The crucial role of an agile coach

The crucial role of an agile coach

A study on how the crucial role of an agile coach looks like and how the professional identity of this role changes over time during an agile transformation

Master Thesis

MSc Business administration: Change Management Faculty of Economics and Business

University of Groningen

Student: Josien Kolleman - S3798720 Supervisor: Dr. C. Reezigt Co-assessor: Dr. J.F.J. Vos

Abstract

Since the growing popularity and the announcement of agile as being the ‘new big thing’, an increased number of organizations started to implement agile coaches. Because agile within organizations is a somewhat new concept that has not been adopted for many years, little research has been done about the role of agile coaches during the agile transformation. The aim of this study is to explore the professional identity of agile coaches and how this professional identity develops over time. The Change Path Model of Deszca & Ingols (2019) has been used as a time frame to discover how the identity of an agile coach changes during an agile transformation. To explore this, both the perspectives of recipients and agile coaches have been studied by conducting semi-structured interviews. The results show that the professional identity of an agile coach changes over time and that time influences the need of support from the agile coaches. However, contextual factors may also highly influence this support and should be recognized. Furthermore this study concludes that the professional identity of an agile coach consists of two sub-identities which includes both the characteristics and practices of an change agents as well as that of an agile expert. In addition, the results show that agile coaches should recognize the complexity of balancing both top-down as bottom-up approaches. This study does not only pay attention to what the professional identity looks like, but also gives an advanced understanding of how an agile coach should act during an agile transformation. This will help organizations in deploying agile coaches and gives agile coaches a better understanding on how to execute their role successfully.

1. Introduction

In this fast-changing world with unpredictable markets, an increase in the number of competitors, and fast changing customer needs’, organizations are looking for new ways to adapt to those changes (Hobbs & Petit, 2017). Quick responses, flexibility and an outside-in focus are important these days (Denning, 2013). In order to survive, organizations are adopting new ways of working that allows organizations to be more flexible. Currently, some organizations choose for a new agile way of working, which is presented as the provider of flexibility within organizations. In addition, it has a high focus on customer satisfaction rates, increases quality management and creates less-time-to market (Bennet, 2019). The concept of agile originates from the software development industry and started to be implemented about a decade ago (Dingsør, Nerur, Balijepally, & Moe, 2012). Back in the days, the agile way of working was criticized by many researchers a lot and organizations were skeptical. However, in the last few years, agile has been adopted as ‘the new big thing’ and became a popular management way of thinking. In contrast to the original Waterfall methodology, agile is now seen as a more responsible and collaborative approach (Birkinshaw, 2018).

Since the growing popularity and the announcement of agile as being the ‘new big thing’, an increased number of organizations started to implement an agile coach that should support agile adoption within organizations. Some authors even mention the role of an agile coach as crucial (Vakola, 2018; Rodríguez, Soria, & Campo, 2016). Because the agile method is a somewhat new concept and has not been adopted for many years, little research has been done about the exact responsibilities, actions and work characteristics of an agile coach. Therefore, the professional identity of an agile coach is not clearly identified and there is lack of research about how this professional identity may develop over time during an agile transition. Based on this, the need for a better understanding about the concept of an agile coach and how this professional identity may change over time has increased. Since studies already revealed an agile coach as crucial, it is important for organizations to understand how to implement an agile coach in the most effective way.

To reach the aim of this research, a research question has been formulated as follows; ‘What does the

crucial role of an agile coach look like, and how does the professional identity of this role change over time during an agile transformation?’ Based on qualitative research, this question will be answered.

This qualitative research will consist of data collection including 16 in-depth interviews held within a large organization which started their transition from using a traditional waterfall method to the integration of the new agile way of working about five years ago.

This paper will help organizations with their integration of agile coaches and give them better understanding of how this role should develop over time during an agile transition. This will contribute to a successful agile transition. In addition, this research will show some challenges that may arise while transforming to an agile organization, and share some lessons learned.

2. Literature review

Within this section, the theoretical background of the most important concepts used within this paper are given. The concepts that will be discussed are; organizational change, agile transformation, the professional identity of an agile coach, recipients' needs, and lastly the agile transformation process.

2.1 Organizational change

Approaches to change are widely explored by researchers, therefore it is important to first clearly identify the concept of organizational change. There are two main stream ideas that dominate perceptions towards organizational change and approaches.

The first one is the planned change approach, originally created by Kurt Lewin (1947), who is seen as the founding father of this concept. The underlying assumption of his idea was that before organizational change can be implemented successfully, it is necessary to understand group dynamics (Kippenberger, 1998). In addition, the approach says that before new ideas can be adopted, the old ideas should be discarded (Bamford & Forrester, 2003). Despite the fact that the idea of planned change can be seen as the first approach towards organizational change and his enormous popularity, a lot of cynicism about the concept has always been there. Advocates against the planned change approach says that the approach would be too simple and totally ignore the idea of unexpected events that may occur (Burnes, 2017). This critical look on the idea of planned change gave rise to the second mainstream idea about organizational change, namely the emergent change approach.

agents whose behavior leads to unforeseen outcomes (Madden, Duchon, Madden, & Plowman, 2012). The relationship and behaviors between people are the most important aspects of the idea that change cannot be planned and will always lead to unpredictable outcomes that ask for an emergent approach (Allison & Merali, 2007; Burnes, 2017).

While the two main stream ideas of organizational change may exclude each other clearly, the concepts are sometimes used interrelated. Livne-Tarandach & Bartunek (2009) argues that in order to accomplish organizational change, both planned and emergent change approaches are needed. This for the reason that not all change can be planned and contextual factors such as; culture, staff changes, narratives and other unforeseen actions might occur. In addition, Livne-Tarandach & Bartunek (2009) stated that planned change may help to deal with emergent initiatives, since it gives direction to the whole change process. Liebhart & Lucia (2010) also mentioned that planned changes often lead to unintended outcomes and relations that lead to non-linear change. Within this case setting, both planned and emergent approaches are relevant. Since the agile transformation is part of a bigger ‘Think Forward’ strategy part of the change is planned. However, because the change is about culture and people, unexpected events happen during the change which ask for an emergent reaction. Therefore, the change can be seen as a non-linear process where both approaches are needed.

