So what's the difference between a scrum master and an agile coach?
Let's find out
Over the last two and a half years.
Many people have asked me this question and believe it or not,
this question was part of my backlog since the very beginning.
And although I wanted to come up with an answer, I never felt motivated enough.
And the reason for that is every time I tried to explain this
seemingly simple but complex relationship between the two roles,
almost always I found myself drifting towards this cliched explanation that
ends up with scrum master being tactical and agile coach being strategic.
Ever since the two roles came into existence, we have heard people telling
us how scrum masters are responsible for helping teams understand scrum
and how an agile coach is responsible for coaching the team and evangelizing
the benefits of Agile at the organizational and executive level.
You can even find the likes of, oh, scrum master is cheaper than agile
coaches, if you search the internet.
The internet is full of articles where you can find detailed jobs
discriptions for the two roles.
But if you look at them carefully, all 10,000 of them, you will find that
there is always an overlap between the responsibilities of the two roles.
So then what is the correct answer?
Do we need both scrum masters and agile coaches?
And if the answer is yes, then why?
Or rather when do we need them?
When do we need a scrum master?
And when do we need an agile coach?
Doing a self-inquiry like this made me realize that maybe we were asking
the wrong question all this long.
What most people want to know is not what's the difference between the
two roles, but when do we need them?
When do we need the two roles?
Now I have already talked about the role of a scrum master on
two separate occasions, once in a different video on YouTube.
So you want to know why you need scrum or a ScrumMaster.
Great.
Let me take you on a journey.
A journey to your childhood.
And once in a LinkedIn post.
I will leave the links in the description for you to check those out.
For now, let's recap.
The analogy I use to describe the behavior of a scrum master slash
servant leader is that of a relationship between a parent and a child.
If you look carefully, you will find that parents are actually servant leaders to
their kids, and I'm not being sarcastic.
Parents take care of the kids when kids are young, handholding them
through various activities, like helping them walk and eat food.
Once kids grow up, this handholding transforms into gentle nudging with
the goal of forming good habits.
This is followed by observing and keeping an eye on so they don't fall into trouble.
Their final role is when they coach their kids to help them make
important life decisions on their own.
The role of a parent maps perfectly into that of a Servant Leader.
So if the role of a scrum master slash Servant Leader is directly
comparable to that of a parent, then the question now arises, what is the
role of an Agile Coach comparable to.
Let's use an example to find that out.
Now kids being kids, act like kids, are driven mainly through their senses.
They eat whatever they like.
If left on their own, they could eat pizza all day, every day for the next 30 days.
And that's why they need parents to guide them, tell them what's healthy and
what's junk, which food can help them grow and which could make them sick.
Nonetheless, due to whatever reasons kids do fall sick.
Now, if you are a parent, let me ask you this question.
When kids fall sick do you blame yourself for not being a good parent
or take your kids to the doctor?
If your answer is the latter, then congratulations, you are a good parent.
It shows that you care.
I've seen many scrum masters who when faced with difficult circumstances
do not escalate due to the fear of being looked at as incompetent.
What they don't realize is that escalation at the appropriate
time indicates that they care.
It indicates that they want their team to succeed.
This brings up another question.
To whom does a scrum master escalate to when things go out of hand.
And the answer is really simple.
After trying all the tricks in the scrum master trick-o-pedia, if
nothing works, a scrum master should consult the agile coach, just like
a parent consultants, a doctor.
The agile coach then conducts a regular team health check to
identify holes in the training
they received, puts the team under observation for a few weeks, and
then suggest what to do next.
Now, just like doctors, agile coaches come in various levels of expertise, depending
upon the need of the agile organization.
For example, some agile coaches help teams develop the right mindset.
Some are business experts and help in product development.
While others are experts in organizational development and help
companies through agile transformation.
To date, there is no regulatory body that controls Agile coaching proficiencies.
Which in my opinion is a good thing.
Since Agile deals with uncertainty containing the roles, responsibilities,
and proficiencies of an Agile coach is probably not a good idea.
All right, coming back to the topic of the video.
When we look at these two roles through this lens, this parent doctor analogy, we
realize that asking what the difference is between the scrum master and an agile
coach is like asking what the difference is between a parent and a doctor.
We need both, a doctor cannot replace a parent and a parent
cannot do the job of a doctor.
Well, unless a parent is also a doctor by profession.
In which case you can roast me in the comments.
So there you have it.
If you liked this video, then give it a thumbs up subscribe,
and don't forget to provide your valuable feedback in the comments.
I'll see you in the next video.