Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF)

Part 1: Welcome, Introductions, and Course Logistics

A Team Facilitator is someone who helps a group identify common objectives and then offers group processes to achieve defined outcomes. 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 just meetings. An ATF facilitates participation, collaboration, engagement, and team growth.

1. Introductions and Housekeeping
2. Course Objectives and Agenda
3. ICAgile Certification Overview

Part 2: Development Path for Agile Coaching

The Agile Team Facilitator is on the development path to becoming an Agile Coach. To be effective, the Agile Coaching path requires that we take our development one step at a time, obtaining competence at each step along the way. We will review the development path and transition from Agile Team Facilitator to Agile Coach.

1. Development Path for Agile Team Facilitators
2. Competencies of an Agile Coach
3. Your Extended Team
4. Knowing When to Call on Help

Part 3: The Agile Team Facilitator Mindset

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 gain an understanding of the paradigm shift that must occur to be successful in this collaborative environment. Understand how the Agile Team Facilitator is a role model for the team by exemplifying the Agile principles. Review the strategies required to be a servant leader and models for achieving self-awareness.

1. What is an Agile Team Facilitator
2. Team Facilitator Guiding Principles
3. Agile Team Facilitator Mindset
4. Self-Awareness/Self-Management
5. Servant Leadership

Part 4: Foundational Facilitation Skills

One of the essential skills for the Agile Team Facilitator is helping teams identify and achieve common objectives. The ATF facilitates the team events to ensure they are productive and move the team forward. This starts with understanding the purpose and expected outcomes of the various team events. A flow must be created to achieve those goals and ensure participation.

1. Arc of Facilitation
2. Understanding Purpose
3. Gather Planning and Design Information
4. Designing Meeting Flow for Collaboration

Part 5: Conducting a Facilitated Session

When facilitating a session, the facilitator is the holder of the process and the team holds the content. The facilitator must maintain neutrality to not unduly influence team decisions. They must make sure that the event is organized to encourage collaboration. This includes the physical setup, meeting organization tools, and driving collaborative conversations.

1. Maintaining Neutrality
2. Using Meeting Organization Tools and Interactive Facilitation Techniques
3. Facilitating Collaborative Conversations and Team Decision-Making
4. Managing Dysfunctional Behaviors
5. Reading the Room and Capturing Information

Part 6: Facilitating Collaborative Meetings

Facilitating typical Agile framework meetings is a requirement for the Agile Team Facilitator. We must plan these events and keep them engaging. To do so, the ATF must understand the purpose and underlying principles and values of the ceremonies. In this section, we will go through the ceremonies for an agile framework and design meetings to facilitate achievement of the desired outcomes. We will specifically design common sessions such as Retrospectives and Daily Stand-Ups. We will also look at the design of other key ceremonies.

1. Agile Framework Meetings
2. Facilitating Retrospectives and Daily Stand-Ups
3. Facilitating Other Agile Meetings

Part 7: Skillfully Facilitating Agile Practices

Teams will move in and out of patterns of behavior. The ATF needs to recognize team patterns and know when a team may need more, or less, intervention. We will look at how our styles need to change based on the team current state of knowledge and self-sufficiency.

1. Team Levels of Maturity
2. Changing Style Based on Team Phase
3. Levels of Team Intervention

Part 8: Active Facilitation

This section is devoted to putting our training into action! The ability to neutrally facilitate a session must be practiced. Attendees will have an opportunity to design and facilitate a team session based on scenarios from agile framework meetings.

1. Design an Agile Meeting
2. Facilitate an Agile Practice
3. Give and Receive Feedback

Part 9: Summary

Summarize key takeaways from the course and pull it all together.

1. Review Facilitation Tools
2. Review ICAgile Learning Objectives and Video
3. Survey Information

This is an intermediate/advanced level workshop. Participants should have completed basic Agile training – such as an ICAgile accredited Agile Fundamentals course, a Certified Scrum Master course, or an equivalent or have completed 6 to 12 months of working with Agile teams. If you are unsure if you meet this prerequisite, you should give us a call and ask.

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

Professionals who may benefit include:

• 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

• Build your facilitation toolkit with practices and techniques to facilitate team activities
• Design frameworks for effective meetings
• Facilitate meetings for collaboration and team decision making
• Utilize facilitation concepts and techniques
• Active design and facilitation opportunities
• Perform team diagnostics and identify team dysfunctions
• Become a more effective facilitator through self-awareness and self-management

Although there is not an ICAgile official exam, ICAgile allows for their course accreditors to determine appropriate means for retention of the learning outcomes. Depending on your provider, there may be some type of assessment in order to earn certification.

Many providers assess via participation, activity and understanding conveyed via exercises and discussion, withholding certification when appropriate.