Must-Have Skills For Agile Project Managers

Summary

In this webinar, the speaker explores the shift in the project manager's role within an agile environment. Traditional project management focuses on detailed planning and control, but agile emphasizes adaptability and self-organization. The speaker highlights the importance of soft skills such as issue resolution, problem-solving, team-building, coaching, and change management for agile project managers. These skills are crucial for facilitating, coaching, and adapting to the dynamic nature of agile projects, rather than the rigid planning and micromanagement of traditional methodologies.

Takeaways

• 😀 The role of a project manager in an agile environment differs significantly from traditional project management, focusing more on facilitation than detailed planning and micromanagement.
• 🤔 Agile project managers need to be adept at networking and negotiation to resolve issues that the development team cannot handle on their own.
• 👥 Problem-solving in agile involves guiding the team to find their own solutions rather than providing all the answers, using strategies like creative questioning and brainstorming.
• 🏗️ Team-building is crucial for agile project managers to foster a collaborative and accountable team environment, which includes understanding and nurturing team dynamics.
• 👨‍🏫 Coaching is a key skill for agile project managers, helping team members adapt to agile practices and promoting a growth mindset within the organization.
• 🔍 Listening skills are paramount for agile project managers, especially when coaching for growth mindsets, requiring active listening and understanding non-verbal cues.
• 🛠️ Change management is a significant part of an agile project manager's role, as they help facilitate deep-rooted cultural and organizational changes to fully embrace agile principles.
• 📈 Agile project managers are responsible for creating a productive environment, which includes supporting individuals, promoting good relationships, and removing impediments.
• 📊 The agile manifesto values responding to change over following a plan, which means less emphasis on detailed project planning and more on adapting to changes.
• 🌟 The agile project manager's role may evolve into a Scrum Master, focusing on supporting the team and ensuring the right environment and support for motivated individuals.

Q & A

What is the main difference between the traditional project manager role and the agile project manager role?

The traditional project manager role emphasizes detailed planning, organizing, and managing resources and tasks, whereas the agile project manager role focuses more on facilitation, coaching, and change management, with less emphasis on micromanagement and detailed planning.

Why are soft skills important for an agile project manager?

Soft skills are crucial for agile project managers because they help facilitate, coach, and manage change within the team and the organization, which are key aspects of the agile methodology that go beyond technical or hard skills.

How does the agile manifesto influence the role of a project manager in an agile environment?

The agile manifesto influences the project manager role by valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools, and responding to change over following a plan, leading to a shift from detailed planning and control to adaptability and collaboration.

What are some of the soft skills that an agile project manager should develop?

An agile project manager should develop soft skills such as networking, negotiation, active listening, empathy, problem-solving, team-building, coaching, and change management.

How does the agile project manager facilitate issue resolution and escalation?

The agile project manager facilitates issue resolution and escalation by identifying and removing impediments that the development team cannot control, using their networking and negotiation skills to resolve issues and disputes within the organization.

What is the role of the agile project manager in problem-solving within the team?

The agile project manager's role in problem-solving is to help the team find their own solutions by employing various strategies such as creative questioning, brainstorming, and root cause analysis, rather than providing all the answers themselves.

Why is team-building important in an agile environment?

Team-building is important in an agile environment because it fosters a collaborative and accountable team culture where members support each other, communicate freely, and create a safe environment for asking questions and seeking help.

How does coaching contribute to the agile project manager's role?

Coaching contributes to the agile project manager's role by helping team members understand and adopt agile practices, promoting a growth mindset, and facilitating the transformation of fixed mindsets into ones that embrace challenges and continuous improvement.

What is the significance of change management in the agile project manager's responsibilities?

Change management is significant in the agile project manager's responsibilities as it involves facilitating deep-rooted changes in organizational culture, values, and principles to fully realize the benefits of agile and ensure that agile practices are embraced throughout the organization.

How does the agile project manager ensure a productive environment for the team?

The agile project manager ensures a productive environment by using soft skills to support and empower individuals, promote good relationships, create a safe space for questions and help requests, and remove roadblocks that hinder the team's progress.

What does the agile principle of building projects around motivated individuals entail for the project manager?

