The business coaches role can be thought of as being broken out into three tasks, Learning (Analysis), Issue Resolution and Knowledge Transfer (Coaching).
The outputs from each task are:
Analysis - A set of questions in an issue log (Excel or similar lightweight tool).
Issue Resolution - The answers to the questions.
Knowledge Transfer - Developers trained in the business domain and the problem/opportunity specifically.
Answering the question is often best done by the developers as it improves their relationship with the business because they can ask sensible and insightful questions that demonstrate understanding. The business coach should only find the answer to the question if they feel it will open up further questions or if getting the answer will require facilitation of a group of people to answer it.
The real value that the business coach adds is by knowing which questions to ask. "Is this a single currency or multiple currency application?", and not by getting the answer.
Posted by chrismatts at January 14, 2004 9:00 PM