Technical Coaching for IT Organizational Transformation

About the Author

Preface

1. Notes On the Second Edition

0 | Introduction

1. 0.1 | What’s the Problem?
2. 0.2 | Who’s the Audience?
3. 0.3 | What’s the Scope?
4. 0.4 | Anything new here?
5. 0.5 | A Note on Agile
6. Part 1: Foundations

1 | Is Transformation Possible?

1. 1.1 | A Longstanding Problem
2. 1.2 | If Organizations Changed Before, They Can Change Again
3. 1.3 | If We Can Find the Dots, We Can Connect Them
4. 1.4 | The Missing Element

2 | Anti-Patterns of Organizational Transformation

1. 2.1 | Incomplete Solutions
2. 2.2 | Misalignment of Goals
3. 2.3 | Lack of Direction
4. 2.4 | Separation of Process-related and Technical Improvements
5. 2.5 | Misunderstanding the Nature of the Work
6. 2.6 | Conflating business agility with agile software development
7. 2.7 | Reintroduction of the Old
8. 2.8 | Inappropriate Organizational Structures
9. 2.9 | Big-bang Change Rather Than Incremental Change
10. 2.10 | Rigid Interpretation of Frameworks
11. 2.11 | Milestone-driven vs. Directional Approach
12. 2.12 | The Cult of Scrum
13. 2.13 | The Soft Stuff Is the Hard Stuff

3 | Definitions

1. 3.1 | Capabilities
2. 3.2 | Leverage
3. Part 2: Strategy

4 | Connecting Management and Technical Consulting

1. 4.1 | Half a Solution Isn’t Better Than None
2. 4.2 | A Proposed Solution
3. 4.3 | The Fulcrum Is the Natural Dividing Line
4. 4.4 | Connecting the Parts

5 | Begin With the End in Mind

6 | Target States: Where Do We Need To Be?

7 | Leverage: Where’s the Fulcrum?

8 | Getting Started

1. 8.1 | Impact: Structure, Process, Practices
2. 8.2 | Full-Stack Slices
3. 8.3 | Up-Front Analysis
4. 8.4 | Foundational Activities
5. 8.5 | Starting Iterative Improvement

9 | The Cycle of Change

10 | Monitoring Progress

1. 10.1. | Anti-Patterns In Monitoring Progress
2. 10.2 | When Should We Check Progress?
3. 10.3 | How Should We Check Progress?
4. 10.4 | Metrics and Managed Change
5. 10.5 | Cultivating Continuous Improvement

11 | Metrics

1. 11.1 | Process-Agnostic Metrics
2. 11.2 | Directional Metrics
3. 11.3 | Measuring Capabilities
4. 11.6 | Measuring Stability of Production Operations
5. 11.7 | Measuring Software Quality
6. 11.8 | Measuring Code Health
7. 11.9 | What Not To Measure

12 | Structures and Responsibilities

1. 12.1 | Structures Specific to the Transformation
2. 12.2 | Consultancy Responsibilities
3. 12.3 | Client Responsibilities
4. 12.4 | Joint Responsibilities
5. 12.5 | Consultant and Coach Responsibilities
6. 12.6 | Special Consideration for Technical Coaches
7. Part 3 | Humanity

13 | A Chair Is a Resource

14 | Holding Precious What It Is To Be Human

15 | Safety

1. 15.1 | The Business Value of Safety
2. 15.2 | Putting People First
3. 15.3 | Importance of Safety in Times of Change

16 | Responsibility Over Accountability

1. 16.1 | Accountability
2. 16.2 | Responsibility

17 | Stress

1. 17.1 | Allow for Stress and Its Effects
2. 17.2 | Your Helpers Are Human, Too
3. 17.3 | Hold Course Despite Stress

18 | Introversion and Collaboration

1. 18.1 | What is Introversion?
2. 18.2 | Can’t Introverts Just Get Over It?
3. 18.3 | Making It Work
4. 18.4 | Introversion and Coaching

19 | Cognitive Biases

1. 19.1 | Categorizing Cognitive Biases
2. 19.2 | Confirmation Bias
3. 19.3 | Gambler’s Fallacy
4. 19.4 | Sunk Cost Fallacy
5. 19.5 | Negativity Bias
6. 19.6 | The Illusion of Explanatory Depth

20 | Ego Development

21 | View of Authority

22 | Profiling

1. 22.1 | Pigeon-holing
2. 22.2 | Defamation
3. 22.3 | Excuses
4. 22.4 | Monoculture
5. 22.5 | The Slippery Slope to a Toxic Culture
6. 22.6 | Be a Grown-Up
7. 22.7 | People Can Grow (Resources Can’t)

23 | Organizational Culture

1. 23.1 | What Is Organizational Culture?
2. 23.2 | How Is Organizational Culture Used?
3. 23.3 | A Systems View of Organizational Culture
4. 23.4 | Stop Worrying About Culture

24 | Client-Consultant Relations

1. 24.1 | Factors Resulting in Sensitivity
2. 24.2 | Earning and Maintaining Trust
3. 24.3 | Who’s the Boss?
4. 24.4 | Ensure Common Understanding
5. Part 4: Change

