Applied Learning

Coaching and Mentoring Services

Did you know that Watermark Learning offers Coaching and Mentoring in the areas of Agile Implementation, Business Analysis, and Project Management for your business? Whether or not your employees have taken Watermark Learning classes, you're invited to take advantage of our Coaching and Mentoring services to help move your business forward. And if you've already hosted onsite Watermark Learning classes at your organization, Coaching and Mentoring can be the next step to develop the skills your team members have learned. We offer Coaching and Mentoring in these three important areas:

Watermark Learning can also provide coaching and mentoring for industry certification programs, such as CBAP® and PMP®. We will also be happy to meet with you to design a coaching/mentoring program custom-tailored to your needs.

   

BENEFITS OF COACHING AND MENTORING

• Developing and honing skills learned in our Agile Training, Business Analysis Training, and Project Management Training classes.
• Learning from the best – Our coaches and mentors, with an average of over 20 years of business experience, are also subject matter experts and instructors with a high level of expertise, ideas, and acquired skills.
• Access to business experience – Regardless of what your team has done or is doing, chances are our mentors have already done something similar. You'll avoid costly mistakes by learning how to do it right the first time.
• A sounding board – A Watermark Learning mentor/coach helps your team to stay on track, check assumptions, generate new ideas, and provides support.
• Improved chances of success – "You don't know what you don't know," but our mentors do. Leverage their experience and knowledge for your own success.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Here is a partial list of what Watermark Learning's experienced subject matter experts can provide for your team in each of our three coaching and mentoring areas:

Agile Coaching and Mentoring

• Coaching a team or teams new to Agile as you prepare to undertake your Agile journey
• Observing and/or facilitating your team's Agile ceremonies:
  • Sprint zero activities (visioning, ground rules, creating the backlog)
  • Release planning
  • Sprint planning
  • Product demos
  • Retrospectives
  • Daily standups
• Facilitating your user story and other Agile artifacts (backlogs, burndowns, etc.)
  • Coaching on Agile development
  • Reviewing and commenting
• Providing Agile open coaching: an open set of hours to meet with your teams or individuals and answer their questions:
  • As a team is preparing for Agile development and/or
  • As the team is practicing Agile
• Agile assessments:
  • Assessing your organization/business unit's potential success with Agile, based on their organizational readiness
  • Sponsor engagement
  • Interviewing and observing your team's agile practices and publishing results/findings
• Agile leadership mentoring: mentoring managers and other leaders in how to lead self-organizing teams

Business Analysis Coaching and Mentoring

• Coaching a COE as you formalize your business analysis practices, including governance structures
• Coaching your teams on preparing for elicitation activities
• Observing and/or facilitating your requirements workshops, as well as coaching on interviews, observation, and other elicitation and prioritization techniques
• Coaching, reviewing, and commenting on the development of your business analysis artifacts, such as:
  • Business case
  • Business requirements documents
  • Scope/context diagrams
  • RFPs sent to vendors
  • Traceability matrix
  • Process models (see itemized list below)
  • Data models (entity/relationship models)
  • Use case models (primary and alternate paths, includes, extends, generalizations)
  • Storyboards, wireframes and prototypes
• Open coaching: an open set of hours to meet with your teams or individuals and answer their questions on any of the above and also your concerns about:
  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Prioritization techniques
• Business process management:
  • Coaching on the development of your scope diagrams and SIPOCS (supplier/inputs/process/outputs/customer)
  • Facilitating or providing feedback on your current and future state process mapping activities
  • Reviewing and providing feedback on processing your artifacts, such as value stream models, swim lanes, and process maps
  • Coaching on suggesting and quantifying improvements
• Soft skills coaching (conflict management, virtual teams, critical thinking, active listening, body language, etc.)
• Review progress at set intervals, such as 3, 6, 9 months after the initial coaching
• Assessments

Project Management Coaching and Mentoring

• Coaching your PMO as they formalize project and portfolio management practices, including governance structures
• Coaching your PMO/PM/teams on reporting of projects, programs, portfolios
• Coaching, reviewing, and commenting on the development of project management artifacts, such as:
  • Charters
  • Scope statements
  • Work breakdown structures and activity lists
  • Risk registers
  • Communications plans
  • Your properly scaled project management plan as a whole, including your plans to monitor and control the project
• Facilitating your meetings
  • Developing the above artifacts
  • Kickoff meetings
  • Lessons learned
• Coaching on:
  • Sponsor engagement
  • Project rescue
  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Soft skills coaching (conflict management, virtual teams, critical thinking, active listening, body language, etc.)
• Open coaching: an open set of hours to meet with your teams or individuals and answer their questions on any of the above
• Reviewing progress at set intervals, such as 3, 6, 9 months after the initial coaching
• Assessments

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