Agile trainings and coaching @EPAM Czech Republic

Prague, ‘the City of 100 Spires’. I and Bogi were invited to deliver Agile related trainings and coaching for EPAM Czech Republic. ‘Agile thinking’, ‘Self-organizing teams’ and ‘Product Owner basics’ trainings, along with coaching on different topics were requested. Unfortunately, our stay in Prague clashed with the coldest Jan days and the freezing wind, impeding any tourist-wanna-be attempts. Nevertheless, the experience with the Czech Agile enthusiasts was great enough to compensate for the impolite weather.

(photos courtesy of EPAM)

Agile thinking

Our opening show was ‘Agile thinking’ delivered in two consecutive days. It covers all the stuff needed to adopt the mindset, the values and the principles. We went through all the advantages of being adaptable, nimble and improvements hungry. Covered the difference between vision and goal. Experienced setting a goal, understanding the context and delivering in iterations to get continuous feedback as soon as possible. In the end we briefly covered Scrum and the incorrect implementation when the thinking & beliefs (mindset and values) are missing or not adopted

Self-organizing teams

Designed as a half-a-day experience we let the audience self-organize and self-manage ‘in order to save the Earth’. It was a brilliant-gamified event in which the participants went through different stages, experiencing the depth and dynamics of self-organization, and created efficient and performing team(s). The journey, I am certain, none of the participants will ever forget - the common goal, the consistent endeavor, the stages, the challenges, the learning and the overall performance. The audience was mesmerized and totally engaged from the first minute until the very end.

Product Owner basics

It was the cherry on the cake. We concluded our ‘trainings sprint’, delivering for the current and future ‘business folks’, who would like to challenge themselves and become great product owners. Covering the role, the mindset, and the skill set, the participants took part in consistent gamified events, and practiced ‘gathering info from the stakeholders’, ‘creating artifacts’, ‘presenting to and refining the backlog items with the development team,’ and ‘reviewing the completed/incomplete work over a comprehensive review with multiple scenarios’.

During our visit, we were dragged into interesting conversations and coached the fellow colleagues into topics like ‘advanced Scrum-mastering’, ‘how to adopt Agile with Waterfall mindset clients’, ‘what is the role of the manager in Agile environment’, etc…

Exhausted, and happy we landed at SOF airport at the last day of our trip, recalling the amazing moments and feeling grateful for the whole experience. Thank you EPAM Prague!

Interview with Simo @EPAM

 (image by EPAM Bulgaria)

Recently EPAM’s InfoPortal published my interview, related to the most recent training ‘Mastering ScrumMastering’, and hopefully the insights would be useful for all of you who wish to develop as trainers.

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Simeon Kisyov has successfully delivered several training sessions on Scrum in Sofia. Today, he shares the ‘backstage’ of a trainer’s activity, the secrets to delivering good training, and plans for the future.

EPAM: What was the reason behind your wish to contribute as a trainer?
Simeon: That’s what I do. I love conducting training sessions and delivering talks, sharing experience and inventing amazing games and challenges so that participants can learn and grow quickly while having fun. Supporting people to get out of their comfort zone feels great.

EPAM: What training have you already conducted?
Simeon: I’ve delivered ‘Agile and Scrum Foundations,’ ‘Mastering ScrumMastering’ in a series of trainings, a couple of talks, e.g. ‘Self-organizing teams’, ‘Empower your decisions,’ and a lot of other 'Agile training' events. Some of those we developed together with Bogoy Bogdanov.

EPAM: What was the most challenging thing for you while preparing training sessions at EPAM?
Simeon: Innovation is always a challenge. I ask myself, ‘If I am to attend the training, what would keep me interested in it, what would be the ‘wow’ moments to keep me engaged and hungry for more, what would be useful to practice, without being boring.’ Based on these, I develop games, talks, presentations, and practice sessions, keeping in mind the mantra: ‘Engage with the audience to influence a change.’

EPAM: What to your mind is the most interesting during your training sessions?
Simeon: Most of the games were fun. Probably the ‘out of the box thinking’ game ‘Still picture’ when we all used our bodies to create and evolve pictures. Very creative and cool scenes we got there.

EPAM: What changes have happened in your daily activities/personality after training conducting?
Simeon: Surprisingly, I had to cover the Product Owner role in the team for some time. (laughing)

EPAM: Your training has very good feedback from participants. What’s your personal secret for good training? How do you create a high-quality educational event?
Simeon: Innovation, a lot of practice and always sticking to ‘Deliver value in an easy-to-understand/practice and interesting way.’ The formula is useful + interesting(fun) = valuable.

EPAM: What inspires you for daily work and conducting trainings?
Simeon: I love sharing knowledge and experience and helping others growing.

EPAM: What would you recommend to trainers preparing their first training event?
Simeon: Delivery is everything (not materials, neither expertise, nor even the content). You have to inspire and keep it on emotional level to engage. Don’t copy anybody else style/materials/games. Try to come up with ‘your stuff’, delivered in ‘your way.’ We all value authenticity and passion more, compared to conservative (just logical) sharing of information.

EPAM: Do you plan to create new training sessions soon? What topics are you going to cover?
Simeon: There is demand for ‘Agile Scaling in Software Development’ and ‘Product Owner advanced’ we will cover soon.