Agile Project Manager Job Description

There are various phases involved in the process of development of a software system and various models such as Waterfall Model, Spiral Model, SDCL, Feature driven Development, Adaptive Software Development, etc.

During the development phase, the software development may adapt one of these development processes which best suits the software, their budget, client requirements, etc. There are various people involved in the project such as software developers, analysts, project managers, project coordinators, etc.

A project manager plays a vital role in planning, analyzing, and implementation of the project. He is the one who sets deadlines for the project and also chooses an appropriate method for the development. Therefore they should have extensive knowledge of the development life cycles.

An agile project manager should excel in Agile Software Development Models. We have tried to provide a detailed agile project manger job description.

Some of the most used agile development models are:

Agile Modeling
Essential Unified Process (EssUP)
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
Agile Unified Process (AUP)
Open Unified Process (OpenUP)
Scrum
Extreme Programming (XP)
Velocity tracking
Feature Driven Development (FDD)

Job Responsibilities of an Agile Project Manager:

An agile project manager has to handle various responsibilities such as planning, scheduling, coordinating, managing all the aspects of the project
He should be comfortable to work with any of the above given agile models and decide deadlines and budget of the project accordingly
Interacting with the clients and understanding their requirements is also a part of the job of an agile project manager
He has to maintain status report of the project and also keep a record of the previous reports
Compiling historical data available with the team and presenting it for the reference of the senior officials and the team members working on the project
They also have to present the status report of the project to the senior officials of the organization
Conducting training sessions for the team members and explaining them the Agile method
Maintenance of the software systems and providing the necessary infrastructure such as software, operating system, etc., is also a responsibility of an agile project manager
Help in deployment of the project

Skills Required for an Agile Project Manager:

Having good project management skills and leadership qualities is very important to work as an agile project manager. Project managers should be critical thinkers and should have ability to prioritize their work so that the time taken to complete a project reduces and high-quality satisfactory results are obtained within the set time span.

They should have ability to deploy the projects and respond to the queries of the clients with proper solutions. As they have to interact with the clients, development team, other managers they should also have excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Educational Requirements

An agile project manager should possess a degree in Computer Science or Information Technology. He should also have experience of working with different project development modules. People having more than 5 years of experience in project management have better employment opportunities.

Certifications programs are also available for people who are willing to make their career as an agile project manager. Some of the certification courses are Certified Scrum Master, DSDM Foundation, DSDM Practitioner and Certified Scrum Practitioner. The first two are the lower level certification exams while the later two are higher level certification examinations.

Having the above skills and educational qualifications one can seek the job of an agile project manager. Agile project managers are paid $69,900 to $143,590 which is equivalent to project managers working on any other project models. Some companies may also pay more than this amount. Hope the agile project manager job description proved to be a helpful resource for you in understanding the career profile of the agile project manager.