Agile Coach: Job Profile

As an agile coach, you support the successful transformation of a company or institution from being non-agile to becoming and staying agile. To become an agile coach, you need to be an experienced professional with strong communicational skills and profound knowledge of project management and technical proficiency. There are mainly three different types of agile coaches: agile team coaches, agile coaches and enterprise agile coaches. The job of an agile coach is demanding on many levels, as you play a key role in the success of the company.

Short Summary

• The agile coach supports individuals, teams, or the management board when it comes to the transformation from non-agile to agile.
• Agile coaches are expected to be experienced professionals and possess profound technical skills as well as communication skills.
• Most agile coaches come from a project management background. The career path in agile coaching usually starts on the agile team coaching level.

Job description

As an agile coach, you support individuals, teams, and the management during the transformation from non-agile to agile. You will be expected to lecture on the topic of agility, monitor projects and processes to identify resistance against agility within the team or company and work out ways to overcome it. Your job involves on the following core principles:

• Empowerment of individuals or teams: You supply knowledge and support to project managers, project teams and the management to overcome resistance.
• Building of relationships: You support the team when it comes to building trust and collaboration among all interacting teams within the company and stakeholders the same.
• Reliability: As an agile coach, you help to develop tools, that guarantee predictability into processes and systems as well as tasks and timelines. 

Responsibilities

• Introducing agile ceremonies to the team or institution
• Coaching, lecturing and mentoring of individuals and teams
• Empowering individuals who are responsible for the transformation process
• Leading the process of transformation from non-agile to agile
• Identifying and removing impediments
• Engaging stakeholders
• Mediation: Overcoming resolutions and helping to resolve conflict and tensions 

Different types of Agile Coaches

• Agile team coaches / agile team facilitators
• Agile coaches
• Enterprise agile coaches

Salary

On average, an agile coach in the UK earns an average of £75.000. The salary depends on the industry you work in as well as your level of experience. Annual salaries usually vary between £50.000 and £100.000 in the UK.

Working hours

As an agile coach, your working hours may vary from a standard 9am to 5am scheme to long hours in the evening or even on the weekends. As you support teams, you are expected to work overtime whenever this is required.

Agile Coaches sometimes work flexible hours or remote, as long as they can guarantee to be on board whenever they are needed.

Employers

In recent years, the role of agile coaches has gained popularity as more and more companies and institutions as awareness increased, that business success is more often than not based on the factor of agility. Therefore, even smaller companies are hiring agile coaches.

Agile coaches work for different industries and companies from star-up levels to global players. You may also consider a consulting company that works in the field of agile coaching.

Qualifications

There might not be a set of formal qualifications to become an agile coach, but most employers will expect candidates to be experienced professionals. Most agile coaches come from a project management background and hold at least a bachelor’s and more often a master’s degree.

In addition, employers expect agile coaches to have profound knowledge of project management and agile tools. Having a technical background is also a plus if you want to start a career as an agile coach.

Skills

Agile coaches need a diverse set of skills to fulfil their tasks. These include the skills you already proved to have as a project manager, as well as additional skills. The three core skills employers expect candidates to possess concern change management, analytical thinking and attention to detail.

Change Management

Agile Coaches have to be experts at change management strategies. Change management is the process of planning, implementing and guiding individuals and teams through the transformation from non-agile to agile. Change management experts identify potential obstacles, develop strategies to successfully overcome them, and help people to understand the need for change.

Analytical Thinking

Agile coaches require a profound ability to analyse and evaluate information, identify patterns and relationships. Therefore, you need to be able to break down complex situations and problems into smaller components. The next step is to draw logical conclusions.

Analytical thinking also includes the ability to approach situations in a systematic and organized manner. They will consider multiple perspectives and potential solutions.

Attention to Detail

Agile coaches require a profound ability to analyse and evaluate information, identify patterns and relationships. Therefore, you need to be able to break down complex situations and problems into smaller components. The next step is to draw logical conclusions.

Analytical thinking also includes the ability to approach situations in a systematic and organized manner. They will consider multiple perspectives and potential solutions.

Career Path

To start the career as an agile coach, you need to possess a certain set of hard skills as well as soft skills. The career path as an agile coach depends on the industry you work in and your individual preferences and experience.

