The Agile Coach's Resumé - Scrum Master First

Late last year, I was writing a fictional account about an Agile transformation. In the story, I made getting a coach fairly easy. The VP had an old colleague who recommended somebody. I think they met over coffee (preferably *not* a match soy latté...). Personal referrals are the best. In the story, it was a great fit and he didn’t need to look anywhere else. That’s happened to me several times. 

But if you do have to go out and find someone, here are a few recommendations.

First, you can find Certified Agile Coaches on the Scrum Alliance website. These coaches have been peer-reviewed. The certification is not based on sitting in a class. And to even get to that point, prior certifications require documented experience. The approval process takes months or even years. It took me three years. It is the most meaningful credential I have. I still remember the coaching retreat when Daniel Gullo gave me the gift of a CEC challenge coin to recognize the achievement.

There are many other Agile Coaches out there. I joke about it, but it seems the easiest way to become an Agile Coach is simply to edit your job title on LinkedIn. It's not the candidate's fault for taking the path of least resistance. We're human, and we often work in our own self-interest. And it is quite likely the candidate truly believes they know Agile coaching, because, heck, they know the Daily Scrum is only supposed to last 15 minutes.

We don't know what we don't know. And the person trying to evaluate an Agile coach candidate usually knows less than the candidate. I've found that the hiring manager may not even know what an Agile Coach does day to day. The leader just knows "We need to go Agile, and Agile Coaches are...somehow...a part of making that happen."

So, how do you know they are a quality coach? They may have many certifications, but that can be deceiving. Sometimes the fact that someone pursues conceptual knowledge above all else. They know the theory but have limited ability to build the relationships that would allow that to be useful. Worse, they are not even self-aware to see that. I've seen very knowledgeable people be walked off the client site.

Here's one easy want to make sure they have true understanding of how and why Agile works - check their LinkedIn profile. You should see a progression in their career from:

1. An individual contributor, then
2. Team or delivery leadership roles, then
3. Scrum Master roles for at least a couple of years and/or companies, and then
4. A coaching role

Consider that Agile Coaching is bringing about a LOT of change to a lot of people and roles. You know those personalities, how long they've worked there, about many other not-awesome change efforts made some real messes. You want someone with genuine "I get it - I've BEEN there" empathy.

That looks something like this:

Individual Contributor role - “Damn - this job is hard. We don’t feel appreciated or listened to. We don’t get what we need in order to do the very job they expect us to do. And their expectations aren’t even realistic."

Management Role - “Dang - this job is hard. I try to get them what they need, but I also can’t get that from senior management. And senior management keeps pressuring me on things that I’m not sure are realistic, but it’s hard to tell. And it’s hard to determine what the team is or isn’t able to do to towards meeting those goals and expectations.”

ScrumMaster Role - “Goodness, this job is hard. There’s a lot of work to do to get the team what they need, but that’s my #1 job. Some of those things are management and organization related, so I’m continually pushing for specific changes at those levels. Senior leadership has a direct line to the feedback and issues at the team level, and vice versa. I also make sure that all work, the current plan, and the longer-term forecasted release plan and roadmap are visible, broadcast, and always current and as accurate as needed so that stakeholders can work with truth and facts (not opinions, wishful thinking, and hope for silver bullet). I help the Product Owner to negotiate the scope with the teams and stakeholders. And I support the PO in filtering out the non-priority work via collaborative meetings that she facilitates with her stakeholders directly.”

Now, as an Agile Coach, all that experience gives her real empathy to build trust, real stories to build credibility, and her own truth deep down that she *knows* this works. That gives some quiet confidence in the storm of change and resistance.

Without this Scrum Master experience (and individual contributor roles), the danger lurking under the water is that you may find someone who went right from a Project Management role to an Agile Coach role (and truly think they *were* an Agile Coach there because they *did* tell the team members how Scrum works.

Truthfully, they may see Agile as just a process to be installed. And if you don't see a problem with that, you are in more danger than you realize.