fix' team problems from the outside.
The Sponsor is a Special
Kind of Manager
Has the same role as any
other agile manager and can be coached just like any other manager.
Let the sponsor know that she
can get the results she wants by working with the product owner on all
things and remaining aligned with the product owner at all times.
Coach the sponsor to serve
the team.
Articulate the vision from
their point of view.
When the sponsor tells the
team why the product is important to the company and the outside world -
the magic really gets going.
Be Present and attentive in
the sprint reviews
Hearing this from the
'higher-ups' every once in a while helps them know that their efforts
are worth it.
Talk about business
trade-offs and managing expectations
Coach the sponsor to know
that almost everything they bring up with the team falls into one of two
categories
Business trade-offs or
managing expectations.
Sponsors talk to the team
revolves around how he and the product owner - together are managing
peoples expectations outside the team.
Hold the team accountable.
Hold team accountable to
what they said they would do.
The sponsor learns to support
the team, the team produces more and better and the sponsor gets more -
everyone wins.
A Refresher
Coaching happens at the
individual level and the whole team level all the time.
Coaching in the agile context
= coaching + agile mentoring
Interested in peoples whole
lives.
Start coaching conversations
with people immediately.
A good product owner makes
for a healthy agile team.
Coach this person well.
Teach someone else how to
coach to strengthen your own skills and knowledge
Managers impact team
performance
Sponsors are a special kind
of manager and require coaching.
Learn how to get more than
they imagined they could from self-organizing teams.