Onsite Agile Training And Coaching

Onsite Agile Coaching

Public and onsite training courses are a great resource for learning about specific aspects of agile software development or agile project management. The best way to make sure that learning is remembered is to augment that training with coaching or mentoring. We offer you the option to supplement your onsite Agile training course with onsite Agile coaching. One popular combination includes a one-day Agile Estimating and Planning class followed by a day of assisted estimating and planning with your backlog. We can also combine a one-day Effective User Stories with a one-day work session with Mike. He can then coach your teams through the process of writing product backlog items that are specific to your project.

Another option is to follow a two-day Certified ScrumMaster course with a day or two of coach-assisted backlog generation and sprint planning. Similarly, a Certified Scrum Product Owner course can be combined with coaching that emphasizes user stories or release planning.

Scrum teaches us to inspect and adapt. It's a good idea, therefore, sometimes to plan for periodic Agile coaching check-ups. Combining a training class with follow-on coaching a month or two later is a wonderful way to ensure that the key concepts presented in the Agile training or Scrum training class have become daily habits on your teams. These are only a few possible combinations. Whatever your needs, we can devise an onsite training and Agile coaching plan that will help you succeed.

Sample Coaching Engagements

• Conduct a user story–writing workshop
  Have you read about or been trained on user stories but when faced with your own backlog are having trouble turning ideas into estimatable stories? We can conduct a workshop that will take you from zero to a usable product backlog.

• Work with you to create a reliable release plan
  Release planning is one of the most important, and least understood, elements of a successful agile implementation. Let us show you how to take your prioritized backlog and estimated velocity and turn that into a release plan you can count on.

• Facilitate a sprint planning meeting, helping coach team members to plan a sprint at the right level of detail
  Anyone who has ever worked on a new Scrum team knows that the first planning meetings can be painful, as team members learn to work together in a new way. Let us help make your first meetings run more smoothly so that team members' first introduction to Scrum is a positive one.

• Facilitate end of iteration reviews and retrospectives
  Retrospectives and reviews. You know you should have them and you can see their value, but you cannot quite figure out how to make the most of the time you have. Or maybe your reviews and retrospectives have stopped being effective tools for generating improvement ideas. Whatever the case, we can help facilitate a review and retrospective that will help move your team toward continued success with Scrum and agile.

• Attend daily scrum meetings and provide advice on how to get the most value from them
  Many new ScrumMasters and teams struggle with the initial daily scrum meetings. Too often they degenerate into deep dives that last way too long or surface-level status reports. Let us work with you to keep your daily scrums running as they were intended.

• Help initiate an agile transition effort using the iterative ADAPT approach outlined in Mike Cohn's Succeeding with Agile book.
  One of the toughest things to do with a new process is launch it. Second only to getting started is staying the course when things get tough. We can give you a foundation that will help your team and organization ADAPT to the practices and principles of Scrum and agile in a way that will lead to long-term success.

• Meet with and educate executives and key stakeholders about agile and their role in its successful adoption.
  The team is trained and onboard. The ScrumMaster and Product Owner are comfortable in their roles. But to be successful, the entire organization must understand how to work inside the new process and practices. We can speak to executives and other key stakeholders in a language that they understand about the way in which business must adapt to the changes Scrum and agile will bring.

• Help convince reluctant agile team members to give agile a try.
  There are as many reasons why people might resist change as there are ways to overcome that resistance. We can help you meet the unique challenges that reluctant team members present in your agile adoption.

We Can Assist You With Your Agile Training and Scrum Training Needs

Mountain Goat Software consultants specialize in Scrum and agile practices. Mike Cohn co-founded the Scrum Alliance, which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support Scrum and Scrum practitioners worldwide. Mike ran his first Scrum project in 1995, making him among the most experienced of Scrum trainers and coaches. In fact, in 2003 he co-taught the first-ever Certified ScrumMaster course. Our well-respected and popular Agile training courses, especially when used as onsite training and combined with team Agile coaching or mentoring, will help put you on the path to success.

Mike's classes at Yahoo! have been incredibly useful. I recommend him to anyone who is serious about implementing Agile in their organization. Gabrielle Benefield, Director of Agile Development, Yahoo!

At Mountain Goat Software we understand what it takes to be successful with Agile and our Agile training is here to help. To schedule an onsite training course, or to find out more about our agile coaching, consulting or mentoring services, please contact Mike Cohn at 1-888-61-Agile (24453) or email him at mike@mountaingoatsoftware.com

Let us ensure your team and organization get off on the right start, move to the next level, or re-energize a stalled transition with our onsite Agile Training.