As an Agile Coach, I am your active collaborative advisor supporting you in your Agile transformation. In contrast to a pure consultant, I additionally accompany the operative implementation with active hands-on in all company hierarchies. The use of an external agile coach is particularly recommended if the change process to be mediated conflicts with the career interests of internal employees. An external coach can be replaced in the course of a change process for strategic reasons and does not pursue any career interests throughout the change process; he or she can devote himself or herself entirely to the specified goal in close coordination with the management. As an Agile Coach, I am an experienced Agilist, I understand and respect Agile principles. Agile frameworks, with their tools, ceremonies, and artifacts, provide me with a framework for solution development, which I exploit together with contacts from all company hierarchies, always keeping an open mind for optimization opportunities. However, I do not violate agile principles in the process because of the extensive negative consequences. As an Agile Coach, I am always able to convey to my contacts the meaningfulness of an agile approach and, based on my extensive experience, to give tangible examples of both the monetary and organizational benefits as well as the consequences of non-compliance.

Agile Transformation

Agile transformation describes the transition from a planning organization with a long-term focus to an agile business organization that is constantly changing and thus adapts flexibly to market challenges. The majority of all companies today have long planning and implementation periods. The larger the company, the more cumbersome the necessary adjustment processes. In the past, this was not a problem. With the market entry of agile companies that realize high margins with high adaptability and innovation speed, a planning organization becomes a corporate risk. Disruptive market developments remain a survival risk for a company until solutions are not only found on an agile basis, but also implemented as quickly as possible within the impact period. The fast realizes the high margins and uses them to expand the advantage. The fast one develops and secures its markets with high capital investment. The slow mover is forced out of the market and loses capital.

Management/shareholder Level

For the management and shareholders, I bring in both my good and bad experiences from previous projects and show ways to successfully implement Agile Transformation. I support the development and organization of requirements and the resulting agile business strategy.

Agile transformation starts with the shareholders and then permeates the entire company “from the top down” via the management. Agile transformation is an operational task for senior management, not middle management or even IT. Agile islands are doomed to failure due to interface conflicts between organizational forms. Agile transformation inevitably leads to change in the existing organization. In Agile Transformation, delegation is replaced by active value creation to a large extent. Conversely, this means that middle management has to deliver the greatest amount of change. A successful change process is only possible with professional change management. In the process, the objectives of shareholders and management, which are aligned with customer needs, are taken up and accompanied by HR with solutions at the personnel level. Implementation is carried out by each individual employee, who adapts to the new requirements with a high degree of personal responsibility and develops professionally and personally accordingly. Planning by management and HR and subsequent career development agreements with employees must occur “before” the change process is communicated to the workforce. If the child has already fallen into the well through blind actionism and the workforce boycotts the change process, then correction is difficult or impossible.

Middle Management

I support middle management, which undoubtedly has to deliver the greatest change effort in an agile organization, in integrating into team structures. I

• Assist teams in breaking down requirements, organizing and executing grassroots events, and training all staff involved in my area of responsibility
• assist the employees with problems and constant optimization with advice and support
• assist in setting up projects, defining programs, building control tools, developing basic solutions
• have a lively exchange with the Solution Train Engineer (STE) in particular.

Department Level

At the department level, I provide training for all employees involved in my area of responsibility. Subsequently, I support the employees with advice “and” action in case of problems and in the constant optimization. At the departmental level, I support requirements elicitation in the business units both organizationally and methodically and maintain a lively exchange with the Release Train Engineer (RTE) in particular.

Team Level

At the team level, I provide training for all employees involved in my area of responsibility. Subsequently, I support the employees with advice “and” action in case of problems as well as in the constant optimization and, above all, I am in lively exchange with the Scrum Master. On team level I support all activities in the area of solution development and realization.

Duration

My work as a coach is by definition not permanent. My goal is to develop the skills of my contacts and thus gradually make myself superfluous. In a firmly defined area of responsibility of a customer I am usually not longer than 1 year. During this time, I either achieve the set goal, the employees gradually take over my task and I am subsequently only available when needed, or I wander from one area to the next with customers. Or we don’t reach the goal for whatever reason. In this case, I will urge termination as soon as possible to avoid wasting resources and budgets. Only when obstacles have been removed is a promising new start possible.

Training

Employees can only achieve a goal if they know it. In order to create a common basic understanding in the company about goals and the methodology for achieving them, the necessary knowledge must be imparted. Knowledge transfer must be carried out “before” the operational start, because otherwise the foundation for cooperation is missing.

I have now reached the point where I no longer only provide the training required for this on site and in the form of face-to-face events, but can offer my customers the much more flexible solution in the form of online courses. Only in this way can each employee take advantage of the training individually, flexibly and independent of location during the phases in which operational tasks allow this. Valuable personnel resources are thus better utilized and not forcibly taken away from important tasks. In addition, this form of knowledge transfer is far less expensive, better structured, adaptable to individual company needs, and more easily compatible with regulatory contact restrictions than traditional classroom training. Of course, I also offer face-to-face trainings if required.