Agile transformations equip organizations with the ability to change and adapt in a constantly changing and unpredictable environment. However, it is not as easy to achieve as it sounds. It often requires a massive shift from an organization’s current modus operandi. Yet, most tend to underestimate the transformation process and the extent of its challenges, leading to inadequate preparation, and ultimately, failed transformations.

A Harvard Business Review research reveals that many large-scale transformations lead to chaos within organizations as they fail to meet their goals. Also, in a survey of about 112 companies, 90% of the respondents said they struggled to achieve organization-wide transformation.

Successful transformations begin with designating leadership teams. Therefore, it makes sense to have an experienced professional oversee agile teams’ development, train them on the agile methodology, and guide the whole implementation process to help the organization overcome possible challenges. An Agile coach often occupies that role.

Although there’s no one-size-fits-all definition for an agile coach, they often possess extensive agile knowledge and assume the role of facilitator for all agile processes within an organization. The presence of an agile coach in your transformation project helps you navigate through any possible obstacle, ensuring a seamless transition to organizational agility.

However, Agile coaches are often brought into the scrum environment to run teams and ensure high-quality team performance. This is where most companies are getting this wrong. While an agile coaches can produce high-performing teams, they don’t do so without a scrum master. The scrum master is responsible for running teams and ensuring each member does their job effectively, while the agile coach is all about organizational and operational agility.

That said, so much goes into being a scrum master, and it can get very challenging without the experience of an agile coach. Since scrum is the most commonly used agile methodology, I’ll explain further using scrum as the focus point.

Scrum Adoption Requires Agile Coaching Support

The scrum guide consists of research blocks laid through decades of practical experience to form its underlying principles. According to this guide, “scrum is easy to understand but difficult to master.”  This is because becoming agile - being able to adapt in a rapidly changing environment quickly - does not happen overnight; time and experience are the main factors of Scrum mastery.

However, most organizations are guilty of trying to achieve agility with little to no preparation. Yes, they create agile teams and train them, but they leave them on their own and expect them to perform at a high level. Expecting results from newly formed agile teams is akin to laying Rafael-Nadal-type expectations on an amateur tennis player after a few training sessions with a pro. This is impractical and is the primary reason behind most failed transformations.

Scrum requires a change from the usual way of thinking to uncharted territories, which is a practically impossible feat to attain without support. For a better understanding, let’s define the roles and responsibilities of both.

Scrum Master vs Agile Coach: Roles and Responsibilities

Agile Coach

The Agile Coach’s role is not yet part of the three official scrum roles per the scrum guide. Perhaps, this is why many organizations don’t regard this role as essential for their agile transformation. Or, even when they do, it is to replace the scrum master.

However, the agile coach role was created by goal-oriented industry experts wanting to set up teams to perform at the highest possible levels. And, while both roles may share a few similarities, an agile coach covers a larger scope with more extensive expertise than the scrum master. For example, where a scrum master leads “a” team, an agile coach leads “all” the teams.

The agile coach works to achieve company-wide success, ensuring operational agility through guiding and leading multiple teams in the right direction. An effective coach leads by example, driving goal-oriented teams towards innovative solutions without fostering leadership-based dependency.

Responsibilities

The following are the day-to-day responsibilities of an agile coach:

• Introducing the agile methodology and its best practices
• Training teams on the use of agile tools and the best possible strategies
• Tracking transformation progress and working through any challenges
• Facilitating company buy-in
• Guiding company leaders through the transition to an agile mindset.

Scrum Masters

Scrum masters share almost all the responsibilities of an agile coach but in a smaller scope. In fact, if you have more than enough scrum masters in terms of numbers, that are sufficiently knowledgeable and experienced in the art of agility, you may not need an agile coach. However, most new scrum masters are often transitioned from project management and are new to what’s required of a scrum master. In this case, agile coaching is imperative.

As stated earlier, scrum masters are like leaders of single teams. They are tasked with ensuring team performance. An effective scrum master takes the time to understand his or her teams’ strengths, weaknesses, and possible areas of improvement. And therefore leverage agile knowledge to drive desired outcomes by using strategies that suit the team.

Responsibilities

The following are required of a scrum master:

• Educate team members on Scrum theory and best practices
• Improve team members agile knowledge and skills
• Spearheading insightful team meetings
• Facilitating a seamless communication system within the team
• Overseeing sprint planning and backlog management

Agile Coach - Scrum Master Relationship

Scrum masters produce high-performing team members, and agile coaches produce high-performing scrum masters. Agile coach mentors, trains, and facilitates multiple teams, and since scrum masters lead these teams, they’re invariably the ones being coached.

However, after a significant period of thorough learning and positive traction, a group of scrum masters can take over the agile coaching role. And, if the need for a coach arises along the road, you can engage one as a contract staff.

Here are some guidelines to employing this approach for a successful transformation

• Agile coaches should add scrum masters’ development to their menu, providing agile training and guidance.
• Scrum masters’ focus should be on getting the most out of the team by leveraging team-specific strategies with the authority and access to solve team problems.
• Organizations should add “scrum masters’ development to agile coaches” to the scrum masters’ roadmap.

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