2.2 An agile transformation

The, what is now called, Agile Manifesto, was created in 2001 during a memorable meeting with seventeen participants in Utah (Agile alliance, 2001). agile is a method that started to be used in the software development industry, however in the last few years it has gained a lot of popularity and is widely adopted by a lot of organizations in various industries (Bennett, 2019). Because of the increased popularity, a lot of authors have been using the concept. This results in a lot of different explanations of the concept and some definitional problems.

Fowler & Highsmith (2001) formulated a broad definition; “agile is a method that values individuals

and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan”

(p.1). In other words, the agile method focuses on creating flexibility within organizations in order to respond in a faster way.

organizations use the power of employees’ expertise instead of managerial power and they focus on flexibility in order to respond quickly to the fast changing environment.

Within this research, the concept of agile is used regarding the agile organization. The reason for the organization to implement the new agile way of working was to give the organization the ability to anticipate and respond to the increased market changes by rapidly adapting the environments’ needs. This has also led to the implementation of new formed, interdisciplinary teams, new roles such as; Product Owners and Chapter Leads, and new tools such as; SCRUM and daily stand-ups. The goal of the implementation was to decrease bureaucracy, connect the business side of the organization to the development/IT side and to create more transparency.

Within an agile transformation organizational structures and people do play an important role. A structural change, from the traditional waterfall method towards an agile organization is needed. Whereas the waterfall method requires a hierarchical organizational structure, the agile method is more in need of informal structures, since it is all about self-organizing teams, self-autonomy and transparency (Hoda, Noble, & Marshall, 2011). Having said this, an agile transformation is not just about a structural change, it is even more about cultural change. Cockburn & Highsmith (2001) mentioned that the most important implications to organizations working in the agile manner is that it places more emphasis on people aspects in projects such as skills, communication, ownership, and autonomy. The change with regards to the human aspect, and cultural change, makes it a typically soft change. The transition from the traditional organization into an agile organization where a new way of working is implemented, influences not only the culture of an organization, but also affects the behavior of people on an individual level.

2.3 Professional identity of an agile coach

With the rise of the adoption of agile methods and tools, more and more organizations started to adopt an agile coach. However, sometimes it is not clear what can be expected from an agile coach and how this role is developing over time. Within this research the concept of an agile coach will be related to the concept of professional identity, in addition the development of this professional identity will be discussed.

O’Connor & Duchonoca (2014) emphasize the difficulty for large organizations to adopt agile methods, since they have many formalized processes, an anchored culture, have to confirm a lot of norms and standards and are sometimes located geographically wide which make face-to-face and real time communication hard. Therefore, in large organizations the need for an extra coaching role is even higher. As mentioned before, the people-intensive nature of an agile transformation asks for a lot of participation of the recipients, the ones who are concerned with the change. Gandomani, Zulzalil, Ghani, Sultan, & Sharif (2014) conclude that recipients in an agile transformation can lead to barriers. For example; they can have the wrong mindset, they can show resistance to change, they may lack knowledge, they might not be activated, they might be not open for collaboration. Whereas recipients’ behavior may cause obstacles, a study of Parizi, Gandomani, & Nafchi (2014) revealed that agile coaches, in contrast, might contribute to successful agile transformations. The critical role of the recipients in an agile transition reflect the importance of coaches during the process. Since they focus on the human aspects, help and facilitate during the transformation and stands-by if there is any problem emerging (Rodríguez, Soria, Campo, 2016)

In literature, the concept of professional identity is commonly used. According to Sachs (2001) the concept of professional identity refers to a set of values and attributes that are assigned to a group who share the same profession, and therefore are differentiated from others. Also being, thinking and acting is related towards someone's professional identity and is based on what is important in practices and on which interests decisions based on (Trede, 2012). Furthermore, the professional identity gives direction to what actions and decisions a person with a professional identity makes (Brownell, 2012). Hong (2010) stated that professional identity is a concept that develops over time and constantly changes because of interaction with others. Also other authors emphasize that a professional identity is shaped by social processes and therefore is not a fixed concept (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). Professional identity within this research thus is a set of attributes, actions, and ways of thinking that are imposed upon an agile coach. Furthermore, this professional identity is shaped by social processes and develops over time. This research is about the professional identity of an agile coach. This role claims a professional identity for two reasons. The first one is that a coach is an expert when talking about agile and therefore has more knowledge within this field than colleagues. Second, an agile coach is in the position to facilitate and coach people throughout an agile transition process, which differentiate them by behavior and attributes from other members within the organization.

This study will have a specific look on two important dynamics, coming from the organizational context that shape the professional identity of an agile coach. The first one is the recipients’ need towards an agile coach, expressed in expectations towards an agile coach. Beijaard et al. (2004) did a study on the professional identity of teachers. They revealed that a professional identity is shaped by conceptions and expectations of others. The acceptance of others plays an important role and the images about what teachers should know and do shapes the professional identity. Therefore, within this study, the professional identity of an agile coach will also be discussed from the recipients' point of view. Their expectations and ideas about what an agile coach should know and do will be studied. As explained earlier, the recipients within an agile transition are crucial, therefore it is very important for a coach to act in a way that recipients’ will most benefit from it. So, the facilitating role of an agile coach should reflect on what is needed and expected from the recipients’ in order to successfully implement the new way of working.

The second dynamic is experience. Experiences and practices from the past of agile coaches may influence the role of an agile coach as well (Beijaard et al., 2004; Slay & Smith, 2010). Therefore, within this study, there will be a focus on how experiences of agile coaches shape their professional identity.

The experiences of agile coaches shape their professional identity and therefore is it important to understand how learnings from the past may shape their future role.

Experience and expectation are two dynamics that especially change and unfold over time. Therefore, time plays a key role when studying these dynamics. In order to be able to put those dynamics into a certain moment of the change, the model of Deszca & Ignols is used. The focus here will be on how the professional role of an agile coach will develop during different phases of organizational change, in this case, an agile transformation.

2.4 Recipients’ need

Since studies (Balogun & Johnson, 2005; Armenakis, Bernerth, Pitts, & Walker (2007) show that recipients are key in organizational change and therefore play a huge role within the successfulness of a change implementation, a lot has been written about these recipients and their perspectives during organizational change.

that a certain behavior will influence the agile transformation process. Other similar behaviors are active resistance, passivity, or active support (Deszca et al., 2019).

