Career in Agile Project Management

What is Agile Project Management?

Agile project management is an iterative technique to work on a project. Here the term iterative implies that a project moves forward in short cycles that include phases such as planning, testing, development, and review of the results. While one of such agile cycles remains in progress, a team is expected to collect stakeholder feedback. Once that brief project cycle comes to its culmination, the received feedback is utilized to plan a new iteration for the future.

One of the prime aims of an agile or iterative technique is to give away benefits throughout the process instead of at the time of culmination. At the core, agile projects should exhibit central values and behaviours of trust, flexibility, empowerment and collaboration. Another core aspect of agile project management is collaboration. In order for teams to successfully carry out separate tasks and continue to revise their processes to improve their project output, team members must be able to communicate through each phase of the project life cycle. This way, teams can take an informed approach toward managing and adapting each area of their projects.

Agile Project Management Certifications

Below we have discussed about the most well-known Agile Project Management Certifications.

1.      PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP): It is offered by
PMI (Project Management Institute). It formally recognizes an individual’s knowledge and skills in Agile techniques. It deals with various Agile approaches such as Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP)
Cost: For members of the Project Management Institute: 435 USD and for non-members: 495 USD.
Requirements: A secondary degree, 21 hours of training in Agile practices and 12 months of general project experience within the last 5 years.

2.      PRINCE2 Agile Project Management Certifications: It is a combination of the Agile methodology and Projects in Controlled Environments 2 (PRINCE2). They’re designed to teach professionals how to manage projects when working in an Agile environment. It has two levels. It is offered by AXELOS Ltd.

PRINCE2 Agile Foundation: It covers Agile techniques and frameworks.
PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner: It teaches individuals how to combine project structure, governance, and control with Agile methodology and techniques.
Cost: For online PRINCE2 Agile Foundation and Practitioner: 1555 USD and for blended package: 1860 USD.
Requirements: No formal requirements for the foundation course. For Practitioner certification, you need to have one of these certifications: PRINCE2 Foundation (or higher), PRINCE2 Agile Foundation, Project Management Qualification (PMQ), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) or IPMA (International Project Management Association) Levels A, B, C, and D.

3.      Certified SAFe Agilist (Scaled Agile): It is a foundation level certification offered by Scaled Agile. It teaches an individual how to implement Scaled Agile Framework to scale agile development in an organization.

Requirements: More than 5 years of experience in software development, testing, business analysis, product, or project management and experience in Scrum framework
Cost: Begins at 725 USD.

4.      Certified Agile Project Manager (IAPM): It is offered by International Association of Project Managers. The Certified Agile Project Manager certification is for managers who want to enhance their knowledge and skills in Agile project management.
Cost: 65000 USD in the USA. However, it varies for other nationalities.

Requirements: There are no formal prerequisites for this Agile project management course.

5.      ICAgile Certified Professional – Agile Certified Coaching (ICP-ACC): It is offered by The International Consortium of Agile. The Agile Certified Coaching certification helps individuals learn the fundamentals of being an Agile coach. It also covers the concepts to help you manage an Agile team easily.
Cost: Depends on the training course provider.
Requirements: No formal requirements.

Career in Agile Project Management

Almost every industry can gain value from embracing an agile way of working. There are also plenty of niche markets for those looking to showcase their agile skills in the selected industries. To become a certified professional in Agile management, one needs to take on objective oriented training course. Project managers, procurement managers, contract officers, managers, administrators and any other professional looking to brighten the growth prospects are the ideal candidates for Agile and project management courses. Most of the professional courses in Agile management are designed as the short term training. Each certificate received after interactive training enhances your credibility as the project manager or project leader. Today, most of leading businesses in every sector are facing complex challenges on diverse grounds like quality improvement, innovation, strategy implementation, and cost cutting etc; therefore, hiring the efficient trained project managers has become essential to survive and remain in the race. You after obtaining the project and Agile management course completion certificate become the person they need.

Who should study Agile Project Management?

Agile was initially designed for software development project management. It enabled teams to quickly model solutions, incorporate feedback, and adjust scope as needed throughout the project lifecycle. Today, Agile is used by more than just software teams. The tenets of Agile are effective for projects that result in a concrete deliverable rather than a service. However, Agile can ultimately be used on almost any large scale project in any industry.

Any of the following can benefit from Agile:

1.      People handling fast-changing deliverables, such as technology products

2.      People working on projects that evolve or do not have clear scope and requirements at the beginning

3.      People working closely with customers and other external parties throughout a project

4.      People that emphasize process and product improvement and need a method for continual advancement

5.      People with numerous interdependent tasks needing to work closely together and frequently communicate to ensure success

6.      People creating prototypes before building the final project outcome

7.      People that must have rapid feedback from each product iteration before creating the next draft

Scope of Agile Project Management

The concept of Agile has become a firmly established methodology over the past decade. True to its core principle, Agile continues to grow and improve as users become more experienced in its application learn how to utilize its benefits. Recent years witnessed heightened growth, and the future is set to be no different.

Implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is the most popular, and most effective way to scale Agile within large organizations. Superficial agility is adopted in many organisations without fully understanding or communicating why. Focusing on practice versus outcome is one of the leading reasons why Agile adoption fails. Remember, Agile is a solution to achieve an outcome, organization’s must identify what outcome they want to achieve and use Agile to reach that outcome.

Kaizen is becoming more popular with people from all walks of life who are seeking improvement and the attainment of goals. Agile’s rise in popularity shows no signs of slowing any time soon, with new Agile trends predicted in near future, both for organizations who already use Agile and those seeking to adopt the methodology.

Salary Survey of Agile Project Managers

As per the data collected after a careful analysis and survey, some estimated average figures have been reached in regards to the salary earned by an Agile Project Manager. These figure may vary as per the size of the project, the experience the person holds and the organization he works for.

On an average, an Agile Project Manager makes 46,959 USD per year  in the United States. Agile project managers on the lower end of that spectrum, the bottom 10% to be exact, make roughly 21,000 USD a year, while the top 10% makes 95,000 USD.  

Location impacts how much an agile project manager can expect to make. Agile project managers make the most in New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.