Why Agile Coaching can Help you Delivery Better Products

By embedding agile practices and mindsets in your business, you can reap a range of benefits, not just related to product delivery. It can increase your ability to manage changing priorities, boost productivity and project visibility, and improve the alignment between leadership and individual teams. Below, we give you an answer to a common question we get asked about agile coaching and walk you through how such a process works.

Do your projects actually deliver products?

One of our Agile coaching clients recently remarked to me that it is really useful to get some external perspective and a chance to exchange ideas around product delivery organization. And when you look at statistics around project or agile transformation success rates, it makes perfect sense why he felt it was valuable.

According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession Report, at least 12% of investment is lost due to poor management of projects/programmes; Forbes and Scrum Alliance put agile transformation failure rate at 47%; in its latest CHAOS Report (2020), Standish Group notes that in general 50% of all software projects are challenged and 19% fail (for Agile projects alone, the success rate is higher - but Agile needs to be implemented well to serve its purpose.)

Product Delivery Managers vs Agile Coaching

In managing the delivery of a product, our Product Delivery Managers (PDMs) handle the entire process and in case of doubts or problems, can draw on the experience of the entire team. Unlike the traditional approach to project management, we partner with you for the entire duration of the product delivery lifecycle, from Discovery right through to handoff. But 10Clouds PDM involvement may not suit your needs.

You may want to develop or keep the project management and product delivery management competencies internally, especially if you’re in a bigger enterprise or your organisation is scaling up. In such situations, you can be uncertain if everything is running as well as it could; maybe you don’t have the transparency that you need about the project situation; or maybe you want to give your team additional sources of knowledge and tools.

That’s precisely why 10Clouds offers Agile Coach services. The aim is to build up the confidence and skills of your Scrum Masters or Project Managers, as well as other key players like Product Owners, so that you need our support less and less.

How does it work?

We start with an assessment of the project and its environment, after which we recommend some actions, tools and techniques for improvements. We agree KPIs and plan the next steps with you.

On a daily basis, an Agile Coach serves as a sounding board for your Scrum Masters or Project Managers, while providing them with his/her perspective and ideas how some project challenges can be approached. They can also support communication and collaboration with team members, stakeholders and help in setting up some tools for risk management and product delivery health monitoring.

Usually, such engagements last around 2-3 months, depending on the seniority of the client’s team and the project situation.

Packaged solutions

Apart from getting an ongoing Agile Coach support, we have come up with a range of packaged services to suit your needs:

Agile Starter Pack - getting you on track with applying Agile principles and practices, whether for software development or in business/back office departments.

Agile Health Audit - verifying how well a project is run and how to improve it.

Agile Health Toolkit - selecting and supporting the implementation of appropriate management tools.

Agile Scaling Toolkit - initial analysis of the situation, selecting a scaling approach tailored to your business.

Agile Governance - review of existing enterprise framework for running product delivery, recommendations and roadmap for improvements

Agile Training - for teams and stakeholders, to ensure alignment and understanding of agile concepts

Why does Agile Coaching make sense?

Worldwide, the majority of companies who undertake an Agile transformation decide to utilise external expertise on board. As each of our Product Delivery Managers and Agile Coaches has run many projects, and delivered numerous products, drawing on our combined experience is a great opportunity to address any doubts, problems or challenges that you may have encountered.

We also know that introducing Agile is not a silver bullet and is not an end in itself: it’s a means. It’s a way for your organisation to improve your process and create a better environment for your teams to thrive and deliver valuable products.

Want to find out more about 10Clouds Agile Coaching or learn more about our approach to Product Delivery Management?

Get in touch today on hello@10clouds.com and our PDM team will be happy to discuss your needs!