Agile Delivery Manager - Cross-Functional Team

The Agile Delivery Manager is responsible for facilitating the successful delivery of value by a cross-functional Agile team. This role requires a strong understanding of Agile principles and practices, coupled with the ability to effectively manage diverse skill sets, remove impediments, and foster collaboration to ensure the team delivers high-quality products that meet business objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

Agile Facilitation & Coaching:

• • Facilitate Agile ceremonies (e.g., daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, retrospectives) to ensure adherence to Agile principles and practices.

  • Coach the cross-functional team (including but not limited to developers, testers, designers, analysts) on Agile methodologies, promoting self-organization, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

  • Guide the team in understanding and applying Agile values, principles, and practices.

Cross-Functional Team Management:

• • Foster a collaborative and high-performing team environment, ensuring effective communication and knowledge sharing among team members with diverse skill sets.

  • Facilitate collaboration between different functional areas within the team, promoting a shared understanding of goals and dependencies.

  • Help the team to identify and address cross-functional dependencies and challenges.

Delivery Management:

• • Manage and optimize the flow of work across the cross-functional team, identifying and removing impediments that hinder the team's progress.

  • Work with the Product Owner to define and manage the product backlog, ensuring alignment with business goals and priorities.

  • Facilitate the delivery of incremental value, ensuring the team meets delivery commitments.

  • Coordinate release planning and execution.

Stakeholder Management:

• • Serve as the primary point of contact for stakeholders, managing their expectations, communicating project status, and gathering feedback.

  • Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, ensuring their needs are understood and addressed, and that they are aligned with the team's progress.

  • Communicate complex information clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Impediment Removal:

• • Identify and remove impediments that are blocking the cross-functional team from achieving its goals, including those that span different functional areas or organizational boundaries.

  • Escalate issues as necessary to ensure timely resolution.

Reporting & Transparency:

• • Provide clear and concise reporting on team progress, project status, and key metrics to stakeholders.

  • Ensure transparency of the team's work and progress to both internal and external stakeholders.

  • Utilize data and metrics to track team performance, identify areas for improvement, and inform decision-making.

Continuous Improvement:

• • Promote a culture of continuous improvement within the team, encouraging experimentation, learning from failures, and the adoption of best practices.

  • Facilitate retrospectives and drive the implementation of agreed-upon improvements to optimize the team's processes and workflows.

Risk & Dependency Management:

• • Identify, assess, and manage risks and dependencies that may impact the team's ability to deliver.

  • Develop and implement mitigation strategies to minimize the impact of risks and dependencies.

Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience working as an Agile Delivery Manager or Scrum Master, preferably with cross-functional teams.

• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies (e.g., Scrum, Kanban) and frameworks.

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively communicate with individuals with diverse skill sets and backgrounds.

• Ability to manage stakeholders at all levels, including senior management.

• Strong problem-solving and conflict resolution skills, with the ability to navigate complex situations and find solutions that benefit the team and the organization.

• Experience in project management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps).

• Ability to analyze data and metrics to drive decision-making and continuous improvement.

• Experience in risk and dependency management, particularly in a cross-functional context.

• Knowledge of software development processes and a general understanding of the technologies used by the team.

Desirable:

• Agile certifications (e.g., CSM, PSM, PMI-ACP).

• Experience with scaling Agile frameworks.

• Experience working in a matrix organization.

• Experience with budget management.

Personal Attributes:

• Servant leader with a focus on empowering the team.

• Collaborative and able to build strong relationships.

• Proactive and able to anticipate and address challenges.

• Adaptable and able to thrive in a dynamic environment.

• Results-oriented with a focus on delivering value.

• Strong organizational and time-management skills.

• Ability to influence without direct authority.