Frequently asked questions about Agile ways of working
If you’re new to the world of Agile, welcome!
You’re in the right place.
This collection of articles by the experts at Adventures with Agile will help you understand what is meant by various terms, models, ideas and most importantly the Agile mindset. They’ve been written to answer some of the questions that our trainers get asked regularly about Agile ways of working.
Start here and if you’re keen to discover more, get in touch to start your learning journey with us.
What exactly is Agile?
Do you think of Agile as a set of different methodologies for getting software built?
If so, you are only very partially correct.
Agile is a whole lot more than that.
Take a look at the Agile Onion model in more detail to discover more…
What is the Agile Mindset?
Mindset is the most powerful of the layers that make up agile. It is where ‘being agile’ comes from, rather than ‘doing agile’, but what does this really mean?
Our CEO & Founder, Simon Powers believes that the agile mindset is defined by just three beliefs…
What is Agile Strategy?
An agile strategy provides a bespoke blueprint for your program to gain a competitive edge and achieve business outcomes.
Implementing agility through strategy often comes with an organisational structure and process change…
What is Agile Architecture?
An Agile architect needs to be available to their teams as much as possible. Their objective should be to communicate and collaborate on their vision for the solution.
The overall vision should be lightweight and flexible. This may evolve through a collective of architects or a community of interested individuals from across the teams…
What is Systems Thinking?
Systems Thinking is an approach to understanding how something works and behaves, by focusing on its purpose, rather than focusing on the parts it is made up of.
We recognize elements as parts of a system, like gears and dials in a clock. And we can call how the elements are connected, organised and impact each other as their relationships. Implied in this definition we also have the systems boundary, in that it is a set of elements…
What is Systems Coaching?
Systems Coaching is used to get out of stuck patterns, understand and remove extreme behaviours, and make better decisions when the number of variables is too high to comprehend the whole picture, and when there are large numbers of people involved and the relationships between them are complex.
Systems Coaching provides us with tools and techniques to solve complex problems with large numbers of people.
The Difference Between Agile Mindset, Values, and Principles
In this article, our CEO and Founder, Simon Powers, defines these three aspects of agile:
These separations of meaning are what he teaches and importantly, what seems to work in practice…
Why Getting Work Out Faster Requires Upskilling of Middle Management
What seems to be the hardest shift for management is the acceptance that many elements of business and customer behaviour are unpredictable.
Traditional management assumes that business is predictable and many of the processes we take for granted are built on this belief…
What is a Coaching Culture?
Cultivating a coaching culture in the workplace enables businesses to grow and develop their people, as well as make agile work more effectively.
A coaching culture puts coaching at the heart of personal and business development.
Coaching helps people discover and harness their potential and equips them with tools and strategies to make agility work.
What is Enterprise Agility?
Enterprise Agility is the result of taking a holistic ‘whole organisation’ approach to change, in order to get better business results in a complex and rapidly changing market.
This people-first approach facilitates structural and cultural change and not just a framework or process change.
Can Agile improve productivity?
The agile methodology focuses on speed, flexibility and increased customer value.
For many organisations, agile is the most effective way to create a well-connected team, capable of delivering products and services to customers and clients on time and within budget.
What are the scaling agile frameworks and how are they different?
There are a number of scaling agile frameworks that look to solve the problems associated with agility at scale. The three main frameworks are Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Disciplined Agile (DA)…
What is an Agile Coach?
The word ‘coach’, like the old stage coaches, can be taken to mean a vehicle by which people are transported from one place to another.
The agile journey, of course, is not geographical, it is mental. It is a mind-set shift that allows the organisation’s survival in a complex and adaptive marketplace, to make people’s working lives better and for them to reach their true potential…
What is the role of an Enterprise Agile Coach?
To answer this question the team pulled from their extensive knowledge, experience, and the wider community.
We agreed on five areas that are essential for effective Enterprise Coaching. We specifically focused on what it would take to enable organisations to reach the right level of agility for their context and successfully achieve their goals…
What is the Difference Between an Agile Team Coach and an Enterprise Coach?
This is one of the most commonly asked questions by our clients.
The simple answer is scope, but there is much more to it…
Why an internal coaching capability is essential if your business is to succeed
Organisational agility needs skilled agile coaches to establish cross-functional teams, agile leadership, and to transform organisational structures and culture.
By developing an internal coaching capability, you can transform your managers into internal coaches who can help individuals and teams navigate change.
What is Neuroscience?
As Agile coaches we are agents of change, we help people in their journey of learning, growing and changing their behaviours. This journey often involves stress.
Gaining an understanding of what is happening neurologically for the people we work with helps us take our skills to a whole new level.
This is an introduction to neuroscience.
What is Clean Language?
If you’re interested in understanding people, how they think and how they change, you’ll want to know about Clean Language. It’s an impressively versatile tool, which can help explore unknown ‘knowns’ or give and get effective, useable feedback.
But it’s not a language! It’s not even, really, about language. It’s not about speaking clearly, or not using jargon, or not swearing…
A Brief Explanation of the Integral Quadrant Model
Often when a conflict occurs between two rational people, it is because they are arguing from different viewpoints on the model. Helping people to see the same situation from all 4 viewpoints often brings about a better understanding and provides a solution, meeting the needs of everyone involved.
The model has 4 viewpoints: I, WE, IT, and ITS…
What are Deliberately Developmental Organisations?
Imagine that you could choose how you would like to develop at work, and that all your colleagues were devoted to your chosen development. Not only development of your skills, but to your development as a whole person. Imagine that this workplace also was one of the most successful in its area, and that the success was sustainable…
What is Visual Thinking and how can you use it as an Agile Coach?
Visual Thinking comprises 3 different elements:
Let’s explore these, one by one…
How to help yourself learn more effectively
In this article, we explore seven ways in which you can help yourself to learn more effectively, whether you are learning a skill, concept, technique, activity or language.
Backlog refinement versus Sprint planning
In this article, Simon Powers explores backlog refinement versus Sprint planning and considers the trade-off of when to prioritise, clarify and size.