The agile principle of building projects around motivated individuals entails that the project manager should create an environment and provide support that enables team members to perform at their best, which includes fostering a culture of empowerment, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Outlines

00:00

🔀 Transition from Traditional to Agile Project Management

The first paragraph introduces the webinar's focus on the importance of soft skills for agile project managers. It contrasts the traditional project manager's role, which is centered around detailed planning and resource management, with the agile approach that emphasizes adaptability and self-organization. The speaker highlights that in agile environments, the development team is self-organizing and not micromanaged, which reduces the need for extensive planning by the project manager. The speaker also points out that the agile manifesto prioritizes responding to change over following a static plan, leading to a shift in the project manager's responsibilities towards facilitation, coaching, and change management.

05:01

🤝 Soft Skills for Agile Project Managers

The second paragraph delves into the specific soft skills required for agile project managers. It discusses the need for excellent networking and negotiation skills to resolve issues and remove impediments that the development team cannot handle on their own. The speaker emphasizes the importance of active listening and empathy to understand different viewpoints and resolve disputes. Additionally, the paragraph touches on problem-solving strategies that encourage the team to find their own solutions, such as brainstorming and root cause analysis. The speaker also mentions the role of the project manager in team-building, ensuring that team members are accountable and work collaboratively towards common goals.

10:04

🌱 Cultivating a Growth Mindset and Coaching in Agile

The third paragraph focuses on coaching and change management as critical soft skills for agile project managers. It underscores the importance of cultivating a growth mindset, where challenges are seen as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles. The speaker discusses the use of open questioning and active listening as part of the coaching process to foster reflection and deeper understanding. The paragraph also addresses the role of the project manager in facilitating broader organizational change, which involves influencing the company's culture, values, and principles. The speaker concludes by reiterating the shift from traditional project management tasks, such as detailed planning and micromanagement, to a greater emphasis on individuals, interactions, and the creation of a supportive and empowering work environment.

Keywords

💡Agile Project Manager

An Agile Project Manager focuses on facilitating and supporting self-organizing teams in Agile environments. Unlike traditional project managers, they are less involved in detailed planning and more focused on guiding the team by removing roadblocks, coaching, and fostering collaboration. The video discusses how the Agile Project Manager's role evolves from traditional project management to one that emphasizes soft skills like facilitation, problem-solving, and team-building.

💡Soft Skills

Soft skills refer to interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation, listening, and coaching that help in managing people and interactions effectively. In Agile, soft skills are critical for resolving conflicts, supporting team members, and ensuring smooth collaboration, as opposed to the more technical or administrative focus of traditional project management. The video emphasizes the need for developing soft skills to adapt to Agile methodologies.

💡Self-organizing Team

A self-organizing team is one that manages its own tasks and responsibilities without direct oversight or micromanagement from a project manager. In Agile, development teams are expected to organize themselves to achieve their goals, with the project manager facilitating rather than directing. The script highlights the importance of this shift, noting that traditional project managers must adapt to not controlling every aspect of the team’s work.

💡Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is a guiding document for Agile methodologies that emphasizes values like 'individuals and interactions over processes and tools' and 'responding to change over following a plan.' The video references the manifesto to explain why Agile Project Managers do less detailed planning and instead focus on facilitating adaptive and responsive teamwork.

💡Issue Resolution

Issue resolution in Agile involves identifying and removing obstacles that prevent the development team from progressing. The Agile Project Manager’s role is to facilitate this process by leveraging soft skills such as networking, negotiation, and problem-solving. The video describes how the project manager helps resolve issues that are outside the team’s control, using organizational connections and diplomacy.

💡Coaching

Coaching in Agile refers to guiding team members in both Agile practices and personal development. The Agile Project Manager often takes on a coaching role to help individuals and teams grow, adopt a growth mindset, and improve their ability to collaborate and solve problems. The video suggests that coaching is an essential skill for project managers transitioning into Agile environments.

💡Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. In Agile, a growth mindset helps team members embrace challenges, learn from feedback, and continuously improve. The video contrasts this with a fixed mindset, which resists change and learning, and stresses the importance of fostering a growth mindset to succeed in an Agile environment.

💡Team Building

Team building in Agile involves creating a cohesive and collaborative team that works well together and holds each other accountable. The Agile Project Manager is responsible for nurturing these dynamics, ensuring that the team communicates openly, supports one another, and creates a safe environment for sharing ideas. The video explains how team building is essential for Agile teams to work efficiently and effectively.