The emphasis of earlier studies on recipients and their behavior leads to a focus on this concept within this research. The recipient's behavior will be translated to the need and expectations towards an agile coach and their professional identity.

2.5 Agile transformation process

In order to successfully implement change, it is important that the change is managed well during different stages or phases. After the idea of Kurt Lewin (1947) that change can be planned, a lot of literature and studies has been written about how organizations should manage change and what stages or phases change should pass before a transition has completed.

Lewin (1947) was the first one who wrote about steps that must be taken when implementing change successfully. He designed a three-step model which included unfreezing (1), move (2), and refreezing (3). The main idea behind the model was that before change can happen, people should abandon original ideas. The model can be seen as a model that explains how to bring change. After this three-step model, a lot of researchers started to elaborate on this model and came up with a new version of a management model. For example Kotter’s Eight-Stage process (Kotter, 1995) Duck’s Five stage Change Curve (2001), Coping Cycle (Carnell, 1986).

Within this research the Change Path Model from Deszca and Ignols (2019) is used to identify the stages within a change process and to clearly look at how professional identity changes during those different stages. In contrast to other planned change models, the model of Deszca and Ignols does not ask for a finished stage before going to the next, instead it explains change as a more non-linear process. This model fits this research best, since the emergent elements within this change, such as unexpected recipients’ reactions, leads to a non-linear change process.

goal is to embed the change within organizational processes and to make sure this change will be institutionalized.

This study will look at the change process across the different steps that should be taken to successfully implement change and further look at how the role of an agile coach and his professional identity should change over time. This to establish a clear view on how the need towards an agile coach, according to the different change steps, may change over time.

3. Methodology

In this section the methodology used within this research will be discussed. The section will start to explain what research approach is used. Then the case site will be further illustrated and the data collection methods will be explained. This section will end with a description of how the data is analysed.

3.1 Research approach

According to Edmondson & McManus (2007) a methodological fit is needed to deliver high-quality field research. A methodological fit refers to the fit between a research question, prior studies, research methodology and theoretical contributions, which all need to be consistent and coherent (Edmondson & McManus, 2007). Within this paper a research question has been formulated as follows; ‘What does

the crucial role of an agile coach look like, and how does the professional identity of this role change over time during an agile transformation?. This question is an open-ended question and requires

3.2 Case site

The data is collected at the case organization the International Nederlanden Groep (ING, 2018). The ING is a Dutch banking firm and is at the moment the biggest bank of the Netherlands whose headquarters are located in Amsterdam. This research will only be focused on the Wholesale bank and their transition to the agile organization. Since the wholesale department is also located in foreign countries, respondents from different countries have been interviewed. ING launched their Think Forward strategy in 2015. With this strategy the bank tries to keep re-inventing themselves to remain relevant to their customers (ING,2018) In the report is also stated that ING can no longer differentiate themselves with their product, but their key differentiator will be customer experience where they will move to a more digital setting. One important element of the Think Forward strategy was the implementation of the new agile way of working. With the use of agile methodologies, the bank wanted to become more flexible because of the fast-changing customer needs, innovate faster with the use of organizational learning and to be an attractive employer. The wholesale banking has adopted, as one of the last departments within ING, the new agile way of working. The recent transition of the wholesale department of the banking firm has undergone, made the cast site appropriate for this paper.

3.3 Data collection

To find out the answer to the research question, data were collected through in-depth interviews. These interviews were semi-structured and had some guidelines with topics that at least must be discussed during the interviews. However, there is some discretion about the order of the questions and next to this, follow-up is highly important. This type of interviews fits the research well, since it gives the researcher the possibility to delve deeply into the research topic and understand thoroughly the answers provided (Harrell & Bradley, 2009). Because at the start of this research, the research topic was not yet clear, the interview only consisted of four open questions. The idea here was that the questions should not force into a direction. From the conversations that arose from these four questions, a research topic emerged. Thereafter, the questions of the interview protocol were a bit more focused on the determined research topic and questions like ‘What do you expect from an agile coach’ were asked. A complete overview of the interview protocol can be found in appendix 1. Because the interview took place during the times of COVID-19, all interviews were held via Skype.

they were able to look at the whole change process from the beginning until now. The participants from this first selection were asked to suggest another potential respondent. This second type of sampling is called snowball sampling (Biernacki & Waldorf, 1981). An overview of all the respondents who participated within this research is presented in table 1 below. In appendix 3 a picture has been added, which gives an overview of the various roles and functions and how these are located within the agile organization.

Respondent Role Code Interview duration

1. Chapter Lead CL01 40.59

2. Staff Manager Center of Expertise SM02 35.22

3. Agile Coach AC03 35.49

4. Customer Journey Expert & Product Owner CJE04 47.34

5. IT Engineer IT05 40.08

6. Change execution professional CE06 47.39

7. Customer Journey Expert CJE07 35.47

8. IT Chapter Lead ITCL08 38.46

9. Agile Coach AC09 30.28

10. Tribe Lead TL10 31.08

11. Customer Journey expert CJE11 35.48

12. IT Chapter Lead ITCL12 42.09

13. Agile Coach AC13 52.39

14. Chapter Lead CL14 42.09

15. Agile Coach AC15 47.38

16. IT Engineer IT16 40.09

3.4 Data analysis

Within all the collected data, there has been searched for patterns in order to come up with new insights about the professional identity of an agile coach. In order to code in a structured way, the program of

Atas.ti was used. First the interviews has been transcribed. This helped in the search for patterns since

First-order codes Second order codes Themes

4. Findings

and experiences. First, this section describes the recipients’ needs towards an agile coach based on their expectations. These expectations are about what an agile coach is supposed to know and how an agile coach is supposed to act, all seen from a recipients’ perspective. Secondly, the experiences and practices of agile coaches have been studied. The agile coaches explained within the interviews how experiences from the past influence their current practices in order to be a value adding agile coach. This section will end with the challenges that emerged during the agile transformation.

