Lyssa Adkins. "Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition". Addison-Wesley, 2010. 352 pages.

Companies and organizations are realizing the benefits of agile teams, namely projects completed on time and on budget, in addition to improved departmental cooperation and employee morale. But some companies and their senior managers have a hard time crossing the chasm to agile methods because they fear the loss of control. Further, project managers and scrum masters could realize more value for their projects if they learned to let go.

Lyssa Adkins, a noted Agile Coach and veteran ScrumMaster, explores these topics in her new book and provides a valuable handbook both for experienced team leaders and rookies. Her book is not the the usual litany of tired truisms and sports references, but instead is a refreshing and considered account of unconventional wisdom.

The crux of the book is that a successful agile team begins with a coach who is self-aware. If you want a good team, begin with yourself as the coach. Adkins provides candid assessment of her recovery from being a command and control manager and the journey to be an agile coach. In essence, a good coach is a mirror. The coach meets the team each day completely present and open to the needs of the team. The coach needs to leave personal baggage outside of the team experience and be absolutely centered for the team experience.

Adkins provides a primer on all of the roles of the coach-mentor, facilitator, teacher, problem solver, conflict navigator, and collaboration conductor-culminating in the metaphor that a highly functional agile team is like a beautiful symphony. She discusses how daily stand ups, planning sessions, and retrospectives can be indispensable teaching moments. Also offered are creative and novel forms of communication to senior management, such as a progress chart outside the board room so that executives have no excuse not to be informed.

The coach should have high expectations of the team, but the coach cannot do the team's work for them. Further, it is important that the coach empowers the team members to solve their own problems. When their is conflict between team members, she advises on how the coach can guide team members to resolution. She insists that negative feedback cannot be anonymous. The person with the grievance needs to reveal himself. In some cases, the coach should let the team fail so the team learns from its mistakes and can begin anew.

With a detailed coaching road map, toolkit, and list of role plays and techniques, the book is an essential resource for the professional who wants to become a more effective agile coach.

Read more on the book's website and find it on Amazon or Bogpriser.dk.