Agile Coach Certification: Agile methodology is not an ancient approach. In fact, this industry was started in 2000, when a team of seventeen brilliant software developers, including Bob Martin, Ken Schwaber, Jon Kern, Jim Highsmith, and Martin Fowler, met to discuss a process to improve the development technique.
In simplest words, agile coaching includes methods and practices while embedding an agile mindset and values. The goal of this coaching is to adopt more cohesive, transparent, and effective teams to enable more outcomes, products/services, and solutions for customers.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about agile coaching and some of the best agile coach certification programs to take your coaching career to the next level:
What Is An Agile Coach Certification?
Let’s start with the basics: what is agile coaching? In agile coaching, a professional is responsible for improving and creating agile processes for an individual, team, or company. This professional is known as an agile coach.
There are two types of agile coaches available out there:
- Internal Agile Coach – A coach that works as a salaried person for a company. An Internal coach requires to follow the company rules and regulations.
- External Agile Coach – A coach that works with individuals, teams and companies but is not a part of that certain organization. This approach is more flexible, as you can target as many clients as you want and work according to your schedule.
Agile Coaching – A Job Description
Are you tired of your boring 9-5 job and want to start a new career? If YES, then you have come to the right place. Agile coaching is not just creating agile methods to improve the working mechanism of a company. This field is both rewarding and fun.
As an agile coach, you can help others while making a decent earning. To help you out with this process, below, we have compiled a list of things that you should consider before investing your time and money into the agile coaching business:
Duties Of An Agile Coach
What actually does an agile coach do? Agile is known as a project management tactic that emphasizes on using sprints – small development cycles. The main duty of an agile coach is to create and improve these sprints, allowing clients to adapt in a collaborative manner to speedily changing environments.
The common duties of an agile coach include:
- Supporting HR in management
- Career development
- Concentrating on continuous improvement
- Maintaining discipline and rigor
- Ensuring stand-ups don’t go stale
- Guiding the leadership team
- Helping clients forecast and estimate better
Qualification Of An Agile Coach
The minimum education required to become an agile coach is a bachelor’s degree. If you have a background in computer science, electrical, or business engineering, you can start your career as an agile coach.
According to an estimate, up to 71% of agile coaches have a bachelor’s degree, while only 22% have a master’s degree. Besides academic documents, you should also enroll in an agile coach certification program.
An agile coach certification program provides you with all the information you need to succeed as a professional coach. Plus, these certifications also teach you how to use different agile methodologies and techniques to help your clients.
Top Skills Of An Agile Coach
Like all other businesses and careers, you must have some personal skills and abilities to thrive as an agile coach. It’s important you have impressive communication and listening skills. As an agile coach, you’ll be interacting with hundreds of people daily. So, you should be able to communicate your ideas and methods smoothly.
Besides communication and listening skills, a good agile coach is:
- Passionate
- Non-judgmental
- Learner
- Innovative
- Open-minded
- Businessman
6 Best Agile Coach Certification Programs
There are hundreds of agile coach certification programs available out there with a variety of specifications and price tags. Therefore, you must invest your time and find a training program that will suit you best.
To help you out in this process, below, we have compiled a list of some of the best agile coach certification programs that won’t cost you a fortune:
Certified Scrum Professional
When it comes to high-quality and budget-friendly agile coach certifications, no organization can beat Scrum Appliance. For software developers and IT guys, Scrum offers 6 different certification programs, including:
- Certified Product Owner
- Certified Agile Coach
- Certified Agile Professional
- Certified Agile Developer
- Certified Agile Trainer
- Certified Agile Master
You can select any one of these programs and get your certification. This course includes team dynamics, facilitation, coaching and interaction. It does require one year of coaching experience as a Scrum Master and a basic understanding of the Scrum Framework.
Cost
The cost of each program varies from one another. However, the average cost of these certification programs can fall anywhere between $1000 to $1600.
SAFe 4 Agilest
If you don’t want to spend months completing an agile coach certification program, this one is for you. The SAFe 4 Agilest is a training program that can be completed within two days. The Training Providers offers this course that provides knowledge about launching SAFe in agile and important leadership principles.
The SAFe 4 Agilest course does require some prerequisites, including 5 years of experience in software testing and development, business analyst, and management. You can get this certification by answering 45 questions within ninety minutes.
Cost
The cost of your SAFe 4 Agilest certification depends on your attempts. The first time you don’t have to pay anything as long as you take your test within 30 days of registration. After that, you’ll need to pay $50 for each retake.
ICA-Agile Certified Coach
Another certification program that deserves a spot on our list is the ICA-Agile Certified Coach. This one is a perfect pick for you if you want to work as an agile coach in the business industry. This program can surely take your career to the next level by providing you the knowledge to distinguish between coaching, mentoring, and training.
You can complete this whole course within 3 days. Furthermore, you don’t even have to take an examination to pursue this certification program. Keep in mind that this one is for you if you are already a certified agile coach.
Cost
The ICA-Agile Certified Coach is a little expensive compared to other certification programs. This course can cost up to $1800. However, due to its high quality, this course is completely worth it.
Agile Certified Practitioner
The PMI, or the Project Management Institute, offers this certification program to professionals whose team is using or migrating to the agile practice. This course indicates that you know what you are doing and have real-world experience in project management.
There are some prerequisites when it comes to becoming a certified agile practitioner, such as you need 2,000 hours of work experience while working for a team. Additionally, you also need to have experience working with agile methodologies or 1,500 hours of working on agile projects.
Cost
The cost of this certification depends on your membership. If you are a member of PMI, you can get this certification for $435. In comparison, you’ll need to pay $495 to get this certification if you are not a member of the Project Management Institute.
Strategy Certified in Agile
The Twenty Eighty Strategy Execution company partnered with George Washington University to create this program. This program is divided into two certifications, including Masters and Associate.
The Associate certificate offered by this organization can be completed within 2 years, which emphasizes your agile skills and knowledge. On the other hand, you will need to invest four years of your life to get a master’s degree.
The master’s certification is divided into seven training programs to demonstrate your agile methodology and subject expertise. Keep in mind that to become a certified agile coach, you’ll need to earn a master’s degree.
Cost
Just like other institutes, this one also offers numerous certification programs. All of these programs cost differently, such as the cost of Delivering Agile Projects and Agile Practice for PO can fall anywhere between $1,500 to $1,800.
How Much Does An Agile Coach Make?
Quitting your regular job and starting a new career is quite intimidated. Plus, the cost of agile certification is not that affordable if you don’t have a stable income source. Therefore, it’s rational to ask, how much does an agile coach make?
Well, you will be happy to know that agile coaching is quite rewarding when it comes to money. On average, an agile coach can make up to $1,30,000 per year. This is more than any other life coaching niche out there.
Keep in mind that the salary of an agile coach depends upon several factors, including geographical location, medium of coaching, niche, experience, certification, and more.
In A Nutshell
We hope you have understood the value of a good quality agile coach certification. The above-mentioned certification programs are all brilliant. You can pick any one of these certifications according to your preferences as well as budget and start your career as an agile coach.
