What does a business coach do?
In answering this question, I decided to reread Andy and my original paper on the agile business coach.
I agree with what we wrote a couple of years ago.
In defining the role, I would focus on the following.
The business coach should ensure that there is a business value model for the project. They should ensure that everyone on the project understands the business value model.
The business coach is responsible for the business domain knowledge of the development team. Their deliverable is a development team that understand the domain and the business problem. To do this they need to be able to be learn the domain quickly and then transfer that knowledge to the developers.
They need to establish effective trusted relationships between the development team and the business users.
The business coach should help to establish a ubiquitous domain language for the project.
In order to perform this role, the business coach must be a learner and a coach. They should understand the domain well enough to argue with domain experts. They should understand the issues faced by developers (hence my desire to understand OO). Finally, they should have the structured learning (analysis) skills that allow them to translate the vaque and fluffy business language into a precise domain language.
Posted by chrismatts at December 13, 2004 4:30 PM