The Scrum Alliance originally had one coaching track (CSC). Some years ago, they determined that coaching at an enterprise level (CEC) and at a team level (CTC) were different and created the two coaching certifications. A Scrum Master, however, is a team facilitator which is not the same as a team coach.

A Scrum Master is a day-to-day engaged individual focused, in most cases, on a single team and the improvement of that team’s effectiveness. This can involve coaching techniques, but the daily engaged focus and responsibility differs from what a coach would normally do.

A team level coach would apply their broader perspective and experience across many teams rather than focus on one. A coach may focus on a single team for a short time to help in a specific capacity such as to teach particular technical skills, mentor the SM and/or PO, even step in to facilitate some team activities when asked to demonstrate different ways to conduct such activities. However, a coach would generally be employed to assist multiple teams (and people) grow their Agile abilities.

As a coach, I would always seek to work through the SMs and POs, helping them help their team(s) rather than inject myself too directly into the regular team activity. This always allowed me to have a broader impact in the organization than focusing too much for too long on just one team.

An enterprise coach would usually focus at a higher level, helping an organization, as a whole, to transform into a more Agile one. This would include working with middle and senior management to help make such a transition/transformation. It would not exclude working with teams, but usually addressing more cross-team concerns/issues including establishing Communities of Practice, if they do not exist, especially for SMs and POs.