We are all about helping the squad to get stuff live faster and more predictably, not by cracking the whip but by removing obstacles that get in the way.
Expectations / Description
This excerpt from Marty Cagan's book Inspired speaks to the success of this role better than we could:
"Delivery managers are a special type of project manager whose mission is all about removing obstacles—also known as impediments—for the team. Sometimes, these obstacles involve other product teams, and sometimes they involve non‐product functions. In a single day, they might track down someone in marketing and press them for a decision or an approval, coordinate with the delivery manager on another team about prioritizing a key dependency, persuade a product designer to create some visual assets for one of the front‐end developers, and deal with a dozen other similar roadblocks.”
Key Result(s) / Outcomes
- Blocker/impediment management/removal
- Creates an environment where raising blockers/impediments is safe
- For each of the active work-in-progress stages of the story workflow, we (the squad) get a B or higher as our score
- If we are NOT meeting a B, we have a plan identified or are working on a plan to get to a B in a particular story stage
- Checkpoint and Quarterly delivery goals are hit > 90% of the time
- If applicable for your squad, Daily and/or Weekly goals are also hit > 90% of the time
- Communicated effectively with the Epic Shaper and Squad Progress Communicator
- Squads are able to answer forecastability questions, such as:
- What is our squad’s current capacity?
- What capacity do we gain if we add folks?
- What capacity do we lose if we remove folks?
- What is the current risk of ongoing projects?
- How confident are we in the above answers?
Requirements
- Agile Coach's must have a position with the reach of 2.1 or higher
- Agile Coach's must be milestone 2+,Prioritization
- Agile Coach's must be milestone 2+,Decomposition & Sequencing
Configuration Health
- ✅ Has 2 Abilities
- ✅ Is a part of 14 Positions
- ✅ Has been referenced in 7 pieces of public recognition
- ℹ️ Fewer than five people (1) have reacted to this Assignment. To ensure anonymity, analysis will only appear after at least five people have reacted.
- ℹ️ Fewer than five people (1) have an official rating on this Assignment. To ensure anonymity, analysis will only appear after at least five people have ratings.
- ⛔️ Last updated: over 4 years ago
- ℹ️ Never conversed about
Examples / Observations
Observation created over 5 years agohttps://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8UPX4UPM/p1581707334029900
I don’t think I need to add more to this.
This post was so clear, and inspired a tremendous amount of confidence that we are truly believing in the feedback-loop philosophy.
Well done y’all, well done!
Observation created almost 6 years agohttps://lessonly.slack.com/archives/G8Q5B0EVA/p1580215718016900
In my opinion, this is a big part of what delivery management is about.
- Who can help? Architects
- Why is it important (with some color in there for good measure)
- Who will benefit (specific, and playing at folks' emotions)
Loved this!
Observation created about 6 years agoFeaturing:Steve G.We challenge ourselvesWe inspire others to do better workWe recognize the opportunity in challengesAgile Coachhttps://lessonly.slack.com/archives/C8UPX4UPM/p1571263756008600
This note starts with a dose of awesomeness with a call out to the momentum. Therefore bringing brightness to the room, while about to have a semi-difficult conversation.
I really appreciated the fact that the following message made me feel unworried, because I believe there are clear indications the squad has their eye on the ball with statements like; "slowed down by two back-end blocker stories... merge conflicts". Talk about delivery operational awareness!
Reflection without a gameplan for change is often pointless. So I was thrilled to read things like; "if we can get those into review tomorrow morning and be proactive about seeking reviewers". This shows a plan and how the plan differs from what we might have been doing.
Then with statements like this; "I think we can have all of Epic 1 done by end-of-week and start testing with customers on Monday. @adam, I'm sure you're eager for this, so I'll keep you posted on our progress tomorrow."
... it exudes a quote I love, which isKeep the most important thing, the most important thing.
In this case, the most important thing is getting working software in the hands of our customers so that we can keep the learning going strong! This reminds me of a Jeff Gothelf quote
Keep measuring and learning even after you ship.
... it’s all discovery and we learn from everything we make; be it a paper prototype, or the next feature in your production software. I agree with him.🙌🏾
This is a great example of us calling out when we are behind, when we are ahead, and when we are on pace, and what is the most important thing for us. Delivery management = operational awareness = self and squad accountability = excellence.
I think overall the squad was a little behind their goals at the time of writing this. I'd love to see us lean into that difficult conversation a bit and express the psychological safety and clarity that comes with simply stating it plainly. The goal isn't perfection, the goal is alignment, togetherness, and communicating reality so that we as a tribe can react, learn, and grow from the highs and lows of our journey.
It ended in such an inspirational way that I'll end this with that same sentiment:
Let's keep up the momentum, and keep helping each other out tomorrow! :fire:
Observation created over 6 years agoI had a few high priority stories that were in need of remediation. Haley kindly picked up one of them for me and in the course of doing so discovered that there was some weirdness with the story. It's been more of a headache then the original remediation seemed to suggest and I am really grateful for her picking it up and sticking with the story.
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