You will provide an effective and professional working relationship with other IT departments, University bodies and project teams.

Transcription

1 Job Title: Agile Delivery Manager Grade: 8 Job reference: CSE01264 Department: IT Services Post Responsible To: Head of Development and Integration Job Purpose: Under the general direction of the Deputy Director IT Solution and responding to University change priorities, the Agile Delivery Manager will be responsible for leading, embedding and providing agile management and coaching throughout the development lifecycle. The Agile Delivery Manager will be the most influential of several Scrum Masters/Agile Coaches in the team. They will be responsible for guiding and supporting the adoption of Agile. You will act as Agile Coach for delivery teams (Scrum) with a focus on guiding the teams towards continually improving the way they work. This involves working with Scrum as the preferred approach as well as looking into and promoting, where appropriate, the use of other agile techniques (Kanban, XP and SAFe, etc). You will provide an effective and professional working relationship with other IT departments, University bodies and project teams. As Scrum Master for multiple teams you will: Ensure that Scrum Teams understand and adhere to Scrum theory, practices, and rules. Drive and lead Scrum Ceremonies including planning, daily stand-ups, sprint demonstrations, and retrospectives for your teams. Anticipate and robustly remove impediments that slow down or prevent work completion. Build team cohesion and foster open and honest team communication. Collect, report, and refine Agile metrics to quantify and communicate team performance through JIRA Agile. Ensure that teams are effectively executing against the highest value priorities. Work closely with the Product Owner on roadmap creation, forecasting activities, and team planning. Operate under Project and Programme Governance. Be aware of, and comply with, all IT Services and University policies. As Agile Coach you will: Embrace, coach, and evangelize Agile values and principles Drive continuous improvement of process and practice through collaboration with teams Version Number: 1 Page 1 of 6 Date of Issue: 12/12/2014

2 Context: and University leaders to identify and implement improvements. Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption; Planning Scrum implementations within the organization; Job Summary Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development; Cause change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Team; and, Work with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the University. The purpose of IT Services is to create a digital campus in which students and staff can be as creative and productive as possible as they learn, teach, undertake research and run the organisation. Many of our services are typical of the corporate world and offer similar challenges: managed desktops and laptops, storage, , printing, web content management, data and voice networking, multimedia design and production, and the ERP business applications underpinning finance, HR/ payroll, marketing, facilities management and a range of commercial enterprises. Other services are specific to the University and create an interesting range of challenges for the IT function. Here the creation, sharing, analysis and dissemination of information are defining activities. Both students and researchers tend to be demanding, innovative users of technology and we aim to provide them an information environment in which they can be as creative and productive as possible. We provide them with a Virtual Learning Environment, High Performance Computing services and a huge range of specialist software. Our researchers produce vast amounts of data and need tools to manage, mine and generate information from it. Many of them collaborate with others across disciplinary and organisational boundaries. Our students have grown up with internet technologies and expect to be constantly connected using their mobile devices. A technology rich experience is what they expect from University life. We provide equipment in teaching rooms, PC areas, wireless everywhere, and internet services in the halls of residence. We also run specialist business applications to support our students journey through the institution, aiming to provide them with a professional service through the application process, while they are studying and after they graduate. Similarly, we run systems to underpin the life cycle of each research project as it moves from grant application through to publication and dissemination. You will define the governance processes to support agile projects, whilst implementing the transformation, providing training and coaching to the delivery teams in Agile and Scrum practices. Throughout your day to day work you will work closely with the delivery teams and assist with the challenges they face during adoption. You will provide Product Owner training and coaching to the business including effective user story writing, minimum viable product and backlog prioritisation, whilst having an holistic approach to agile adoption covering the whole team, business and IT You will take on the role of Scrum Master for multiple projects. Version Number: 1 Page 2 of 6 Date of Issue: 12/12/2014

