Jill Wright has been the Head of Delivery at the Ministry of Justice for just over two years now. In this blog, she writes about the Agile Coach role on the Capability Framework.
I’m really pleased to share an important step forward for the agile coaching community across government: the agile coach role has been added as a recognised role within the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.
The Capability Framework provides a common definition of digital and data roles across government, including the skills people need at different levels. It supports recruitment, career development, capability assessment and workforce planning.
Adding agile coach may sound like a relatively small change to a framework, but it represents something much bigger for the people doing this work across government.
It formally represents recognising agile coaching as a profession role in its own right - with a clearer professional identity, common expectations and greater portability across government.
Why agile coaching matters now
I think the timing of this recognition is significant.
The environments in which our government teams operate are becoming increasingly complex and fast-moving.
Political priorities change. User needs evolve. Technology advances. New opportunities and constraints emerge. What looks relevant and viable today may look very different tomorrow.
Our response cannot simply be to become better at following a particular Agile methodology. We need organisations and teams that can learn, adapt and respond to change. That's where I believe agile coaching has an increasingly important contribution to make.
At its best, agile coaching isn't about introducing ceremonies or telling teams which framework to follow. It's about helping teams, leaders and organisations develop the capability to inspect, learn and adapt for themselves. That distinction matters.
For me, the distinctive contribution of agile coaching is building sustainable capability across teams, portfolios and organisational systems. Delivery management, meanwhile, is primarily concerned with accountability for successful delivery.
Both matter, and both can complement and reinforce each other.
The existing capability framework already recognises Agile and Lean practices as an important capability for delivery managers, including coaching teams, selecting appropriate approaches and encouraging continuous improvement.
Recognising agile coach alongside delivery manager gives us an opportunity to be much clearer about how those capabilities work together.
A cross-government effort
Developing the role was a collaborative effort. I had the privilege of leading a small team comprising a Lead Agile Coach; Head of Delivery Practice, and Head of Delivery.
Together, we developed the case for why agile coach should be recognised within the framework and what distinguishes the contribution of agile coaching from other roles.
The proposal was considered and supported by a cross-government panel of profession experts, receiving resounding support. It demonstrated that agile coaching is a capability valued and needed across government.
What this means
Formal recognition within the profession framework will support:
Consistency across government
Departments can establish a common understanding of the role, its responsibilities and the capabilities required, while retaining the flexibility to decide where and how agile coaches operate.
Professional recognition
Agile Coach becomes a recognised profession role rather than simply a job title used by individual departments.
Career portability
Agile coaches can have a clearer professional identity and career pathway that can transfer between government departments rather than being defined solely by local structures or grading.
Clearer role boundaries
This gives us an opportunity to better articulate the difference between
agile coaching and delivery management, while acknowledging where their capabilities overlap.
Better capability development
Common expectations give agile coaches something against which to
assess themselves, identify areas for development and progress
professionally.
Improved recruitment and workforce planning
Departments can recruit against more consistent expectations and develop a better understanding of where agile coaching capability
exists and where more may be needed.
Importantly, it gives us an opportunity to put the emphasis on competence rather than certification. Effective agile coaching isn't simply about knowing Agile frameworks or holding particular qualifications. It draws on capabilities such as coaching, facilitation, systems thinking, organisational change, developing others and helping organisations continuously improve.
Recognition is the start, not the finish
This is important recognition for our agile coaches, but more importantly, it's an investment in government's ability to adapt and deliver in an increasingly complex world.
It also gives us an opportunity to challenge some of our own assumptions about the role. As our environment changes, agile coaching needs to evolve with it.
Adding agile coach to the framework is an important milestone, but the real value will come from what we do with that recognition:
- building the community and developing capability
- creating meaningful career pathways
- continuing to define what excellent Agile Coaching looks like in a government context.
The role should be focused not on preserving methods or frameworks, but on helping our organisations become more adaptive, more evidence-informed and better able to respond to complexity and change.
If you are a public servant working as an agile coach, carrying out agile coaching as part of your role or actively training to become one, the existing agile coaching cohort in the DWP and MoJ will be launching a new cross-government Agile Coaching Community. Please complete the sign-up form to receive details of the sessions and join the community.
I’m incredibly grateful to Government Digital and Data colleagues for the expertise, energy and challenge they brought to developing this work. I’m also grateful to the wider agile coaching and delivery communities whose experience has helped demonstrate why this capability matters, and I'm looking forward to seeing where we take it next.
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