Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF)

About This Course

Leading teams to higher levels of maturity requires the ability to plan and conduct effective team meetings to ensure the team is working collaboratively. In an Agile environment, the team depends on the facilitation skills of the Agile Team Facilitator to lead the team to higher levels of performance.

The Agile Team Facilitator (ATF) role is broader than conducting meetings. The ATF must also guide the team through the paradigm shifts required in Agile team environments and lead them towards collaboration and self-organization. To do so requires a mindset shift for the team leader – the facilitator mindset.

The course gives you the much-needed skills to design and conduct collaborative meetings while leading teams toward higher maturity levels, more effective results, and self-organization. As a stepping-stone towards becoming an Agile Coach, this course focuses not only on skills and techniques but also on the mindset for the facilitator and the facilitator’s path towards becoming an Agile Coach. It includes group facilitation tools and techniques for effectively designing meetings and workshops that both engage the entire audience and drives toward agreed-upon outcomes. 

Course Objectives

• The Agile Team Facilitator role
• Facilitation concepts and techniques
• Facilitator Mindset
• Responsibilities and Skills of the ATF
• Importance of Self-Awareness and Self-Management
• Setting team boundaries and knowing when to intervene
• Working with Teams: Diagnostics and dysfunctions
• Coaching Contract and Coaching Alliance
• Facilitating Meetings for collaboration and team decision making
• Techniques for facilitating Agile practices (Retrospectives, Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, etc.)

Course Audience

Anyone who strives to lead teams towards greater efficiency and achieve tangible results will benefit from the essential leadership skills of team facilitation. This includes:

• Anyone wanting to improve their team facilitation skills
• Anyone on their path to becoming an Agile Coach
• Team Facilitators
• Scrum Masters
• Agile Project and Program Managers
• Agile Coaches wanting to improve their skills
• Business Analysts
• Value Managers
• Team Leaders
• Product Owners
• Iteration Managers
• Anyone wanting certification in ICAgile Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF)
• Anyone wanting to become an ICAgile Certified Expert in Agile Coaching

Course Outline

• Section 1: Welcome and Introductions
• Summary: Opening and general logistics for the class.
• A facilitator is someone who helps a group identify common objectives and then offers group processes to achieve defined outcomes while maintaining neutrality. A skilled facilitator consciously embodies self-awareness, self-management, and bias management, while conveying openness and enthusiasm. An Agile Team Facilitator (ATF) is about more than meetings. An ATF facilitates participation, collaboration, and engagement from the team.
• Topics covered:
• Opening
• Housekeeping
• Course Objectives and Agenda
• ICAgile Certification Overview
• Introductions

• Section 2: Begin with the End
  • Summary: To set the stage we begin with the end in mind. We look at the Agile Team Facilitator and gain an understanding of the paradigm shifts that occur with Agile methodologies and the importance of the Agile Team Facilitator role in this collaborative environment.
  • Topics covered:
    • What is an Agile Team Facilitator?
    • Why Agile Works
    • The Agile Paradigm Adjustment
    • What is Facilitation?
    • The Agile Team Facilitator

• Section 3:  Agile Team Facilitator Roles
  • Summary: Becoming an Agile Team Facilitator requires a certain mindset to lead and serve the team. Learn the mindset required for the Agile Team Facilitator and understand the development path and transition from Team Facilitator to Coach.
  • Topics covered:
    • Agile Team Facilitator Mindset
    • Development Path for Agile Coaching
    • The Agile Coaching Mindset
    • Responsibilities and Skills of the Coach
    • Setting Boundaries for Coaching

• Section 4: The Agile Mindset
  • Summary:
    • Learn the four main skillsets required of the Agile Coach: Facilitating, Mentoring, Teaching, and Coaching. Understand how the Agile Team Facilitator is a role model for the team for exemplifying the Agile principles. Review the strategies required to be a servant leader.
  • Topics Covered:
    • Defining Agile Coaching
    • Coach as a Role Model
    • Servant Leadership
    • Key Mindset Shifts

• Section 5:  Responsibilities and Skills of the Facilitator
  • Summary: Understand the roles of the Agile Team Facilitator and how it fits in other roles in the Agile team. Review the key responsibilities for each role. Review models for achieving self-awareness.
  • Topics covered:
    • Roles and Responsibilities
    • Skills of the Coach
    • Achieving Self-Awareness/Self Management in the Coach
  •  
• Section 6: Setting Boundaries for Coaching
  • Summary:
    • As a stepping-stone to Agile Coaching, the Agile Team Facilitator must understand how to identify and set boundaries. Understand the difference between an Internal and External Coach, establishing a Coaching Contract, and creating a Coaching Alliance with the team.
  • Topics Covered:
    • Internal vs. External Coaches
    • Defining the Coaching “Contract”
    • Designing a Coaching Alliance

• Section 7:  Coach as a Facilitator
  • Summary: As one of the essential and foundational skills for the Agile Coach, facilitation is about helping teams identify and achieve common objectives. Understand meeting design, meeting organization tools, and facilitating team events.
  • Topics Covered:
    • Facilitation & the Facilitator Stance
    • Facilitating Meetings
    • Facilitating Collaboration
    • Facilitating a Meeting
    • Designing Meetings for Collaboration
    • Using the Meeting Organizing Tools
    • Facilitating Full Participation
    • Facilitating Collaborative Conversations
    • Facilitating Team Decision-Making

• Section 8:  Skillfully Facilitating Agile Practices
  • Summary: Understand team patterns. Know when a team may need more intervention and when they may need less. Review ways to run collaborative meetings.
  • Topics covered:
    • Setting the Facilitation Context
    • Facilitating Collaborative Meetings
    • Designing Meetings for Team Interaction
    • Facilitating an Agile Practice

• Section 9:  Facilitating Chartering Activities
  • Summary: Review techniques to facilitate chartering and visioning sessions. Understand why a vision is so important and look at different ways to facilitate the development of a vision. Review the Team Charter and understand how important it is for team activities.
  • Topics covered:
    • Chartering Sessions
    • Vision Sessions
    • Team Chartering

• Section 10:  Facilitating Collaborative Meetings
  • Summary: Facilitating typical Agile meetings is a requirement for the Agile Team Facilitator. Understand ways to facilitate these events and keep them engaging. Look at useful tracking metrics.
  • Topics covered:
    • Facilitating Release Planning
    • Facilitating Iteration Planning
    • Facilitating Retrospectives
    • Facilitating Stand-Ups
    • Designing Meetings for Team Interaction
    • Practice designing and facilitating meetings

• Section 11:  Summary
• Summary: Summarize key takeaways from the course and pull it all together.
• Topics Covered:
• Review Key Takeaways
• Review Facilitation Tools
• Review ICAgile Learning Objectives and Video
• References