Introduction
An agile project manager is a multifaceted profile that brings together the accountabilities of a qualified leader to work and thrive in an agile project setup. With every changing role - from being in an authoritative position to becoming a servant leader, an agile project manager expedites, guides, and encourages team building, effective communication, and collaboration between team members.
We will discuss more about the profile, its responsibilities, and future scope below:
What Is an Agile Project Manager? What Does an Agile Project Manager Do?
An agile project manager works closely with the team to empower them and encourage them to steer clear of all the possible risks that might arise during the completion of any project. Additionally, they continuously interact with the stakeholders to discuss new processes, technologies, and tactics that can help boost business performance.
As most companies nowadays work in an agile work environment, most agile project managers prioritize quality workflow and time management through streamlined procedures.
What Skills Does an Agile Project Manager Need?
Soft Skills and Hard Skills
Some of the core soft skills that an individual must have include:
- Effective Communication - The act of transferring ideas and thoughts with the other party (person), ensuring there is clear conveying of information in the process.
- Team Leadership - Guiding and motivating a team with timely advice, report analysis, and regular feedback, to help them work towards a common goal with a positive mindset.
- Adaptability - The ability to acknowledge, accept, and adjust to the new developments and changes in a project whenever it experiences a rapid change.
- Problem/Conflict Resolution - To quickly develop an action plan to resolve issues in a system or within professional teams due to some external or internal factor.
- Emotional Intelligence - To clearly understand, value, and reciprocate the emotions of team members, clients, stakeholders, or people at a managerial level, other than managing them for themselves.
- Resilience - Being able to modify, revive, and stay stable during unexpected scenarios by keeping the communication channels open and reflecting on past events that did not work out as planned.
- Organizational Skills - Proactively managing multiple tasks, managing resources, and closing tasks within the predefined timelines with effective planning and execution.
- Analytical Thinking - To get to the crux of a matter, to understand it better, and logically break down its complexity into a simple, coherent form by referring to surveys, studies, and other resources to arrive at a decision or conclusion.
A few of the key hard skills one should have:
- Expertise in Agile methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban - Having a deep-rooted knowledge of the core agile principles and practices will help. Additionally, knowing the Scrum framework thoroughly and the Kanban principles will be an added advantage for individuals.
- Project Planning and Scheduling - Knowing the art of planning with small steps, through various stages, and setting goals to be achieved is one of the primary skills an agile project manager should have.
- Risk Management - The process of identifying, assessing, and taking preventive action towards mitigating possible risk events that can impact the success and growth of a project.
- Budget Management - Planning, allocating, and regulating funds of a project to ensure it remains smooth-flowing and within the specified budget, as planned at the beginning.
- Experience with Jira - Individuals working in project management must have experience using Jira. Although it is not mandatory, this credential can be a valuable addition to the profile of those who hold it.
- Scope Management - All the processes that regulate and ensure a project includes all the work required for the successful completion of a project, including effective collaboration from the team members, prioritization, and adaptation.
- Quality Analysis - This involves a continual assessment of projects, through their every stage of development, over the course of the project, that blends cooperation, coordination, adaptation, and technical proficiency.
How Is an Agile Project Manager Different from a Traditional Project Manager?
| Specification | Agile Project Manager | Traditional Project Manager |
| Approach | Free-flowing, iterative, and quickly adjusts to dynamic environments. | An arranged, logical, and non-flexible way of working that follows a strict plan. |
| Planning | Work is done in short sprints, enabling multiple developments to be easier throughout the project. | There is a foolproof plan in place due to the limited scope of growth and exploration in this traditional project model. |
| Adaptability | Prioritizes adaptability across all aspects. | Not easy to implement changes and additions to the project. |
| Customer Experience | High involvement of customers and stakeholders is there when you are working on any agile project. | There is a low involvement of customers in the project as everything is clarified and discussed beforehand. |
| Risk Management | Continuous risk assessment throughout each iteration. | A structured and well-thought-out risk management system is present. |
| Success Metrics | Every successful deliverable to the customer counts as success. | The team follows the original course of action to measure project success. |
| Team Structure | Every team member holds some authority, and every action is looked after by the project manager. | This follows a hierarchical team setup where the manager is the one facilitating things. |
| Appropriate For | Dynamic projects with unset goals; ever-changing project scope and scenario. | Projects with clear, well-defined goals and a fixed set of requirements that do not have a predictable deliverable. |
| User Requirement | Requirements are listed before any progress is made or steps are implemented in development. | There is a fair scope of incorporating inputs from both developer and the customer’s end, throughout the creation process. |
| Project Scale and Model | This usually remains a large-scale project with a project cycle model. | This one is primarily an ever-growing delivery model that works for small or medium-scale projects. |
| Communication | There are high chances of collaboration and coordination between team members. | Every step is taken according to the details mentioned in the document prepared for project implementation. |
Read More:Difference between Agile Project Management and Traditional Project Management System
Agile Project Manager vs Scrum Master: What’s the Difference?
