Technically, they are no different.
There is a difference in style and expertise but ultimately, a great scrum master acts as a coach throughout the organisation to help the team optimize Scrum and achieve sprint goals and objectives.
Most Agile coaches are scrum masters who have developed their coaching skills, professionally, in addition to being Scrum practitioners. It’s a natural evolution for Scrum Masters.
In a scrum environment, the scrum master works with the team to help evolve, incrementally, with each sprint that is completed. The coaching element extends into facilitation where the Scrum Master can play a valuable role in sprint reviews and retrospectives.
A scrum master will also work outside of the development team environment by actively engaging product owners and product stakeholders inside the organisation.
Their coaching skills develop naturally as part of their on-the-job skills development but many scrum masters choose to augment their skills with training and certification such as the Advanced Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master courses.
Agile Centre also host the Agile Coaching Academy to help cultivate and nurture Agile coaching skills in individuals who see Agile coaching as a career path they would like to follow.
So, the difference between an Agile coach and a Scrum Master is mostly a matter of time and skills development that focuses on the coaching element of being a master practitioner in Scrum.
Agile Coaching FAQs
- What is an Agile Coach?
- What is the difference between a traditional coach and an Agile Coach?
- What are the career opportunities for an Agile Coach?
- Do you need to be a Scrum or Agile practitioner to become an Agile coach?
- Do I need to be an expert in Scrum to start my Agile coaching journey?
- Is an Agile coach a line management position?
- How do I integrate Agile coaching into a traditional management role?
- Do project managers make great candidates for Agile coaches?
- Can I become an Agile coach from both the scrum master and product owner tracks?
- What would be a great apprenticeship for an Agile coach?
- How is an Agile coach different from a Scrum Master?
- How will I know if Agile coaching is a good fit for me?
- Are there levels of seniority for Agile coaches?
- How effective is Agile coaching in an organisation that doesn’t embrace Agile?
- Is Agile coaching a natural evolution from Scrum Mastery?
- What is the difference between an Agile coach and a Project Manager?
- How will hiring an Agile coach help our business?
- I’m a project manager. Can I make the transition to Agile coach?
- How does Agile coaching help Agile transformations?
- How much of an impact can Agile coaches have on entrepreneurs?
- Will becoming an Agile coach help me lead my company more effectively?
- What is the difference between a Certified Enterprise Coach and a Certified Team Coach?
- Do Agile coaches work with individuals or teams?
- I lead a development team. Will becoming an Agile coach benefit us?
- How long will it take to go from Scrum Master to Agile Coach?