What is an Agile coach?

Every year, more and more organizations are turning to Agile and leaving the Waterfall model behind to minimize risk and improve resource management. However, although Agile is easy to grasp as a concept, orchestrating an organizational shift to Agile can be a daunting task. This is where Agile coaches come in.

An Agile coach is a person who assists individuals, teams, and organizations to adopt Agile methodology and practices. An Agile coach’s job tasks include training, mentoring, and facilitating Agile teams and overseeing Agile processes to boost an organization’s productivity. These coaches can be permanent company employees or hired on a contract basis to set a company on track.

Agile coaches usually have past experience in Project Management, IT, or Software Development. Skills acquired from these fields help Agile coaches gel Agile teams together and familiarize organizations with Agile tools and the Agile culture. An experienced Agile coach can help organizations transition to Agile smoothly.

Scrum masters are a popular kind of Agile coach.

Types of Agile Coaches

There are three main types of agile coaches. Let’s briefly discuss the duties of each.

Agile team facilitator
An Agile team facilitator who focuses on a single team to help it transition to Agile and increase efficiency. Agile team facilitators are commonly known as Scrum masters, Scrum coaches, iteration managers, or Kanban coaches.
Agile coach
Experienced Agile team facilitators who are a good fit to become Agile coaches. Agile coaches work with multiple teams throughout an organization to help teams and departments adjust to agile, help teams work together smoothly, and train Agile team facilitators.
Enterprise agile coach
Agile coaches can grow into Enterprise Agile coaches. As the name suggests, an Enterprise Agile coach is responsible for helping an enterprise transition to Agile. This is a senior leadership position, so Enterprise Agile coaches are well aware of organizational design, enterprise change management, and executive leadership coaching.