4.1 Recipients’ expectations towards an agile coach

This paragraph describes the ideas about what an agile coach is supposed to know and how an agile coach is supposed to act, from a recipients’ perspective. Regarding to what an agile coach should know, the topics; work experiences, design principles, and methods & tools will be discussed. Relating to how an agile coach should act, the topics; change approach, power, observe & reflect, and attitude will be explained.

4.1.1 The knowledge of an agile coach

Each recipient has their own idea about the knowledge an agile coach should have to perform the role properly. Several participants argue that in order to really add value during the agile transition, an agile coach needs to have some work experience as an agile coach before. One participant mentioned that in the beginning, it was hard to get the transition going because the coaches lacked experiences and expertise.

“Agile coaches that joined the transformation were newly recruited, and most of them basically were already existing within ING in other roles. For them, it was their first official assignment as an agile coach ever. You might understand that they were also learning by doing, they knew the theory and all those things, but coaching really needs experiences that they can use from the past. Therefore, the start of the transition was a bit messy” (IT Lead10).

Another participant stated that he had expected to get a more experienced coach.

“In the beginning, they had to deploy more experienced agile coaches. When I followed a product owner training, I had an excellent trainer which knew the role very well. I had expected that we would be assigned to an agile coach like that. The coaching was more based on listening skills, but not on their working experience” (CJE07).

Besides the fact that recipients expect a certain amount of work experiences from their agile coaches, they also indicated that an agile coach must have excellent knowledge about the design principles of an agile organization. These design principles are about the new organizational structure, the fundamentals of the new way of working, and implications for the new formulated roles. One participant told about how an agile coach advised a squad to implement the agile principles. “Our agile coach explained us

helped our squad with the implementation of the agile principles in our daily meetings and individual work” (Ops05). Another participant stated that in the beginning of the transition, people needed clarity

towards the new way of working and explanation about how it would affect their individual work. “In

the beginning we were like; ‘Ok, we go agile, but what does this actually mean for our roles?’. At that time, it was the responsibility of the agile coaches to just explain the principles to us” (TL11). Here,

the participant describes his expectation towards an agile coaches' knowledge about the newly created roles and the related responsibilities. Another respondent gave an example of how the knowledge of an agile coach was missed in the beginning of the transition;

‘The moment we had this transition, we did not exactly know what to expect out of it and how we should act in our new position.. An agile coach would have been very helpful I think. Somebody who understands the implications of the new roles and the purpose of new meetings. (...) Of course, we came to some agreements ourselves in the meantime, but yes it has left room for interpretation” (CL14).

Lastly, the participants expressed themselves about the knowledge of an agile coach regarding the agile measurement and tools. “Some tribes are now deploying their agile coach, because the coaches should

know how we can use Servicenow in order to track our metrics and see how we can acquire the right information from the tool” (Coo06). Another respondent mentioned the importance of understanding

the obtained data that should drive the purposes of squads. The agile coaches should here play a role in how squads should interpret the data. ‘The coaches support us in the merge of different metrics, in order

to navigate on those. So, we need to learn how we can understand our data better in order to have more focus on that’ (CJE07). Furthermore, another participant stated that an agile coach should have knowledge about how to visualize sprint goals. “At the moment we mostly come with questions like;

‘How can we make developments on our sprint performance more visible?’”(CL14).

4.1.2 How should an agile coach act?

Besides the recipients’ expectations about the knowledge of the agile coaches, the respondents also described their ideas about how an agile coach should act. As a result, four main topics about the behavior and actions of agiles coaches have been formulated. These topics are; change approach, power, observe & reflect, and attitude.

During the agile transition, agile coaches have used both top-down as bottom-up approaches. A number of respondents have shared their expectations and ideas about the use of these two approaches. As one respondent explained; “Especially in the beginning phase, we must be very strict on how agile is

implemented. So, we need to properly implement the disciplines” (CL01). Furthermore, a participant

explained that he firstly hated the top-down approaches of the agile coaches. However, when he looks back, he totally understands why this approach was needed in order to achieve some changes. “I felt

right thing to do, because the whole organization needs to adapt the basic principles in the same way, otherwise this is never going to work” (CL08). Another respondent supported this idea by expressing

themselves critically towards an agile coach who was presenting himself too soft, as he said; “I am

somewhat critical about agile coaches, because mine is too compromising” (CJE12).

Where at some point the top-down approach of the agile coaches seems to be accepted, in other cases the need for a more bottom-up approach is expressed. One respondent mentioned;

“We need our agile coach when we experience that within our squad a basic principle of agile

is not working for us. Then we discuss with our agile coach what to do. We have the legitimacy to leave the principles a bit and then find out what works best for us. Our agile coach told us that that is completely normal and that we have to fail and learn from it fast.” (Ops05).

However, respondent CL08 indicated before that he understood why the top-down approach was needed, he later stated that he sometimes missed the room for a dialogue; ‘At the time that agile is

proclaimed as a great myth, we do not feel that anyone is listening to us’ (CL08). In line with this, a

customer journey expert quoted; “You always have to find a balance. You want to let things happen

organically, without too much force from the organization. But, if things are approached in a positive way, and things are clearly and transparently communicated, then a mix of top-down and bottom up is possible” (CJE04).

Furthermore, respondents stated during the interviews that they saw their agile coaches as their discussion and sparring partner. An agile coach has been seen as the person to give feedback on, regarding the agile transition. Participants indicate that they expect their agile coach to have a certain level of power in order to actually follow up their feedback. They explain that this is where the greatest value lies for the agile coaches. As one respondent said;

“Well, yes, we could discuss everything with our agile coach, however he could not manage to

do something with it. I can’t remember, anyone gave a follow up on my request, so clearly they have not the legitimacy to fix it. While, he was a really nice guy, and as a coach he did a good job, yet apparently he did not have the power we would expect him to have” (IT08).

There were also participants who actually did experience their agile coach having a certain amount of power. One respondent told about a moment when an agile coach was really adding value by follow up feedback during the process. “We do respect our agile coach. He helps us in getting things clear. And

on the other hand, when we experience side-steering we can indicate that and our agile coach really tries to change such things by talking with the management layer. So he is really adding value at some points” (CJE12).

contribute to a better understanding of how to use the agile methods and tools in the right way. As one participant mentioned;

“You can compare the role of an agile coach with a consultant who understands the vision behind the agile way of working and constantly observe and reflect during several agile events such as stand ups, ceremonies, etc. They help us in our role and mirror our behavior in order to get us on the right track” (CE06).

