EVDnC (Extreme Value-driven Coaching) for Agile teams is a process designed by Marcos Garrido, Rafael Sabbagh and Rodrigo de Toledo. The goal is to promote efficiency and Agility leap in product development, from the analysis of client’s business, needs to the techniques used for software development.
For an intensive week, we run full-time coaching sessions with development teams and business people. It can be done with one or more teams at the same time.
1 – Pre-Game: before the EVDnC week, we work with business people to identify and select a very high-valued product idea to transform into a working product in one week. The output of this session is a Product Vision.
2- Preparation: in the first day of EVDnC we gather everyone in a room (business people + team members) to explain the whole idea (what EVDnC is, how it works, what is expected by the end of the week). Business people shares and discusses the Product Vision with the team to make sure everyone is on the same page. When everything is understood, the team receives a go. The outputs of the preparation are the Release Plan and the development environment up and running.
3 – Development: from the second day on, we run what we call “one-day sprints”. Starting with a quick planning session, followed by a full day of development, ending with a review and retrospective. The team aims to deliver working software by the end of each day, so they receive useful feedback for the next “sprint”. That is the main part of EVDnC: we coach business people on how to select, split and discard user stories in an effective way. The development team learns how to be effective by learning/improving software development techniques. Team members also learn facilitation techniques to help the team improve its effectiveness. Most important of all, business people and team work side by side during the whole process. The very intensive process helps everyone to focus on what really matters, as it imposes strict time constraints.
4 – Closure: by the end of the week we have a working, high-value MVP (minimum viable product) of the software running live. To close the week, we run a Big Review with all teams and business people involved. After that, we run a retrospective where they discuss what was learned, how they felt during the process, and what they will keep doing from that moment on.
