What is agile coaching?

An agile coach helps individuals, teams, and organizations embrace a culture shift based on proven human-centric agile principles, practices, and values.

Reviewed by Raúl Herranz

About agile coaching

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What does an agile coach do?

An agile coach teaches, inspires, and leads individuals, teams, and organizations as they transform the way they work.

Oftentimes, agile coaches will:

  • Lead individuals, teams, and organizations to design and execute their own plan for expanding agile while providing insights based on their experience with agile
  • Provide training in a specific agile framework or in flexible agile practices
  • Provide agile leadership coaching to executives, managers, scrum masters, and team leads
  • Instill a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration
  • Collaborate with leadership to create a roadmap for sustaining agility as the organization evolves

They play a crucial role in helping teams and leaders understand agile values and principles, apply them effectively, and evolve their practices over time to respond better to changing requirements and market conditions.

How agile coaching benefits certain organizations

Agile coaching is essential for organizations seeking to navigate the rapid pace of:

  • Technological advancements
  • Shifting consumer expectations 
  • Market volatility 
  • The need for constant innovation 

These conditions require businesses to be highly adaptable, responsive, and able to pivot on a moment's notice. An agile coach supports people as they adopt not only practices but also a way of thinking that makes it possible to deliver better products and services in less time while adapting to changes and acting on rapid feedback.

The role

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Understanding the role of an agile coach

As organizations strive to become more adaptive and responsive to context changes, the demand for people with agile coaching skills is on the rise. An agile coach is a change agent who provides training, mentorship, and guidance. As an agile coach, your days will look unique to your context, but there are some common responsibilities.

Agile coach responsibilities

Facilitates agile adoption and transformation 

Agile coaches play a pivotal role in guiding organizations through the complexities of adopting agile ways of working and thinking. They help organizations reinterpret their traditional practices within the agile framework or practices, making the transformation impactful and aligned with their organizational goals.

Enhances team collaboration, self-management, and effectiveness

Through coaching, teams learn to adopt agile practices, which may lead to improved collaboration and, ultimately, to innovative products and services. Agile coaches help teams to become self-managed, enabling faster decision-making and reducing time to market for the products and services they deliver.

Promotes a culture of continuous improvement

Agile coaching instills a mindset of continuous learning and adaptation. Coaches encourage teams to reflect on their interactions and processes, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes iteratively. This culture of continuous improvement can lead to better products, more effective organizational structures, and happier, empowered employees.

Improves communication and collaboration

Agile coaches work to break down silos within organizations, fostering a culture of open communication and collaboration over top-down protocols and inflexible plans. Coaches may support efforts to positively influence team dynamics with the objective of getting all team members to align and work effectively together towards common goals.

Navigates organizational change

Agile coaches are instrumental in managing change within organizations. They help teams and stakeholders understand and embrace agile ways of thinking and approaching work. Coaches often encounter resistance to change, as well as hesitancy and fear about new ways of working. They must be exceptional communicators and empaths to patiently navigate resistance they may encounter at any level, including among leaders who can't yet see the benefits of a transformation.

Develops agile leadership

Beyond coaching teams, agile coaches play a crucial role in developing agile leadership within the organization. They mentor leaders and managers, helping them to adopt agile principles in their leadership style, which is essential for sustaining agile transformation at all levels of the organization.

Become an agile coach

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Becoming an agile coach requires a combination of education or training and practical experience with a focus on leading teams and organizations through agile transformations. 

The journey to becoming an agile coach typically starts with gaining foundational knowledge of agile principles, values, and practices. This involves training for and working in roles that contribute to or directly involve agile practices, such as a scrum master, product owner, or member of an agile team. From there, aspiring coaches often seek to deepen their understanding and skills through mentorship, advanced credentials, and practical coaching experience.

By following this pathway—gaining the necessary experience, mentoring, training, and continuously improving your skills—you can distinguish yourself as a skilled agile coach capable of leading impactful agile transformations.

As a way to get started, choose from Scrum Alliance's agile coaching microcredential courses: fast, flexible learning programs designed to help you skill up with agile coaching competencies you can apply to any role.

Choose from one or more courses, or, better yet, take the whole suite to develop your coaching abilities.

Careers

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The 2022 State of Agile Coaching Report shows that agile coaching remains a growing field and that the demand for qualified coaches continues to increase. The demand for agile coaches is projected to grow by an estimated 9% from 2018 to 2028, according to Zippia. This growth is indicative of the increasing adoption of agile methodologies across various industries and the recognition of the value agile coaches bring to organizational efficiency and adaptability.

Agile coach salary insights

Of the 2,130 agile coaches from 82 countries who responded to the State of Agile Coaching Survey 2022, the majority reported earning between $50,000 USD and $200,000 USD per year. Those with more than four years of experience were more likely to earn 120K+ USD.

98% of respondents reported holding one or more agile certifications, and of the certifications held by respondents, the majority (48%) were issued by Scrum Alliance.

Training and credentials

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Stand apart with an agile coaching credential

While practical experience is irreplaceable, Scrum Alliance's microcredential courses are designed to help you upskill so you have tools, resources, and knowledge to support you in your new endeavor. Agile coaching microcredentials include:

Whether you're a scrum master, team lead, project manager, or in virtually any other role, these coaching courses are designed to introduce you to crucial skills and set you up with key competencies to expand your agile coaching abilities.

We suggest taking all of these courses to get a well-rounded understanding of coaching for today's agile teams and organizations.

Frequently asked questions

Agile coaching is a great career choice. The demand for agile coaches is growing as organizations increasingly adopt agile ways of working to improve effectiveness, adaptability, and response to market changes. This growth reflects the expanding adoption of agile practices across various industries and underscores the significant impact agile coaches have on organizational success.

 

You do not need to be certified to be an agile coach, but employers may look for credentials and other qualifications in their hiring process. A Scrum Alliance badge in a coaching skill or competency can help you stand out and demonstrate your knowledge.

Agile coaches are responsible for guiding organizations through the adoption and implementation of agile. Their key responsibilities include:

  • Facilitating agile transformation
  • Enhancing team performance and efficiency
  • Promoting a culture of continuous improvement
  • Improving communication and collaboration
  • Navigating organizational change
  • Developing agile leadership

They play a pivotal role in ensuring that teams and leaders understand and effectively apply agile values and principles to achieve better responsiveness to changing requirements and market conditions.

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