💡Problem Solving

Problem-solving in Agile focuses on helping teams find their own solutions to challenges rather than dictating answers. The Agile Project Manager uses strategies like brainstorming, creative questioning, and other facilitation techniques to unlock the team’s creativity. The video emphasizes that problem-solving in Agile is a collaborative effort, with the project manager acting as a facilitator rather than a decision-maker.

💡Change Management

Change management in Agile refers to the process of helping organizations and teams adapt to new ways of working, particularly when adopting Agile methodologies. The Agile Project Manager plays a key role in facilitating this cultural and organizational change, ensuring that Agile principles are understood and embraced throughout the company. The video discusses how change management involves shifting deep-rooted organizational behaviors and values.

Highlights

The agile project manager focuses more on facilitation rather than planning and task management.

In agile, the development team is self-organizing and not micromanaged by the project manager.

The traditional project manager's role in planning is minimized in agile, as responding to change is prioritized over following a detailed plan.

The project manager role evolves in agile to include facilitation, coaching, and change management.

Soft skills become essential for agile project managers, including issue resolution, negotiation, and team-building.

Agile project managers must help resolve significant impediments that are outside the development team's control.

Networking and building connections with key people in the organization are vital for removing roadblocks.

Project managers should coach teams to solve their own problems rather than offering solutions directly.

Creative questioning techniques can help unlock team creativity and promote problem-solving.

Team-building is crucial in agile, requiring project managers to understand the dynamics of a team and foster a collaborative environment.

Agile project managers can act as coaches, helping team members and stakeholders adopt agile practices.

Coaching for a growth mindset in agile is essential for fostering adaptability and continuous learning.

Good questioning and active listening are key coaching skills, allowing for open dialogue and reflection.

Change management is a critical role for agile project managers, as agile often requires deep-rooted cultural changes within the organization.

Soft skills like empathy, negotiation, and coaching are indispensable for agile project managers to create a productive environment.

