The coach is different from the familiar roles of sponsor, champion, and change agent. The coach combines expert knowledge of new practices and tools with expert leadership skills in change management. Whether formal or informal, skilled or not, coaches are everywhere in software process improvement. Despite this, little has been written about what they do.
Organizations often confuse the coach with other roles and fail to use coaches well.
Software process improvement teams will likely perform better when their coaches do, just as sports teams with good coaches usually perform better than teams with poor coaches. Organizations can benefit from a better understanding of what process improvement coaches can and should do for them. Still, leaders of SPI initiatives often overlook the coach's role and end up working too hard. Where they are used, coaches are the spark plugs of the process improvement engine. It is time to clarify what they do so process improvement will happen faster and easier.