Another participant reacted on the question; ‘When is an agile coach a good coach?’ with the following statement; “I think, an agile coach is good when he can make an impact. He should focus on the

productivity within a team and when he leaves it must be sustainable. And what he should be able to do is ask thorough questions, mirror, confront and show that things are more effective in the agile way”

(CL11).

The last much debated theme about agile coaches is their attitude. Respondents specify that they are sometimes irritated by the fake and exaggerated reaction of agile coaches. Participants mention that they have reservations towards the sincerity and intentions of an agile coach. As one respondent mentioned; “We had an agile coach and, how should I say it, it was our first agile coach and he was

really enthusiastic about everything. But like, a sort of fake enthusiasm. So, at one point, we called him our cheerleader” (CL08). On the other hand, one participant experienced an agile coach who was only

given negative feedback, which led to resistance within the squad. Here, in contrast, the positive attitude of an agile coach was missed.

“We had an agile coach which helped us and brought out some points for improvement for the team. We as a team were trying to put the best out of it, but unfortunately the results were a bit disappointing. (...) Our agile coach was putting red marks on all negative points without pointing out any positive once. So that brought a bit of frustration and resistance from the whole team against the agile process” (Ops05).

Recipients’ expectations towards an agile coach

Knowledge Behaviour and actions

• Several years of work experience as an agile coach

• Knowledge about the design principles of an agile organization

• Knowledge about how to measure results within the agile way or working

• The power to follow up feedback • Balance between top-down and

bottom-up approaches • Observe and reflect

• Positive but sincere reactions and motivation

Table 2. Recipients’ expectations towards an agile coach

4.2 Experiences & practices of agile coaches

findings are categorized into three main themes; behaviour & practices, attitudes, and tools & attributes .

4.2.1 Behavior & practices of an agile coach

During the interviews, the agile coaches have been asked to reveal some of their experiences from the past. This in order to give an understanding on what behavior and practices are working and what is not recommended when coaching throughout an agile transition. A thing that all the agile coaches mentioned during the interviews is that building a vision for the agile transition is a really important task within their role. The coaches emphasize the fact that the agile transition was received very instrumentally. As one agile coach quoted;

“What I see is that the change is received very instrumentally. In fact, one translate the traditional

way of working into the new concepts. And what you see then, is that everyone keeps on working as they did before. (...) The biggest challenge here is to get people on board and explain the goal and underlying idea of the whole transition”(AC09).

Another agile coach explained the importance of a right outlined idea of agile working.

“From the beginning we must make sure that we explain agile as more than just a methodology. If you explain agile as the holy grail, the new methodology, you won’t get any commitment because people are only implementing a new skill whereby no impact has been made. Within our organization you already see that the word ‘agile’ is associated with negative feelings and that only the word evokes resistance. I always try to go back to the basic idea and values, which you can call agile, but you can also call it a manner or mindset” (AC15).

One of the benefits of the new way of working is that things are becoming more transparent. For example, teams are transparent about their purposes and deadlines, and results are made more transparent due to several tools such as Servicenow. In line with this new way of working, agile coaches try to teach squads to be transparent too. The transparency of the agile coaches should result in a better adaptation of the new way of working because they will better see what agile can bring them, as one agile coach mentioned; “I think that we have started to let go on the old ideas (...) It is important that

people understand why things happen and for what reason we started to work agile. What does agile bring us? I think some people are not yet completely convinced about the new way of working” (AC04).

Another agile coach even stated that making things transparent is the main purpose of an agile coach.

4.2.2 Attitude of an agile coach

De agile coaches have also expressed themselves about certain characteristics and attitudes that are needed while coaching during an agile transition. One agile coach pointed out that a critical attitude is needed towards the squads’ progress and implementations of agile tools. “As an agile coach, it is

important to confront people and show them consequences. This requires a critical view. You should then ask questions about why a story or epic is not delivered on time” (AC13). The agile coach implies

that a critical eye leads to questions which are needed to improve the agile way of working within the squad and tribes on team and individual level.

Furthermore, participants mentioned that agile coaches should be people-oriented since the change affects individuals' work and behavior and therefore feelings and emotions must be understood. As one participant mentioned;

“As an agile coach you are a real mediator. Instead of you forcing people to follow you, you have

to understand what people have been through. There was a lot of suffering within our transition, call centers closed and a lot of people had to say goodbye at that time. So you really must show understanding for the situation and the pain before you can bring change”(AC15).

Lastly, the role of an agile coach is about leading the change which asks for a hands-on and inspiring attitude. One agile coach shared an experience about the transition within wholesale banking. The coach participated in the transformation of retail banking into agile as well and was therefore able to make a comparison. The following was observed; “Surprisingly, what I saw in contrast to retail banking

was that at Wholesale the agile coaches were stuck in their own mind set at that time. While at retail banking the agile coaches really wanted to bring change and wanted to take the lead in this” (AC15).

The agile coach had experienced that the agile coaches must be aware of their pioneering role where they need to stand behind the idea of the new agile way of working.

4.2.3 Tools & attributes an agile coach can use

In order to understand what instruments could contribute to the support of an agile coach, the agile coaches have been asked about their tools and instruments. First, the coaches indicated that in the beginning of the change, they started to organize several workshops and training sessions. These were on one hand for the coaches themselves, in order to develop skills needed to perform the role as agile coach. On the other hand, they provided workshops and sessions with the aim to prepare recipients for their new role and guide them through the transition by providing background information and learnings about the agile design principles. An agile coach told about the sessions he gave;

Furthermore, agile coaches expressed themselves about tools and measurements that they use in order to monitor the agile achievements of the squads and their level of maturity. One coach mentioned that the indication of maturity level is about the knowledge and experiences you have with a squad; “For

me, it is about gut feeling, I would say. I have the benefit of years of experiences, so monitoring the teams is something that happens automatically. (...) For me it is important to check whether a team is able to deliver in a sprint what they were supposed to deliver.”(AC09). Later on the participant pointed

that he defined a squad as matured when “they independently observe things that are not working as it

should work and then ask one of the agile coaches for advice”. Another agile coach mentioned that she

uses a special designed tool that gives indication about the maturity level of the teams;

“Within wholesale banking the agile progress scan has been constructed. (...) I use the tool to gain

insights about what things are going well and where a squad can improve. If I can see where the squads have made progress and what things have deteriorated I am able to start a dialogue within the team on how they can grow on their maturity” (AC15).

