Hey @Hubbs3of6 that's quite a situation, but you are not alone. Not only people think tools themselves do the job (which they don't), but Jira in itself started as a mere ticketing system. So, without magic wand solutions, I think some good clues are hiding in what you mentioned: I would ask them what they really want Jira to give them? How and why they started with that particular tool? What was their original ambition? Like so, you can understand where they are, leave the "agile talk" aside, and gain a more solid footing on their expectations. Once you have that, I think a good next question for them is "in that context, what does 'more effectively' means?". Maybe they want to be able to get their timesheets straight from it. Maybe use graphs and reports. Maybe have better prioritization. That will open the doors for you to introduce individual practices of Lean and Agile without dogmatism and straight into solving for their needs. I hope this makes sense. Thoughts?

@@AllThingsAgile Thank you. This is helpful. Wish me luck.

@@Hubbs3of6 I'd love to hear from you in a little bit, once you try some of your ideas!

You're welcome! Planning in agile definitely means acknowledging and striking a balance between what we already know and can commit to, and what we must yet discover. PlanNING gets better over time, while plans always evolve

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks Ayana. And you are NOT alone. Obviously the experiences I share here come from extensive hands-on in the tech field and we are a unique bunch. But the research I mentioned in the video is across industries. And different countries too! Good meaningful work continues to be the best way to make employees happy, productive and _ why not?_bond as a team!

Happy to hear that! We're planning retrospective, agile planning, starting teams and others, including running through scenarios from our community so you get the concepts in practice. So, stay tuned for more!

Hi @theagilelifestile, a definition of methodoloy is "a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity". So indeed you can say Kanban is a methodology. It's common some people call the whole "doing Kanban", practicing it as the "kanban method" and the board and your policies and the work all put together as "the kanban system". The old school kanban most manufacturing uses and based on the Japanese school is sometimes named as an "inventory system". I wouldn't worry much about how people mention it though. Nomenclature can vary in organizations and use as well. I hope this helps!

Thank you so much. It's great to know it was helpful and inspiring.. Welcome to the channel and be sure to ask for specific content!

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you so much! To you too.

I feel you! Companies quickly invest in tools without paying attention to how people are actually interacting. Have you started asking your teams what they think works best / not at all?

​​@@AllThingsAgileyes, i had initial session with the agile advocates for that team. Basically, these are individuals trained in scrum or had exposed to agile learning sessions. Past coaches who left the company, had these initiatives which is good, somehow non organic though i cannot say it doesnt work because it did work - delivering results. So i want to take advantage of it, we met and got initital feedback so i started to give them mentoring redirecting them to learn to interact with stakeholders, customers and sponsors through power stakeholders and what matters to them since these been a recurring concerns for years. I also provided some approach, type of questions, walk them through how to do it, and focus in outcome instead of being concerns to individuals. So that activity to your point is now in progress. :)

You're welcome!

Thanks Olivier. That's an extract from a very well attended masterclass with the Atlanta Agile Community

That is so interesting @lifeiscool2957! I'm glad it resonates and excited about your experience outside of average IT spaces. Indeed, agile is not the frameworks we see around. If the frameworks help, DO use them. But frameworks are there only to speed up the "experience" on how it can be more collaborative to work in agile. It's not supposed to be an overhead or mandatory. Glad to know you are doing it right! Agile is supposed to create more collaborative spaces, everybody using their critical thinking and contributing for a better ROI of their time in everything they do. You can expect for the 2024 lineup on this channel a lot of Simple Agile, my model on how anyone in any industry without fancy techniques can use specific patterns to have better interactions and make work more productive. To become more agile, if you will. For now, I do have the playlist of the 12 agile principles, maybe some of that can resonate with you and your teams? The last 2 lives were more to support you as a coach: How you could use a simple coaching model to engage in better problem solving with your teams (The GROW model) and How to hold useful and short retrospectives for continuous improvement. I hope some of that can be of support for you right now. What are some other topics you are looking forward to know more about?

My pleasure @akulah6332! Glad it was helpful. Is there anything you'd like me to zoom in in another video? Something that particularly resonated with you?

@@AllThingsAgile I would be more interested to find out how to be an effective coach when you are working remotely. But I guess you already have a blog on that? I have to read it. Thanks again for sharing your valuable knowledge.

@@Akula.H I can definitely zoom in on that!

You are so welcome! So glad it gave you insights. You know, some of the most powerful tools are simple. A tool like 2x2 can go in your planning, in your retro, in your refinements, in talking to customers, etc. Success in using it!!

Great question! First thing is to remember there is a sponsor, a senior leader who holds the vision for agility. The coach partners with them. Under that vision, PMs and other coaches get together to understand what that means for them in their day to day. It's okay yo use varied frameworks. What we are protecting is the objectives and value flowing unimpeded through the system. So we coach and teach people in a way that always values the outcomes and not so much cares for the specific framework. Frameworks can be changed. New techniques can be used. What we want is a certain product out in the market, a certain revenue threshold or some specific customer satisfaction increase. We'll probably make a video to give a deeper explanation.

Thanks coach

I love that book and it's published by O'Reilly and it's called Product Roadmaps Relaunched

Sure! Check the link in the description of the video. Download ot from the blog post and... voila!

Thanks! I'm getting addicted to Lives. They are so much fun.

So happy it is useful to you! Listen, retrospectives ARE difficult. It's about improvement. It always requires some level of trust, discipline, and ability to get uncomfortable. It is usually a learning curve for coach and team as well. At first it feels more like an "event" that we prepare to. But eventually it becomes that exciting and focused conversation about our next best step. Best of luck in your upcoming retros and congratulations for learning so much and celebrating your first year as a coach!

Indeed you are right. Probably that first conversation with this company would be "tell me more about what you mean by shifting from waterfall to agile?" What's great about not assuming anything about that transition is you: 1 - help people see that usually there are easier wins accessible 2 - gain an opportunity to support that start of shifting their mindset (oh, that word) As for the ideal description of an agile coach job post, in my mind it would involve: 1 - Helping people to understand and manage their workflow, including improving it. There IS right and wrong in terms of agility. Not multitasking, working value-first, etc. 2 - Use influence and persuasion at some level to help people embark in the change, whatever the change is. 3 - Help people make sense of what are the steps required to move towards a more agile approach: customer-centric, value first, great technical development, fast feedback lops, etc. It involves a lot of technical knowledge such as knowing how to map workflows and value streams, how to spot issues in those, how to organize roadmaps, to more "soft" skills like coaching and facilitation, i.e, talking to people respecting their knowledge and agency and being able to rally them around collectively owned objectives. It's important to notice it's an ever evolving job. Your first team might be 6 people scrum-curious, while 5 years later you are then trying to help an organization with multiple locations of development improve their time-to-market and ROI. I hope this makes sense.

@@AllThingsAgile Thanks Coach