Transcripts

thanks for that Steve and thank you for

joining me for this webinar today so

we've got a 30 minute time slot and I've

got about oh about 15 minutes worth of

content to share with you so we've got

plenty of time for questions at the end

so do fill in your questions as you

think of them and I will look at them at

the end

so why soft skills for the agile project

manager well to help us answer that

let's first look at the traditional

project manager role and see how that

fits into agile so here's our project

manager looking very contented here with

his beloved project plan and I think

that the text you can see here probably

is a fair definition of the project

management role so the planning the

organizing and the managing of the

resources and tasks required to complete

the project to scope time and budget

yeah fair enough you know at first

glance that does look generally enough

to apply in any environment but oh hang

on a minute I'm already feeling a bit

troubled at the idea of our project

manager organizing and managing our

development team resource because in

agile the development team is a

self-organizing team they are not told

what to do by the project manager or

anybody else for that matter so so

nobody micromanage is how they actually

do the development work so most of that

planning and organizing and managing

kind of doesn't need to be done by the

project manager anymore so let's see

what else the traditional project

manager does and whether that changes

with agile so firstly of course project

planning yes obviously a core skill for

a traditional project manager and all of

the reporting that goes along with that

as we've just mentioned with agile I'm

afraid our project manager isn't going

to be doing too much detailed project

planning and that's in keeping with the

agile manifesto which states that we

value responding to change over and

above following a plan so we'll do a bit

of release planning of course and the

development team do just enough planning

for those upcoming sprints but we no

longer creates those enormous 18-month

project plans depicted by those mammoth

Gantt charts that are so typical of

project management environments and the

next three things on my list here I'm

actually going to assign to our agile

customer or our

donar the lovely lady in red here

because she's the one who interfaces

with the stakeholders she's the one

who's looking at the business value of

the product and trying to work out how

he can extract maximum value for the

organization from our product she's the

one who makes those business focused

trade-offs around what features we do or

don't build in our product and what

about project governance so that set of

policies and regulations and processes

and procedures

well this again is where I'm going to

quote the agile manifesto in that we

value individuals and interactions over

and above processes and tools so it's

not to say that we don't need processes

and tools of course we do but we value

individuals and interactions over and

above them so governance is a bit less

of a primary focus in an agile

environment but these last three issue

resolution and escalation

problem-solving and team-building yes

I'm going to keep those on the list for

our agile project manager so what we can

see is that the project manager role

evolves into something a bit different

in an agile environment that is that we

are left with are much more the the kind

of the facilitation side of things

rather than the hard core planning and

analysis and I'm even going to add

coaching and change management to the

list here and I will talk a bit more

about those in a minute and also

remember this agile principle here I say

remember this agile principle that

depends whether you are familiar with

the agile principle but there are 12

principles of agile and this particular

one is interesting because it says that

we build projects around motivated

individuals by giving them the

environment and the support that they

need now it doesn't say who should

ensure that the environment is right and

the support is there so I'm going to be

bold and I'm going to give that

responsibility to our agile project

manager so I've just added another thing

to the list here but the point I'm

trying to make is that this is quite a

different list to the list of

responsibilities that we saw before for

a traditional project manager and I'm

kind of over generalizing a little bit

here but really just to get the point

across to you quickly but this is a

different skill set to potentially and

that may or may not suit this strengths

and the characteristics of the end of

you're doing that traditional project

management role who finds themselves

needing to evolve into an agile

environment but this is where the soft

skills come in training on soft skills

developing those softer skills can

really help you build and improve to

make you more effective in these kinds

of areas so let's just go through this

list here one at a time to see what soft

skills are involved starting with issue

resolution and escalation here at the

top of the list so this is where the

agile project manager removes those road

blocks which are stopping the

development team from being able to

crack on with the job and I don't mean

that he's dealing with the silly little

things he's not the errand boy for the

team these are real impediments which

are outside of the team's control that

they can't sort out themselves

so he's gonna need to know how things

get done in the organization

and kind of whose daughter knock on for

help in removing that impediment

so our project manager is gonna need to

be a really good networker he's gonna

need to make connections with

influential people throughout the

organization he's gonna need to know

who's who and he's gonna need to have

some negotiation skills in order to

resolve some of these issues and maybe

he needs to be able to arbitrate

disputes you know for example maybe

somebody senior in the organization

wants to pinch one of the developers

from the development team to work on a

different project now our project

manager might not have the authority to

overrule that but if he can negotiate if

you can use some diplomacy and use some

empathy he can potentially avert that

situation so he's gonna need excellent

listening skills you know to really be

able to listen actively so he can be

empathic and truly understand the

different points of view and that's

going to make a big difference when it

comes to resolving these potential

disputes and luckily these skills are

skills which can be learned of course

some people do have a more natural

affinity for them than others but there

are skills that can be learned next on

my list is problem solving when I say

problem solving what I really mean is

helping the team to solve their own

problems so our project manager agile or

otherwise isn't gonna have the answer to

every problem which the team encounters

so he's gonna need to have tools in his

tool bag to to help unlock the team's

own creativity and

in their own solutions to their problems

and there's all sorts of different

strategies that you could use to help

the team find their own solutions you

know you might do this through some

creative questioning I've got an example

here you know you could throw in one of

these bizarre questions to get the team

to look at the problem from a different

angle it's always interesting to throw

in the odd question like this to really

change the energy in the room to shake

things up a bit if we've got a bit stuck

in our thinking after we've hit a brick

wall now I've actually just seen a