3 Principal Accountabilities: % Time Agile Delivery Manager Leading, guiding and coaching the Agile team and University on how to use and implement Agile practices within the overall change process. Facilitating and coaching on Agile ceremonies such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospective and sprint demos. Tactical planning around resource skills and dependencies between internal and external delivery teams. Ensuring disciplined software development approach: continuous integration, refactoring practices, peer reviews, early QA, and sustainable pace as standard. Assessing the Agile maturity of the team and organisation, coaching the team to higher levels of maturity, at a pace that is sustainable for the team and organisation Actively contributing to the Agile implementation through communication and keeping stakeholders aware of our activities and progress. Liaising between the team members and other department to support the Agile process and delivery objectives. Keeping abreast of emerging tools and techniques within the Agile domain. Removing impediments and/or guiding the team to remove impediments. Building a trusting and safe environment where problems can be raised without fear of blame, retribution, or being judged, with an emphasis of healing and problem solving. Facilitating getting the work done without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work. Facilitating discussion, decision making, and conflict resolution. Assisting with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information. Supporting and educating the Product Owners, especially with respect to product backlog refinement, maintaining the product backlog and user stories. 50% As Scrum Master Ensure that the Scrum Team understands and adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules. Drive and lead Scrum Ceremonies including planning, daily stand-ups, sprint demonstrations, and retrospectives for your teams. Anticipate and robustly remove impediments that slow down or prevent work completion. Build team cohesion and foster open and honest team communication. Collect, report, and refine Agile metrics to quantify and communicate team performance. 50% Version Number: 1 Page 3 of 6 Date of Issue: 12/12/2014

4 Ensure that teams are effectively executing against the highest value priorities. Work closely with the Product Owner on roadmap creation, forecasting activities, and team planning. Operate under formal Project and Programme Governance. Be aware of, and comply with, all IT Services and University policies. Resources Managed: The members of this team interact with all other areas of IT Services and key senior business users in corporate services and the University as whole Will lead and mentor members of the team on a daily basis. In a project context may lead small teams of 2 to 9 people. Internal and External Relationships: Daily contact with other team members. Daily contact with other teams in dealing with problems/queries. Daily/Weekly contact with third party solution providers. Weekly contact with other teams and with IT Services Directorate in planning service developments. Regular contact with stakeholders across the University and end users to gather requirements, support user acceptance testing and resolve problems that have been escalated. Negotiation and discussion with system suppliers, external consultants and maintenance providers in developing services and dealing with complex issues. Contact with peers at other sites with similar service requirements. Presentations, both internal and external, on service developments and proposals. Planning and Organising: Forward planning for major service developments with lead times of 6 24 months. Planning/scheduling of application, hardware and software upgrades with lead times from weeks to months, minimising loss/degradation of services. Co-ordinating team effort related to specialist support area(s). Organising own workload to meet the requirements of the team and service provision/development. Version Number: 1 Page 4 of 6 Date of Issue: 12/12/2014

5 Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience: Essential Experience of performing a ScrumMaster / Agile coach / practitioner role in a complex IT environment, ideally during an agile adoption (*) Significant experience in a Scrum Master role A thorough understanding of agile software development methodologies, values and procedures. Understand other IT processes and methodologies such as MSP, Prince2, ITIL, CoBIT and how the Agile practice can support these. Demonstrable experience as a collaborative leader: must be able to garner respect from his/her team and be willing to get their hands dirty to get the job done. Demonstrates clear leadership and the ability to influence and persuade, and maintain a high energy environment. Must have experience in ensuring agile development concepts and principles are adhered to, must be able to be a voice of reason and authority, make the tough calls when needed. Must have experience in conflict resolution, and be able to facilitate discussion and facilitate alternatives or different approaches. Understand backlog tracking, burndown metrics, velocity, and task definition. Understand the fundamentals of iterative development - appreciation of the mechanics leading to success or failure. Experience of using and configuring a tool to aid Agile delivery (JIRA preferred). Desirable Certified Agile qualifications are desirable Knowledge of Kanban/SAFe/XP IT Service Management (ITIL) Foundation. Prince2 Project Management Foundation. Skills, Abilities and Competencies: Essential Highly developed analytical skills and problem solving ability. Able to lead others through a structured problem solving exercise. * Flexible Improvisation as standard Persistent Natural attention to Detail Excellent customer focus with a passion about thinking from the customer perspective Excellent inter-personal skills.* Good verbal and written communication skills* Customer focussed. Capable of engaging and working with senior clients and end users at every level to understand business requirements, translate these into system specifications and deliver services to support them* Excellent team player. Able to lead a small team * Able to work with minimal supervision. Self-confident and self-motivated. Able to organize, prioritize and plan own work * Version Number: 1 Page 5 of 6 Date of Issue: 12/12/2014

6 Effective oral and written skills in order to communicate effectively with staff and students. *Criteria to be used in shortlisting candidates for interview Contract Information: This is a permanent position and is available immediately. Working hours: This is a full-time appointment. Applications: We use a web based, e-recruitment system, which allows you to apply on-line at: As part of the online application process, you will be asked to supply contact details for your referees. Please ensure that one of these is your current or most recent employer. You will also be asked to supply a CV and covering letter to support your application. Candidates short-listed for interview will be contacted by the University. If you do not receive a communication from the University within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful. Version Number: 1 Page 6 of 6 Date of Issue: 12/12/2014