Adam Sroka (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/message/51019):
.... an experienced coach can help guide an organization to do these things successfully based on his experience.
You don't hire sherpas to climb the mountain for you. You hire them for their knowledge of the terrain and its various perils so that *you* can climb the mountain in relative safety. A coach is a very similar thing.
Also similarly, the ultimate success or failure of the expedition is not the sole responsibility of the sherpa, but most experienced climbers recognize that it is irresponsible to proceed without his assistance.
When implementing Scrum/agile/any methodology change...
If I don't hire an agile coach, I'm:
- undertaking the risk of doing things wrong
- saving money I would pay to coach
- risking losing those money on my mistakes
=> decision hire/not hire should come from weighting probabilities, my knowledge of the subject and return on investment into coach
If I hire an agile coach, I'm:
- paying for avoiding common mistakes
- speeding up change
- learning things I wouldn't come around otherwise
Concerns when hiring a coach:
- choosing the right coach
- coach experience
- references
- trusting the coach does his job the best possible way and doesn't hold back to have more work later
- conflict of interest - if coach will solve everything, he wouldn't have work later
Things to consider:
- what do I know about the subject of change?
- do I have someone in the organization, who knows a lot more about the subject?
- pro - it is cheaper, than external coach
- con - we are both limited by the same organization culture and possibly won't come up with radically different change which would matter
- duration of the engagement - how long will I need coach?
- how to formulate coaches task
- what is coaches deliverable/goal of the engagement?
- how much it will cost?
- do I hire coach for solving specific problem or for continuous work? Will it be
- fix price per deliverable
- certain amount of hours which are sufficient to achieve the goal
- something else
- how do I learn enough so that I won't be dependant on the coach?
- train several internal people, which will spread knowledge without the coach - consider coach's supervision over this process