The last tool agile coaches have been talking about was the feedback & rewards. One agile coach directly emphasises the importance of positive feedback; “Celebrating successes is really needed.

Within a change like this, it is important that people are being valued by what they achieve” (AC15).

Another coach, who is located in Romania mentioned that cultural differences are important to note when talking about positive feedback and rewarding. “If I look at my team, I try to express appreciation

if someone is doing something that fits the new way of working. However, I think it is important to not do it constantly. Especially in Romania where people easily find something exaggerating” (AC09). One

agile coach does acknowledge the importance of rewarding people for applying the agile way of working in a good manner, however in their role as agile coaches, they are not always in the right positions to reward people. “We are not their managers, so in that sense, we cannot say ‘well done,

take a free day off’. That is not what I want either. However, I do support celebrations and sometimes in debate with the product owner and try to reward teams for their hard work”(AC13).

Agile coaches’ past experiences

Behaviour Attitude Attributes

• Building a vision among the agile way of working

• Make actions and behaviour transparent in order to show benefits

• Being critical on how agile is being

implemented within squads and tribes • People-oriented in order

to understand feeling and emotions of recipients

• Inspire and lead during the agile transformation

• Workshops sessions to get people on board • Training in order to

develop skills and knowledge

• Measurement tooling • Positive feedback and

rewards

4.3 Challenges during an agile transformation

This paragraph describes the challenges that were faced within the case site during the agile transformation. The findings show that there are challenges faced into four different categories. These categories are; old behaviours, trust, support, and cultural differences.

4.3.1 Challenges because of old behaviours

In a transition from a traditional way of working to a new agile way of working, a cultural shift is needed to reframe behavior of individuals. Within the case site, this shift is experienced as difficult and not yet completed. As one agile coach quoted; “People are intrinsically motivated to maintain their status quo

and within this change, stick to their old ways of working and thinking. This is not about intentionally going against the change, however it is an extra challenge. (AC13). In addition, a lot of recipients

experience their leaders and managers still side-steering. “There is still a lot of interference from

traditional managers and tribe leads” (CJE04). In line with this, one participant mentioned;

“I experience a lot of ad hoc work, which then has to be delivered within one day and that hinders our sprint planning. And of course, there are sometimes things that come along the way which have more priority. However, this happens too often. So, management should be aware of this and stop dropping ad hoc requests” (CJE12).

One chapter lead also noticed old behavior; “A lot of parties tend to execute side-steering. It is like;

‘please can you do this for me, it is only one second and you do not have to put it on the backlog’. But in reality you always need to get the time from somewhere, which at the end always results in payback time” (CL11). An important thing that could maintain old behavior are KPIs. As one agile coach

concerned;

“What I see at my location is that the KPIs, on what employees will be assessed, runs very much

counter to what we want to achieve with agile and the new culture. Right now the KPI’s are on an individual level, so; ‘am I doing the right thing in the eye of my manager’, instead of ‘how are we delivering as a team?’” (AC09).

The judgement of the respondents on both the side of recipients as agile coaches show that after a few years of implementation, old behavior still is a challenge. This emphasizes the idea that a cultural shift is not easily made and that it takes years of trial and error to fully embed a new culture.

4.3.2 Challenges because of trust issues

Trust has been mentioned as crucial within an agile organization throughout the respondents. “I

experience that there is a lot based on trust within the agile way of working” (CJE04). However, among

opinion agile is about delegating. I have not experienced this, but that is my observation” (CJE12).

One chapter lead gave an example on how he experiences trust;

“Well, trust right now is for example, giving someone a project or a task, right? And not measuring

every step or every milestone, not checking everything… So even if a decision is made , and it might not lead to the best outcomes, you must still trust that the decisions were made in the respect of everybody's interest. But if we don’t trust those decisions, then we are not working in the right way and we start to overprotect each other and that is not efficient’ (CL14).

Later on the same participants indicated that; I do have some positive experiences, I would say in the

smallest circle of colleagues, I would say the smaller the circle, the more trust.

So the recipients do acknowledge the fact that trust within an organization is needed. However, they mentioned trust right now as the big thing that stands in the way of an agile breakthrough. Here, the recipients are convinced that to improve the agile way of working and adaptation, the level of trust needs to grow first.

4.3.3 Challenges because of support

Another challenge that is faced within the case site is about the support of agile coaches. There are at the moment two issues according to this. The first one is that people are convinced by the idea that they are not in need of any more support. Secondly, some participants expressed themselves about the need for support, however, they do not have the feeling there has been offered the right amount of support because of capacity issues. According to the first perspective, where support is indicated as not needed anymore, participants mentioned; “I am thinking about how agile coaches can add value at the moment.

There is one coach, who is supporting management, but I am wondering if this is still needed. We make decisions about our own work, so the added value of agile coaches is a bit unclear” (IT16). Other

participants react to the question about how they think of the number of agile coaches as one mentioned; “I do think we have rather too much then too little” (CJE12). On the other hand there are participants, especially from the perspective of the agile coaches, who are not sure if the role of agile coaches is presented enough and emphasize that the change needs much more support and will take more time and effort. One agile coach explained that coaching on an individual level is not possible at the moment; “In contrast to retail, which had 200 coaches, we only had 18 coaches. We did not have that much

capacity. So we always struggle with the question, to what extent are we able to coach individually. Therefore, we coach on specific roles instead of individuals' (AC15).

of an agile coach as needed or value adding.However, both ideas can not be confirmed based on the results of this research.

4.3.4 Challenges because of cultural differences

The last challenge that emerged during the interviews is the cultural differences within the organization. Because the wholesale banking of ING is operating in over 50 countries, the organization faces an international work environment where different cultures come together.

