In our earlier discussion, we identified what value an Agile Coach provides in seven key spheres of action – delivering business value, facilitating collaboration, establishing trust, sharing the product vision, personal growth, developing an Agile culture and supporting technical excellence.  These are the crucial areas a powerful Agile Coach will spend their time and energy.  This list of sixty-five tasks are what they do to make those changes a reality.

  1. Challenge the Scrum Team to remain focused on the current goal.
  2. Improve the quality of information about the business value delivered.
  3. Reduce the overhead of production and other non-value added activities.
  4. Ensure the Product Owner provides simple product descriptions.
  5. Ensure the Product Owner and Team offers simple explanation of features.
  6. Challenge Team to collect business value information.
  7. Inform Stakeholders about new ways of determining business value.
  8. Help the Product Owner, Team and Stakeholders make informed return-on-investment decisions.
  9. Ensure the Product Backlog is organized and owned by the Product Owner.
  10. Encourage the acceptance of change by the Team, Product Owner, Stakeholders and the business.
  11. Challenge the Scrum Team to collaborate and shorten communication pathways.
  12. Encourage discussion of actions for completing a Product Backlog item during Sprint Planning.
  13. Ensure the Team collectively commits to the agreed upon Sprint Goal.
  14. Encourage the timely removal of impediments.
  15. Ensure releases are planned collaboratively with the Stakeholders, Team and Product Owner.
  16. Ensure the Team estimates or sizes Product Backlog items collectively.
  17. Ensure the Scrum Team agrees on the Definition of Done.
  18. Challenge the Scrum Team to be honest, respectful, and transparent with each other and everyone outside the Team.
  19. Participate in Daily Scrum meetings with the Team.
  20. Engage with the Team in Sprint Planning meetings.
  21. Demonstrate the value of Agile methods through clear communication.
  22. Challenge the Scrum Team to provide visible data of historical progress.
  23. Obtain feedback on work performed.
  24. Review the working of the Sprint and related processes to the delivery of the product.
  25. Communicate cost and time estimates to the Team (?).
  26. Champion the use of continuous warning indicators for system health. (?)
  27. Encourage the Team to implement the most rigorous Definition of Done.
  28. Promote Team maturity and trust.
  29. Encourage the Team to share knowledge and skills freely with one another and people outside the Team.
  30. Challenge the Team to understand how their product fits the marketplace.
  31. Encourage the Team to work with the Product Owner to identify valuable Sprint Goals during Sprint Planning.
  32. Encourage the Product Owner to articulate and review the product Vision on a frequent basis.
  33. Review Stakeholder feedback with the Team after each Sprint Review and other demonstrations.
  34. Challenge the contents, priorities and acceptance criteria of the Product Backlog respectfully.
  35. Challenge the Team to deliver a shippable product increments at the end of each Sprint.
  36. Ensure that progress is tracked openly and honestly by the Team.
  37. Encourage ad hoc discussions between the Team, Product Owner and Stakeholders.
  38. Ensure the Product Owner is engaged with the Team in defining acceptance criteria.
  39. Use the Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and other ad hoc reviews to maintain focus on intermediate goals.
  40. Encourage Team members to engage in continuous learning.
  41. Contribute to Retrospectives in an open, honest, and non-personal manner.
  42. Ask other Team members for advice and guidance on their performance.
  43. Engage in continuous learning.
  44. Expose the Scrum Team to new techniques or skills necessary to support greater collaboration, improved technical excellence, increased quality or personal development.
  45. Collaborate with the Team to identify the appropriate metrics for performance reviews.
  46. Ensure the outcomes of the Retrospective are actionable by the Scrum Team.
  47. Encourage the Scrum Team to participate in the wider Agile community.
  48. Arrange physical space to be conducive to the Scrum Team’s collaboration.
  49. Diagnose Team conflict through observation and analysis.
  50. Inspire cohesion and inclusion among Scrum Team members.
  51. Encourage a safe environment where Scrum Team members share experiences and offer assistance.
  52. Encourage cross functionality and autonomy.
  53. Foster willingness among Scrum Team members to take risk and benefit from failure.
  54. Use inclusive facilitation techniques during Scrum Team ceremonies.
  55. Promote the understanding of Agile values and processes across the organization.
  56. Promote the use of modern technical practices.
  57. Promote quality in everything the Scrum Team delivers.
  58. Promote the production of the minimum product that meets the needs of the users, customers and business.
  59. Promote engagement with technical communities.
  60. Encourage the Team to develop a product with the simplest possible design.
  61. Promote reviews after each new feature is added.
  62. Encourage the Team to use very short incremental build cycles.
  63. Promote early and continuous integration of all product components.
  64. Promote engineering practices that implement continuous quality control.
  65. Encourage engineering practices that promote sharing of knowledge and skills.