couple of questions coming in on the

webinar console that's great

keep them coming in so put the questions

in when you think of them and I will

have a look at the end of our webinar

anyway when you're helping the team to

problem solve is all sorts of different

tactics you could employ you could run a

brainstorming session you could run an

an activity to ensure that you've got to

the root cause of the problem so five

times why you could try the six thinking

hats activity to try and find a solution

but the point is these are strategies

that you can learn and I do actually

take you through them in my soft skills

for scrum masters course next on my list

is team-building because in agile we

need every member of the development

team to be jointly accountable for the

work performed and we need them to have

that kind of we're all in this together

attitude so our agile project manager

needs to understand really what makes a

team tick and to nurture and develop the

team as a as a unique and living thing

and he needs to understand that

individual team members are different

and it's gonna take a bit of time and

help for those individuals to really

bond and form a good working

relationship to form a good team and he

knows that a good team has fun that they

communicate freely that they create a a

safe environment for being able to ask

questions and potentially show

weaknesses and asked for help

and also a good team has agreed

standards of behavior and a good team

holds each other accountable for meeting

those agreed standards and again you got

it

team building as a skill it's a soft

skill that can be learned okay so what

about coaching now you hear a lot about

coaching in agile you hear about agile

coaches you hear that the scrum master

coaches the team in their agile

practices so again what a fantastic

skill for our agile project manager to

add to his toolkit so yes

agile project manager can coach the team

members in their practicalities of being

agile for example if you're working with

a customer who isn't familiar with an

agile environment then that customer

needs to understand that the customer

must be engaged throughout the entire

project so agile states that the

business people and the developers must

work together daily it's not just a case

that the customer shows their face at

the beginning and the end of the project

so coaching is required to make sure

people understand what is expected of

them and our project manager can also

coach and promote good agile working

practices throughout the organization in

terms of how we track work how we size

tasks to be done etc so so yes all of

that would of course count as coaching

but even more usefully we can coach

people to transform fixed mindsets on

the right hand side here into growth

mindsets and the fixed mindsets are the

ones which say oh that's too difficult

or no I can't do that that's just not my

thing whereas a growth mindset accepts

that challenges helped us grow and that

some effort might be required but

ultimately if we do try bit harder we

can learn new stuff and we can solve our

problems and because agile act scissor

is kinda like a catalyst for improvement

and change in an organization

these growth mindsets are absolutely

essential in being able to achieve that

so we coached to cultivate these growth

mindsets not only within our development

team but also throughout the whole

organization to make those big

organizational changes and at the heart

of coaching lies good questioning skills

and good listening skills but being

aware of how much more useful an open

question is rather than a closed

question so this is an example of an

open question here because an open

question allows for much longer more

thought-out responses which generate

thinking and reflection in the person

that you're asking so gives a much

fuller and more accurate picture of

what's going on so this is an open

question you ask how is the new system

working out and you get quite a complete

response well I think it's going to be

okay blah blah blah whereas if you had

said is the new system working out okay

that's a closed question it's just a yes

or no answer and you'd probably just get

a yes it's fine

type of ants so you don't get that full

acted thought-out response so you're not

going to get the full picture of what's

going on and of course once you've asked

a good question you need to be ready to

listen properly to the answer so you

don't interrupt you don't hurry the

speaker and you know certainly in

sensitive situations where you are

coaching for those growth mindsets you

need to check that you understand

properly what the speaker is saying you

need to defer judgment until they have

finished speaking and also listen

actively rather than wondering what you

are going to say in response I know I'm

guilty of this if if somebody is sharing

something with me that's a bit tricky

I'm already trying to think oh my

goodness what am I going to say to

respond to this but know when you're

listening actively you are properly

listening to what the person is saying

and also when coaching it's really

useful to listen to what's not being

said as well so all of those nonverbal

cues the tone of voice the body language

and again you know what I'm gonna say

these are all soft skills that you can

learn and you can improve I think that

change management to the next on my list

here is a really interesting one because

when adopting agile the project manager

can really add value by helping to

facilitate the change that will be

necessary throughout the organization

and its not just changes in the

organizational structure in terms of who

reports to who and what processes we

follow it's much more deep-rooted than

that because agile affects the

underlying culture the values and the

principles in an organization and that's

quite deep-rooted stuff that's quite

tricky so our agile project manager

needs to be prepared to swim against the

tide a little you know to ruffle a few

feathers in order to affect real change

deep in the organization because if we

can get deep into those cultural values

of a business and make changes there

that's where we will really see the

benefits of agile you know it's really

hard trying to be agile in just one

pocket of the organization it's like

swimming against the tide at every turn

so affecting these deeper changes can be

really beneficial now every project

manager agile or otherwise wants to

create an environment where people can

be as productive as possible you know

where those individuals feel supported

and empowered to do what they do best

where they have good relationships with

the people around them where they feel

safe to ask for help and ask questions

and where robots are effectively removed

and these soft skills here can really

help that agile project manager to

create that kind of environment so

whichever way you look at it I think we

can safely say that the role of the

project manager is evolving from that

traditional project management role into

something a little bit different in an

agile environment possibly into a scrum

master role if you're going to embrace

the scrum fully but by no means

necessarily but however it does evolve

in agile there will be less emphasis on

that detailed planning and there's not

gonna be that micromanagement at the

task and the resource level and much

more emphasis on individuals and

interactions and that's where these

softer skills come in to help you

achieve that ok I am mindful of the time

so I will stop there and have a look at

the questions I can see if you have

already been coming in

you