An agile coach previously already indicated that he found it sometimes difficult to reward people in his team, cause in Romania they quickly find something exaggerated. In addition, another agile coach mentioned; “I find it very interesting to explore what is working in a specific country and what is not.

There are several elements that fit better in a certain cultural context than others. It is important to share those experiences and look for the best approach (…) prejudices are dangerous here, you must look for synergies” (AC15). Participants working within a multicultural team experience differences in

the interpretation of agile; “An Indian team member asks me sometimes questions, and then I realize

that his focus is still on his individual work. I really experience them as passive. It could be part of their culture, however it is also about the extent to which they adopted agile, but that is a matter of mentality”

(TL11). Another Dutch participant explained the following: “Within our team we have some Indian

people, and what I see is that they just want a manager to tell them what they need to do. That is really difficult sometimes, because in our way of work they have to be enterprising and autonomous”

(ITCL08).

The cultural differences might lead to challenges sometimes. The results show that agile is interpreted differently among cultures and that the need for support of agile coaches might also depend on the cultural background of the change recipients.

Challenges during an agile transformation

Old behavior Trust Support Cultural differences

• People falling back into old patterns • Trust issues among recipients within different organizational layers • Support issues due to capacity problems • Support issues due to recipients who do not acknowledge the need for support

• Cultural differences between recipients that asks for different change approach

Table 4. Challenges during an agile transformation

5. Discussion

Within this paper the central research question is; “What does the crucial role of an agile coach look

experiences has been set out. In this section these findings will be related to the change path model of Deszca & Ignols (2019) in order to give a better understanding of how the professional identity develops during an agile transformation. After that the theoretical and managerial implications will be set out, followed by the limitations and direction for further research.

5.1 Awakening

The first step described in the change path model of Deszca & Ingols (2019) is awakening. They explain that within this phase the focus is on understanding the organizational environment and context. This understanding creates a better vision about why the change within the organization is needed. Within this phase, the change agents (within this study, the agile coaches) play an important role. As described in the book of Deszca et al. (2019, p.55); ‘The challenge for the change leader is to articulate the why

of change and their initial vision for the change to key stakeholders in a way that they will understand and move them to positive actions’.

Because the transition towards an agile organization asks for a change in organizational culture and individual behaviors, recipients’ participation is highly important (Burnes, 2017). Kotter (1995) also emphasizes the idea that before successfully starting organizational change, the content of the change vision must be clearly understood.

This theory is in line with what agile coaches stated in the interviews based on past experiences. When the vision of an agile organization is not well understood, the danger might be that the change is received too instrumentally. In addition, agile coaches stated that it is important for agile coaches to first fully understand and believe the ideas behind the agile transformation themselves. Millar, Hind, & Magala (2012) indicate in their research that issues during operationalization of organizational change may arise when middle managers are not fully embracing the change vision. An earlier experience of one agile coach confirmed this idea, when another agile coach was stuck in his old mindset and therefore could not bring the change in the correct way. This has led to misinterpretations and affected the recipients’ vision towards the change which can be a problem at a later stage within the agile transformation. Both literature and findings within this study emphasize that when starting organizational change, it is important to set out a clear vision. agile coaches should not only spread their vision towards the recipients of change, but they need to fully embrace it themselves first. A clear view on what the agile way of working should bring and an uniform communication about this should avoid misinterpretations and lead to a good start of the agile transformation.

5.2 Mobilization

practices are needed to facilitate during the change. In addition it is important to understand how recipients can be motivated to actively participate in the change transition.

Oreg et al (2018) did a study on recipients’ responses to organizational change. They stated that a positive activation response of recipients is triggered by two dynamics. The first dynamic is the goal relevance and the second dynamic is coping potential. Goal relevance (1) is about the extent to which the implications of the change are important for the recipient. The idea is that when the change is contributing to an individuals’ goal, the recipients will be more willing to actively contribute to a change event. The second dynamic, coping potential (2), is about the extent to which an individual can deal and influence the change event. This means that when an individual has a certain amount of control over the change event or is supported during the change, he is more willing to actively participate. Within this study there are findings that could be linked to those two dynamics. According to the first dynamic, goal relevance, respondents within this study mention that transparency can play a key role. Transparency could show how actions lead to specific outcomes. When agile coaches show how agile practices can lead to outcomes that contribute to the squads’ goal, the recipients might be more willing to actively contribute to the agile transformation, since they actually see what the implementation of agile practice can bring them. Regarding the second dynamic, coping potential, participants within this study mentioned that they need their agile coaches to have a certain amount of power. In this way they have the feeling that they are able to influence the change and that they have a say in how the agile is implemented within their squad through the agile coaches. The figures below shows the interpretation of the insights of Oreg et al. into the agile transformation process.

Figure 2. Recipients’ activation Oreg et al. (2018)

Figure 3. Recipients’ activation applied

it is very time-consuming and alignment between certain squads and tribes ask for one way of working with one uniformed agile implementation. Here the coping potential does not fit the idea of a top-down approach. In a study of Heyden, Fourné, Koene, Werkman, & Ansari (2017) the implications of using both top-down as bottom-up approaches has been discussed. They explain that both approaches need to be applied in organizational change, since bottom-up approaches are needed to manage the best change outcomes since it gives room for feedback and improvement and increases the participation level of recipients. However, it is important that managers and coaches on different levels need to send a congruent change message. If bringers of the change send a different message, recipients will get less faith in the change and will lose commitment. Also a research of West, Gilpin, Grant, & Anderson (2011) acknowledges that agile ways of working are adopted bottom-up but initiated as top-down change. This means that the ideas about the goal and implementation of the change is decided on a higher level, while the adaptation by lower level is needed. Based on this research and earlier studies, there cannot give a clear answer on how agile coaches exactly should manage the implementation of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. However, it seems like that in the beginning of the change when recipients need to get on board, a clear vision, clear communication, and a more top-down approach is needed. Thereafter, there might be more room for bottom-up initiatives and discussion about the implementation of agile methods.

With regards to mobilizing people, Carter, Armenakis, Field, & Mossholder (2012) talk about change readiness. Their study emphasizes that in order to mobilize people, it is recommended to give training and mentoring. In this study, agile coaches also mentioned that workshops and training help recipients to understand the change and let them participate. Furthermore, respondents indicated that when they are thrown into the deep end, they will show resistance and displeasure. Here agile coaches need to help them make ready for the change.