An agile project manager supervises the entire project and ensures looking after the scope of the project, its budget, and timeline regularly. He is the one who takes charge of the tasks being done, identifies the loopholes in the plan, and works out a structured risk management process to escape risks.
Whereas a scrum master is an expert who is mastered in using and incorporating the agile project management framework at work. Somebody who not only coordinates but also continuously schedules meetings, facilitates interactive sessions, and oversees workflows.
As this article is centered around the Agile Project Manager, here are a few aspects about the profiles you should know.
Salary of an Agile Project Manager
Several factors impact the salary of an agile project manager. There are general factors like location, skillset, and experience held by the person, the popularity, and the scope of the profile in that particular area, and then there are other criteria as well, which depend on the company, their compensation structure, and management.
Career Path of an Agile Project Manager
The career chart or roadmap of an agile project manager begins at an entry-level position and eventually gets promoted to higher designations. New responsibilities are added on, and a new work structure is put in place. With more and more experience and exposure, new roles are defined and new positions are created within the organization.
How to Become an Agile Project Manager?
- An individual willing to become an agile project manager should have greater exposure and a deeper understanding of the agile principles.
- He must learn the essential skills that would help him grasp the subject better. These include excellent communication, critical thinking, leadership, and organizational skills, fostering flexibility, etc.
- Pursuing additional agile project manager certifications and training, like the PMI-ACP certification or AgilePM Foundation course, would help. You can also consider obtaining a CSM Course and CSPO training to broaden your knowledge horizons.
- Always try to add value to projects and stick to client deliverables. Work on time management skills and incorporate the latest work methods to boost productivity.
- Learn to manage critical resources to utilize them thoughtfully throughout the course of the project.
Read More :Best Agile Certifications for Beginners
Conclusion
This article is prepared keeping in mind the queries and concerns of aspirants planning to go for this career option. We have tried to highlight all the important aspects of becoming an agile project manager, and everything else it practically entails.
If we look around, we can see how nearly every organization is transitioning to agile and streamlining work with this methodology. This not only improves transparency, flexibility, and collaboration but also promises customer satisfaction and team empowerment.
FAQ’s
What are the main roles within a project team?
There are quite a few roles within a project team, which include:
- Project Manager - A project manager or a leader is the one in charge of the daily operations happening within the team.
- Project Sponsor - Someone who supervises projects and deliverables being made at the top managerial level.
- Project Team Members - For different projects, there is a dedicated individual assigned who accomplishes all the tasks listed within a project.
- Business Analyst - An individual responsible for deriving and analysing data within a project to design a workable plan for the ongoing assignment.
- SME (Subject Matter Experts) - As the name suggests, a subject matter expert is the one who has extensive knowledge of a particular subject or area of work, and who can train others regarding the subject.
- Stakeholders - These can be people from within the team or even outside the company who are critically involved in projects and provide regular feedback on how things should be worked out for a better outcome.
- Project Manager - A project manager or a leader is the one in charge of the daily operations happening within the team.
What qualifications are required to become a project manager?
To qualify for the position of a project manager or to become a project manager or leader, you need to have a bachelor’s degree in a similar field or have some technical or professional knowledge of project management. Additionally, earning professional certifications in the field of project management will also be of great help. So, search for a preferable institute or organization you will take up the course from and enroll yourself, once you go through the underlying terms and conditions, fee structure, and course modules.
What is the most important responsibility of a project manager?
As the profile itself makes it clear, a project manager’s core responsibility is to handle and manage projects and oversee the progress of the project from the beginning to the end.
Do Agile Project Managers still exist in Scrum?
Well, there is no such role as Agile Project Managers in a scrum network because, more or less, the responsibilities of the project manager are distributed among the three primary Scrum positions that are mostly designated in a company. This includes Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Product Developer.
- Can AI replace Agile Project Managers?
This scenario has been discussed multiple times, where we have highlighted the idea of AI and how it can positively impact our work and deliverables. Though AI seems to have taken charge of most of our demanding tasks and has seamlessly resolved time-crunch issues and other automated jobs, it can not entirely swap or swipe any of the high-demand jobs or leading profiles that are being created today.
.webp){kind=small}
USA 
Canada
India
UK
Australia
Singapore
