Coaching & Mentoring

Coaching is a common approach for helping teams and organizations adopt Scrum or other agile development methods. Gemba Systems provides coaching for teams with specialized one-on-one guidance for each individual member of the team (i.e. developers, testers, analysts, project managers, etc). We also provide coaching for those just beyond the "development team", such as Product Owners/Managers, line management, project sponsors/executives, functional groups (e.g. QA, Release Management, PMO, etc) and other stakeholders.

For the members of the development team we provide tactical guidance on correct application of specific skills and best practices. For stakeholders we make projects transparent and help them gain true visibility into the progress and issues of their project.

How We Approach Coaching

An agile software development coach walks a fine line. They must provide guidance and expertise to their teams but avoid allowing their team to grow dependent on them. Transformational coaching comes down to three measures of success:

  1. Have you improved results, or just introduced a new [changed] way of doing things?
  2. Is the team able to maintain the improvements after the coach has left, or are they dependent on the coach?
  3. Will the best practices stick after the attention goes away, or will resistance eventually overcome and reverse the changes?

Gemba sees coaching as a valuable tool in an effective transformation program. Change that is effective and lasts requires a well thought out system of skill development, knowledge/idea proliferation, cultural support, anchors that pull the right behavior, and other reinforcements. Gemba coaches are experts in the best practices that we promote, but we are more than that. We are also skilled in creating effective learning experiences and helping others become self-sufficient. We go to great lengths to ensure that your organization is capable of performing at peak levels on their own without becoming dependent on continued presence of our coaching staff.

Coaching is an critical component of our Managed Adoption program - the systematic approach to agile adoption. For those looking to augment their own transformation programs with our expert coaching, contact us here to find out why Gemba coaching works.