In many cases, you might start as an agile team coach, also known as agile team facilitator. In this role, you work closely with one, or several, project teams. It is your responsibility to lecture, mentor and supervise the team’s transition to agile. 

The next step up the career ladder will be working as an agile coach. Your responsibilities include the integration of agile teams or departments within the non-agile company or institution.

The highest level of agile coaching is the role of an enterprise agile coach. In this role, you need to possess knowledge of organizational design and enterprise change as you will work with the senior leadership. It is your responsibility to help them understand the benefits of agile as well as the structure needed to transform the company.

Educational Background

Most agile coaches hold at least a bachelor’s degree, more often a master’s degree. In addition, you need a strong understanding of various agile frameworks and methodologies. Last but not least, as an agile coach, you might consider obtaining both a project manage and an agile coach certification.

Gaining Experience

In most cases, agile coaches are experienced project managers themselves. Through your work in project management, you gain experience with the obstacles that occur throughout the process of a project.

In addition to obtaining an agile coach certification, you might want to apply for a project that already uses agile principles. This way you can gain relevant, hand-on experience.

Continuous Learning

As an agile coach, you need to be one step ahead of your coaches. Therefore, ongoing learning is essential. Stay up to date to new methods and technical solutions in the market of project management and agile.

You might not necessarily need to be profound in every agile tool. But you have to know about trends and new tool that are available. This you will achieve through networking, reading specific publications and taking part in conferences.

A Day in the Life of an Agile Coach

There is no such thing as a typical day in the life of an agile coach as your tasks vary depending on the organization, the team, and the project you are working with. However, there are certain responsibilities that define your work as an agile coach.

In the following sections, we will dive deeper into the core responsibilities of an agile coach, so that you get a general overview of what a typical day in the challenging life of an agile coach might look like.

Team Coaching, Training and Workshops

As an agile coach, you will support the team with their daily tasks. This includes the stand-up meetings that might be held each morning or each week. It is the agile coach’s responsibility to observe and facilitate the meeting and ensuring that tea team members stay focused.

In addition to working directly with the team on the project, you will conduct training sessions or workshops. This way, you can help the team or individuals to develop or improve on their knowledge of agile principles.

Stakeholder Engagement

Especially when you are working as an enterprise agile coach, it will be part of your responsibilities to interact with stakeholders. Stakeholders, such as product owners, managers or executives, may attend meetings. As an agile coach, you provide updates on team progress, discuss the process or transmission with the stakeholders and address concerns, which are raised by stakeholders.

Scrum Master Support

Scrum masters play an essential role in the transformation process from non-agile to agile, as they are responsible for managing the exchange of information between team members or teams. As an agile coach, you will work closely with or even work as a scrum master. This includes tasks as discussing any issues of concerns, helping to improve facilitation skills within the company or institution, and providing training on agile tools and methodologies.

Tips for Thriving as an Agile Coach

As an agile coach, you are responsible for creating and supporting agile processes within teams or companies. To fulfil these tasks, you need to expand your skills and keep transitioning previous working experience into new coaching situations. Here are some tips that help you to thrive in the challenging field of agile coaching:

• Open Mindset
• Profound Listening-Skills
• Dealing with Conflicts

Open Mindset

Referring to the dictionary, coaching is defined as helping people make the mental modifications needed to attain high performance. This task puts a lot of pressure on the agile coach’s adaptability. You should be open to new tactics, tools, and perspectives as every coaching-situation demands different tools and attempts.

Profound Listening-Skills

Attentive listening skills are crucial for every agile coach. This refers both to the active listening and reading sings of the body language, as well as asking the right questions. In other words: Agile coaches need not only to pay attention to what their coaches say but also decipher unspoken messages by observing their behaviour, including facial gestures.

Dealing with Conflicts

Working in and with project teams rarely goes without conflicts. Dealing with the process of a team or a company from non-agile to agile is even more likely to be conflict-laden. As an agile coach, it is your responsibility to identify and facilitate discussions of open and inherent conflicts alike.

Another aspect of dealing with conflicts refers to an agile coach’s responsibility to foster trust among the team. This includes the ability to repair lost faith.

Frequently Asked Questions