What is the Difference Between an Agile Coach and a Scrum Master?

While pursuing my A-CSM certification I came across Lyssa Adkins' Agile Coaching Competency Framework and for the first time in many years I am able to articulate the difference between an Agile Coach and a Scrum Master. Before we proceed, I would like to give credit to the Agile Coaching Institute and Adventures with Agile for publishing a session where Lyssa Adkins and Simon Powers explore the role of the Agile Coach. If you are in the midst of a transformation, new to the agile world or would like to have a better understanding of these agile roles, this article is a great starting point. It will provide you some knowledge that will help you find the right people, in order to maximize your agile transformation success. For more in-depth knowledge, I recommend watching the video provided in this link.

The Agile Coaching Competency Framework, shown below, is categorized into (1) 'Process-focused' Competencies: Coaching and Facilitating, (2) 'Content-focused' Competencies: Teaching and Mentoring, and (3) 'Agile-Lean Practitioner': Knowledge & Application. Domain mastery is considered optional and usually agile coaches become an expert in one as they progress in their career. Agile Coaches usually shade the areas that reflect their of level competency.

Source: Agile Coaching Institute

Agile & Lean Practitioner is the focus of the framework; it encompasses knowledge and real-life application of Agile Frameworks.

Examples of Agile Frameworks include: Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP). As you may have guessed, Scrum Master is generally the 'branded' term for Agile Coaches who apply the Scrum Framework. The equivalent of a Scrum Master in Kanban is Agile Coach, and the equivalent in Extreme Programming is XP Coach.

In many cases, intermediate to senior level Agile Coaches are knowledgeable in multiple frameworks and use their judgement in applying one or many depending on the situation. In fact, knowledge of multiple frameworks is a requirement to pass the Advanced Scrum Master Certification (A-CSM) exam. There is also a movement towards combining multiple frameworks to fill in gaps. For example, XP practices, such as pair-programming and continuous integration, can be applied by scrum teams since scrum does not provide any framework guidance around technical practices. This shifts the mindset of Scrum Masters from strictly applying scrum to using any framework that upholds the values of Agile and is relevant to their situation. I personally prefer branding myself as an Agile Coach for that reason.

The Scrum Master is an Agile Coach who is specialized in Applying Scrum and primarily focuses on serving the Team, while helping those outside of the team support the Team's success.

The organizational focus of an Agile Coach may vary from (1) team, (2) program, to (3) portfolio and enterprise, depending on the size and agile maturity level of the organization.

Team-Servant Agile Coach. The Scrum Guide defines the role of the Scrum Master as "...the servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t." A Scrum Master is an example of an Agile Coach who primarily focuses on serving the team and in the process of doing so applies process and content coaching competencies, such as teaching, mentoring, professional coaching and facilitating. Depending on the Team's maturity and size, a Scrum Master's focus can be split across two teams. The Scrum guide suggests 3-9 members on each team. Based on my experience, having a dedicated scrum master for a team new to Agile is essential.

Program Coach. On large scale implementations, Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches (if not applying Scrum) can self-organize to form a team of teams. In most cases, the most senior Scrum Master is designated the role of Scrum of Scrum Masters. There are many other frameworks that help ensure Agile Teams are aligned. I am most familiar with the Scaled Agile Framework? (SAFe?), so I will only speak to it here. In SAFe?, the equivalent of a Chief Scrum Master is the Release Train Engineer (RTE), aka the Chief Scrum Master for team of teams.

Enterprise Agile Coaches. In large organizations that are very hierarchical and require a cultural change, it is often a good idea to obtain the help of a coach with Transformation Mastery, i.e. change management and organizational development. Enterprise Agile Coaches work together with other Agile Coaches in the organization to create the organizational structure and mindset that sets the stage for successful agile adoption. The key to creating a successful mindset starts with coaching leadership in Agile values. A bottom up approach to agile adoption is ineffective.

I hope the above clarifies that a 'Scrum Master' is simply an Agile Coach specializing in Scrum, and that Agile Coaches' organizational focus can vary depending on capacity and area of specialization - there is no right answer or a single box they fit in. At this point of the article, I will be using the term 'Agile Coach' as a general term that includes 'Scrum Masters'.

The art of teaching, mentoring, coaching and facilitating are often underestimated and difficult to assess

I won't attempt at defining the differences between process-focused and content-based competencies, since there are many excellent resources out there that already do that. However, what I will say is Agile is shifting the organizational mindset from managing people to managing the system. Agile empowers teams to realize their own challenges, identify their best ways of working, and solve their own problems. An analogy I can provide is a soccer coach who empowers their team to identify why they haven't been able to score as many goals as their opponent. The team determines it is due to their player positioning, so they decide to experiment with having more players clustered around their opponent's net and as a result increase their score. A good coach will point out the problem but a better coach will empower the team to identify it and facilitate the problem-solving process by asking why. There are many techniques that can be used to effectively teach, mentor, coach and facilitate at all parts of the organization. Look for evidence of workshops taken to acquire these tools as they are not covered in the basic CSM certification. The International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) is one of the community driven organization that accredits training sessions that help Agile Coaches acquire these tools.

Domain Mastery affect the Agile Coach's credibility when mentoring and teaching the team within a particle domain

Technical Mastery. Agile Coaches come from different backgrounds. Some start as developers early in their careers and have years of experience performing technical lead roles. Agile Coaches with technical mastery will mentor and teach engineers through example or doing, while architecting, coding, designing, test engineering or some other technical aspect.

Business Mastery. Agile Coaches with Business Mastery often held roles in the areas of Business Analysis, Business Strategy, Business Process Management and Product Innovation. They are able to coach the Product Owner and Product Management team on articulating product visions, creating roadmaps, and user stories. I consider myself an Agile Coach with Business Mastery.

Transformation Mastery. Agile Coaches with Transformation Mastery often have knowledge in change management, organizational development and organizational culture. They are able to increase an organization's agile fluency and influence their agile adoption. I am currently growing my Transformation Mastery skills by enrolling in Organizational Development classes.

In conclusion, an Agile Coach is a broad term that can refer to team-level coach, program level coach or enterprise level coach. The market trend is moving towards Agile Coaches who have knowledge in multiple frameworks, so the term Scrum Master who applies 'pure scrum' will probably be out-dated.

I hope this article has helped shed some clarity around the competency areas of an Agile Coach. While I have based my definitions on the Scrum Guide and Lyssa Adkin's Competency Framework, the term 'Scrum Master' is used very inconsistently within the industry, even in environments where 'Scrum' is not applied. My advice for recruiters and candidates when determining fit is to use the Agile Competency Diagram as a conversational starter to determine candidates competencies and how they match the organizational needs, then determine the organizational scope the role will focus on (team, program or enterprise) in order to align on expectations. For organizations with existing Agile Teams and Coaches, I encourage involving the Agile Teams and Agile Coaches in determining coaching gaps they would like to fill and working with the Talent Team during the hiring process.

All references have been embedded in the articles as links.