We've talked about ways for the programming team to continuously learn and ways for the team as a whole to continuously learn, but what about an XP team's coach? It is critical that an XP coach be a continuous learner, because the coach is the leader of the team. If the coach doesn't value learning, the team won't either. A coach must lead by example. This means that the coach must seek out and obtain coaching and mentoring from the best sources available. The coach must also ensure that continuous learning happens on a regular basis. And it can take quite a bit of courage to not cancel a programmers' study group meeting in the face of a looming release date. Coaches must strive to learn about their customers' needs, team or personality conflicts, new technologies, and the latest wisdom about XP and other lightweight methods. I recently learned of an excellent continuous learning technique for coaches from Rob Mee, who is an XP coach at Evant, a merchandise management company in San Francisco. Rob has learned that the best way for him to continue to learn about the system his team is building is to program. So Rob programs to learn, and says he now uses 50% of his time to do so. |