25 | Intentional Change

1. 25.1 | Current and Target Operating States
2. 25.2 | Missing Pieces
3. 25.3 | “How to Change” Doesn’t Mean “How to Implement”
4. 25.4 | Stepwise Improvement vs. Predefined End State

26 | Initial Changes

1. 26.1 | Establish Collaborative Workspaces
2. 26.2 | Form Product-Aligned Teams
3. 26.3 | Take Baseline Measurements
4. 26.4 | Choose Initial Experiments

27 | Workspaces for Collaboration

1. 27.1 | The Rise of Office Work
2. 27.2 | The Action Office
3. 27.3 | The Birth of the Cubicle Farm
4. 27.4 | The Open-Plan Office
5. 27.5 | Collaborative Team Work Spaces
6. 27.6 | Considerations for Remote Workers
7. 27.7 | 5S and Software Development
8. 27.8 | Gaining Cooperation from Client Leadership

28 | Time Management

1. 28.1 | Outlook-Driven Development
2. 28.2 | Causes of Time Management Issues
3. 28.3 | Manager Time vs Maker Time
4. 28.4 | Managing the Calendar
5. 28.5 | Protecting Maker Time

29 | Incrementally Collapsing Functional Silos

1. 29.1 | Initial Organizational Structure
2. 29.2 | Starting Point
3. 29.3 | Organizational Constraints on Silo-Busting
4. 29.4 | Temporary Scaffolding
5. 29.5 | First Steps in Silo-Busting
6. 29.5 | Special Considerations When Decentralizing Responsibility
7. 29.6 | Team Size
8. 29.7 | Security
9. 29.8 | Summary

30 | Incrementally Improving Estimation

1. 30.1 | Who Needs to Estimate?
2. 30.2 | Factors Affecting Estimation
3. 30.3 | Incremental Improvement

31 | Incrementally Improving Code Review

1. 31.1 | The Value of Code Review
2. 31.2 | From No Code Review to Formal Code Review
3. 31.3 | Use Checklists
4. 31.4 | Limit the Time of Formal Code Reviews
5. 31.5 | Refactor to Increase Review Effectiveness
6. 31.6 | From Formal Code Review to Pair/Mob Programming
7. 31.7 | Use Static Code Analysis

32 | Incrementally Improving Branching Strategy

1. 32.1 | Types of Version Control Systems
2. 32.2 | One or Multiple Version Control Systems
3. 32.3 | One or Multiple Source Repositories
4. 32.4 | Branching Strategies
5. 32.5 | Challenges In Scaling
6. 32.6 | Typical Starting Points
7. 32.7 | Step By Step Improvement
8. 32.8 | Pitfalls and Anti-Patterns

33 | Improving Infrastructure Support & Operations

1. 33.2 | Infrastructure Management Options
2. 33.2.1 | Stress
3. 33.3 | Leading Practices in Operations
4. 33.4 | Busting the Final Silos Within Each Technology Stack
5. 33.5 | Special Considerations for Mainframe Teams
6. Part 5: Coaching

34 | Coaching Skills

1. 34.1 | Coaching Competencies
2. 34.2 | Self-Awareness and Empathy
3. 34.3 | Course of Least Resistance
4. 34.4 | Make Things Visible
5. 34.5 | Manipulation
6. 34.6 | Acting
7. 34.7 | Removing Organizational Constraints
8. 34.8 | Let the Team Stumble
9. 34.9 | Be the Rock
10. 34.10 | Conflict Resolution
11. 34.11 | Principles-Based Adaptation
12. 34.12 | Having Multiple Ways to Explain Things
13. 34.13 | Awareness of Context
14. 34.14 | Knowing When To Quit

35 | Shortage of Technical Coaches

1. 35.1 | Availability of Technical Coaches
2. 35.2 | A Note on Agile Coaches
3. 35.3 | Tailored Approaches

36 | Technical Coaching Approach

1. 36.1 | Problems With the Status Quo
2. 36.2 | Addressing the Problems
3. 36.3 | Team-Level Technical Coaching Model
4. 36.4 | Scaling the Coaching Model
5. 36.5 | Developing Internal Technical Coaches
6. 36.6 | Barriers to Adoption

37 | Communication Models

1. 37.1 | Active Listening
2. 37.2 | Appreciative Inquiry
3. 37.3 | Clean Language
4. 37.4 | Crucial Conversations
5. 37.5 | Emotional Intelligence
6. 37.6 | Getting To Yes
7. 37.7 | Mindful Kindness
8. 37.8 | Powerful Questions
9. 37.9 | Radical Candor

38 | Collaboration

1. 38.1 | Improving Collaboration Improves Flow
2. 38.2 | Team Cohesiveness

39 | Internalities

1. 39.1 | Beginner’s Mind
2. 39.2 | Eye of the Hurricane
3. 39.3 | Non-Attachment
4. 39.4 | Nonviolent Communication
5. 39.5 | The Four Agreements
6. Part 6 | Summary

Appendix A | IBM Mainframe Considerations

1. A.1 | Mainframe UNIX Support
2. A.2 | Mainframe ASCII Support
3. A.3 | Mainframe as Cloud Host Environment
4. A.4 | Legacy Applications and IBM Z Cloud Features
5. A.5 | Test Automation and Test-Driven Development

Appendix B | Glossary

Appendix C | References

Appendix D | Picture Credits

1. Cover Art
2. Figures

Index