So-called ‘Agile Transformation Training’ is No Longer Required

Also, don’t engage “talking agile coaches”, 99+% of them are fake.

In the past ten years, software teams have participated in agile training sessions, often conducted under various names like Scrum, KanBan, DevOps, and SAFe®, organized by the company. I participated and witnessed a few, none of any real value, not at all.

One classic comment I heard from a test analyst after attending one-day agile training conducted by an external Agile Consultant, “We have an agile coach in our team; why do we need to attend training by another Agile Coach?” Some laughed; some were in silence.

Table of Contents:
· General “Agile Transformation Training” has been unnecessary since 10+ years ago.
· Fake Agile Coaches often bring more damage than just a total waste of time and money.
· How do I get training to achieve real Agile, then?

General “Agile Transformation Training” has been unnecessary since 10+ years ago.

My daughter showed me slides of a “Software Process” course at her Uni, which covers the core agile principles or common practices. I believe most universities do the same. If you surveyed starting interns, even back ten years ago, most of them knew the agile terms, such as ‘User Story’, “Test Automation’, ‘Refactoring’, ‘Daily-Stand-Up meetings’, ‘Showcase”, “Retrospectives”…, etc. What more can a software professional learn from a half-day or one-day Agile Training than a Uni course?

To help you understand, let me share a story of mine. I knew the concept (not the term) of Agile well ahead of others in 2000. I worked at a university, and I often went to the library. One day, I saw “Extreme Programming Explained” (1st edition) on the new shelf and borrowed it.

After reading the book (didn’t know it started the Agile movement, then), I was deeply impressed that I thought that was the correct way to develop software. At that time, Waterfall was the software development methodology. Programmers who don’t follow the waterfall process were labelled “Cowboys”.