5.3 Acceleration

The third step of the change path model is about acceleration. According to Dezsca et al. (2020) the needed knowledge and ways of thinking must be educated in order to let recipients support the organizational change. Furthermore, small wins should be celebrated during the change process in order to motivate recipients to improve their change adaptation.

needs to be changed in a transformation from a traditional organization towards an agile organization. Rewards still can be applied in order to stimulate the agile transition, however rewards and appraisals should be considered on a team level.

agile coaches indicated in the interviews that a critical view on how the squads perform is important to improve their agile adaptation. This can be substantiated by a study of Senapati & Srinivasan (2012), they stated that an agile coach should reflect on learnings and give feedback in order to provide essential knowledge that is needed for an agile organization and their employees to work successfully. They also mention that squads and tribes should exchange their knowledge and experiences because it promotes agile adaptation. Within this research, respondents have not been talking about exchanging and sharing knowledge with other squads or tribes. However this might be interesting to do in order to accelerate the agile transition.

5.4 Institutionalization

The last step in the change path model is institutionalization and is about measuring the change. The progress of the change must be measured in order to make visible what is still needed to improve the change implementation (Deszca et al., 2020).

According to Higgs & Rowland (2005) an important thing for change agents to do within this stage is monitor and review on practices. By this is meant that change agents observe how recipients adopted the change and how this is reflecting their work practices. In a later study, Higgs & Rowland (2011) stated that monitoring change will help to sustain change and develop an active action plan. Agile coaches indicated within this research that they will look at the maturity level of a squad. According to the agile coaches, a squad is mature when they can work fully autonomous and independently reflect on their own work in order to determine the next step for them as a squad. They mention that the change here is more bottom-up instead of top-down, because at this stage a squad engages an agile coach on their own initiative when issues arise and help is needed. When the squads are able to reflect on their own work and be aware of problems whereby they involve an agile coach, they are not depending on what an agile coach tells them to do. However, agile coaches emphasize that their squad has still not reached this level. Agile coaches mentioned two ways to monitor their squads. The first one is about gut-feeling. Because agile coaches work closely together with squads, they are able to observe the team, see them grow and feel what level of maturity that specific squad is facing. Another tool is the agile progress tool. This is an objective tool that indicates how mature a squad is, based on specific agile measurements.

& Malik, 2010). Respondents mention that trust is one of the key obstacles to fully work autonomous and let decisions be made based on expertise. At the moment, they are still experiencing management at a higher level who decides what to do.

Furthermore, agile coaches stated that an agile transformation has no end state and that it is about continuous improvement. Especially a change that is about people and culture, it can take enormous time and patience to build a new culture, trust and respect (Nerur, Sridhar ,& Mahapatra, 2005).

5.5 Unplanned change

While Deszca & Ingols (2019) do acknowledge that organizational change is not a linear process, they do believe that organizational change always has a predictable start, middle and end stage. Within this research, the aim was to find out how an agile coach can contribute to the implementation of agile within an organization during this start, middle and end stage. However, according to Livne-Tarandach & Bartunek (2009) change can not be planned and challenges might emerge throughout the whole transformation process. This has to do with the fact that the change is operating within a certain internal and external context. Contextual dynamics might change over time and lead to unforeseen situations. The results within this study show that it is important to recognize different phases within the change, since the change phase has an effect on what support is needed. However, the respondents also stated that they had to deal with unforeseen challenges and events. For example, during the implementation of agile, cultural differences emerged as a challenges. One agile coach mentioned that some practices and activities during the change process did not work out well, because it was received differently depending on cultural backgrounds. Another coach indicated that changes within squads’ composition, due to the fact that squad members who come and go, influences the group dynamics and therefore sometimes ask for an adjustment in the way the squad is supported.

Those two examples of emerging events during an agile transformation, driven by contextual factors, cannot be planned or specifically related to one of the change phases. Therefore, it is important as an agile coach to be prepared for the unexpected in a sense that they need to be able to react on unpredictable challenges and adjust their support to what is needed in a specific change context.

5.6 Theoretical implications

This paper started by noting the lack of research about the professional identity of an agile coach and how this identity develops over time during an agile transformation. In the previous paragraphs the main results were discussed and placed next to literature. These results gave new insights and therefore this paper adds to the understanding about agile coaches and how their professional identity changes over time.

The first theoretical contribution is the confirmation that before change can be implemented, it is important to build a vision (Deszca et al., 2019). In addition, this study also is in line with the idea of Millar, Hind, & Malaga (2012) about the fact that issues during an agile transformation may arise when agile coaches are not fully embracing the vision of agile first.

the one who guides the agile transformation and is able to activate recipients by using for example power, rewards, and transparency. Here there professional identity is shaped by the actions and responsibilities as change agents. It is important that those two sub-identities complement rather than exclude each other, because both are highly needed within an agile transformation. From this theoretical contribution, the following proposition has arisen:

Proposition 1: The identity of an agile coach consists of two sub-identities, because they fulfil the role of an agile expert as well as the role of a change agent.

Oreg et al. (2018) stated that recipients can be positively activated by their coping potential and the change goal congruence. This study confirmed this idea and related power (1) as a factor that impact the perceived level of control, and transparency (2) as a factor that decreases psychological distance between individual goals and change goals. Furthermore, this study stated that both top-down and bottom-up approaches are needed within an agile transformation. This is in line with literature (West, Gilpin, & Anderson, 2011), however balancing those two approaches might be very complex. This study shows that for example, top-down approaches can lead to resistance and further removes from the ultimate agile goal of self-autonomy and independently working. However, bottom-up might lead to non-committal of the new way of working. By connecting the results of this study to the stages of the Change Path Model (Deszca & Ingols, 2019) it became clear that the type of approach that fits the best might change over time. This is an interesting insight, since a better understanding on how to balance those two approaches can contribute to the successful implementation of agile. This research emphasizes the importance of balancing between top-down and bottom-up approaches, however further research is needed on this topic to explore how this balance can be achieved. This contribution leads to the following proposition:

Proposition 2: An agile coach needs to recognize the complexity of balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches throughout an agile transformation.