Since agile methods have become a mainstream approach to software development, the coaching of agile teams is a HOT topic and role.
It seems as if EVERYONE is an agile coach nowadays. And I literally mean, everyone! I see people leaving a 2-day ScrumMaster certification class and then hanging out a shingle as a coach.
Or someone with 1-2 years of experience. But I digress.
I’ve already recommended Lyssa Adkins book in the ScrumMaster book list. But it certainly applies here as well. I’m just not going to count it against my quota ;-)
Rachel Davies & Liz Sedley – Agile Coaching
This is one of the earlier books on agile coaching – as it beat Lyssa’s by about a year. I think Rachel & Liz bring a more XP-centric and more team-centric view of the coaching role than perhaps Lyssa did. It’s worth reading both, and this one is much shorter – so a quick read.
Various Coaches - Agile Coaching
A year or so ago, I was invited to contribute some articles (blog posts) to a compilation of advice for agile coaches. The project was spearheaded by Michael de le Maza & Brock Argue. It contains contributions by over fifteen experience agile coaches on a wide variety of topics. I’d recommend getting it just to serve as a “situational coaching” resource in your library.
But full disclosure, I’m one of the contributing coaches ;-)
Jason Little – Lean Change Management
This classically doesn’t appear to be a coaching book. And it isn’t.
But I think it’s a great book that focuses tools that are helpful for coaches as change agents. And we’re ALL change agents. If you’re looking for collaborative and facilitative tools and techniques to help organizations and teams change, then this is a great reference.
Wrapping Up
This area of agile coaching is incredibly broad and deep. So, it was hard for me to narrow it down to just a few references. However, I think these will provide a solid foundation as you learn and grow as a coach.
In the next installment of this series, we’ll be exploring books focused on Retrospectives. Hope to see you then.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.