Lyssa Adkins, “Coaching Agile Teams“ (★★★★★)
I found this book by chance. I searched for new ways to communicate my agile ideas, and “coaching” sounds like it. And it was.
Agile is very easy to understand but hard to get, which is misleading. What is easy is the frameworks. They are very well designed and easy to grasp. You can start a team with SCRUM in a couple of Sprints if you teach them the ceremonies and their goals and how to manage springboard and backlog. But that is just the early beginning. Getting rid of all the bad habits and working as an efficient Agile team is another story entirely. It is even more complicated if your team does not “believe” in agile. Either way, they are already convinced that it will work, or they will only be when they see it. But, if they are unwilling to give it a try for real, prepare for a bumpy road.
The book is excellent if you are interested in understanding more about the Agile concepts and go deeper in how to go across explaining the concepts to your colleagues. I love when the author clarifies the differences between “Cooperation” and “Collaboration”. Most people can not differentiate both words, which is key to understanding how a teams work.
Since I’m so passionate about this subject, I wondered if I should switch careers and start coaching other teams after taking the needed courses. It is not the first time I put this question on the table. But, even though I love it, I love even more crafting software. So I’ll stay growing the way I’m doing now. But if my team wants to go beyond in their Agile path, I’m now more ready to help with that.
One last thing. Even though the book explains many exciting concepts and is well written, I do not think it is a book for somebody who wants to start with agile. The book will probably confuse you more than help you if you are new to agile. I would say it is an advance level book.
Did I say that I’m a fan of agile? :)