Agile Project Manager Competencies in
Software Development Projects:A
Systematic Literature Review
1Zulkefli Mansor and
2Norsaedah HazimahRedzuan
1
Faculty of Information Science and Technology, UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia, 43000
Bangi, Selangor DarulEhsam, Malaysia
2
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
Universiti Selangor, JlnTimurTambahan, 45600 Bestari Jaya, Selangor DarulEhsan.
Abstract-Managing a software development project is becoming more challenging due to the complexity of requirements and software development processes. This resulted in many software development projects could not be completed successfully. Therefore, to overcome this problem, a project manager who has the skills and knowledge is required. However, the problems can be reduced by adopting agile methodology in software development projects. Past literature summarized that agile increase the chances of project success rate. Hence, this study aimed to investigate what are the skills and knowledge required by project managers when adopting agile in managing the software development projects. A systematic literature review has been carried out in order to develop the agile project manager competency model. Traceability metrics and map of findings used to locate the current research and resolve problem in the field of agile project manager competency model. The information regarding of agile project manager competency model and agile development process also has been covered in the literature review. This trigger needs a systematic literature review whereby it covers agile project manager competency model in the context of involvement in agile development process and various perspective of quantifying it. Literature research related to project manager and agile development process reveal 150 papers, and after further reading, 30 articles are identified as primary paper. The results of systematic literature review lead to development of conceptual model in this study.
Keywords-Requirements, Software Development Process, Skills, Knowledge, Methodology, Traceability Metrics
1 Introduction
gile software development requires alignment of decisions on the strategic, tactical, and operational levels in order to overcome challenges. [6] stated that the agile development also requires a transition from specialized skills to redundancy of functions and from rational to naturalistic decision-making. According to [25], agile project manager must have necessary skills in the art of delegation and control resources within the entire project lifecycle from inception to completion.
This competency model is the set of behaviour patterns that can measure project manager’s skills to perform his task and functions with the incumbent needs to bring to a position in order to perform its tasks and functions with competence. [29] introduce traditional project manager’s competency model which based on the knowledge, attitudes and skills.
However, to cope with agile methodology, this study replace attitudes dimension with new dimension to the model which is experience of project managers. The competency model of agile project manager plays an important role in ensuring project is successfully managed. The importance of competency model agile project is to help by delivering the project which could satisfy the client needs. This paper is aimed to investigate the skills knowledge and experience required by an agile project manager in determining of project success. Meanwhile, in the research methodologyincludes the section which outlines the searching strategy and ways to conduct systematic literature review. The outcome of the systematic literature review presented in traceability matrix format will be covered in discussion future section.
2 Motivation
A project manager is the person who is responsible for accomplishing the stated project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include creating clear and
attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing the constraints of the project management triangle, which cover cost, time, scope, and quality. Generally, a project manager also can be known as a client representative who provides skills to implement client’s needs. This acquires project manager’s knowledge and experience to build his confidence by providing a solution for the complexity of the project. The term and title 'project manager' has come to be used generically to describe anyone who is given responsibility to complete a project. However, it is more properly used to describe a person with full responsibility and the same level of authority required completing a project.
[8] explained that by using the agile software development approach, there are many factors that will influence the success of projects. So, this approach factors comprise with the customer satisfaction, customer collaboration, customer commitment, decision time, corporate culture, personal characteristics, societal culture and training and learning.
Based on the literature, a project manager who implements agile software development is known as agile project manager. Partially, the agile project manager is able to keep the people continuously motivated and engaged with the project. Another competency of agile project manager is he is able to provide resource movement with a realistic transition plan which produce minimum impact on business [5]. The responsibilities of agile project managers include developing the project plan, managing the project team, identify the project risk, managing project schedule, project budget and solving the project conflicts.
3 Research Method
The method used to conduct this systematic literature review based on the approach proposed by [32]. The article entitled systematic literature review in software engineering. Systematic literature review steps proposed by [32] is accepted as the best practices in conducting systematic literature review in software engineering as it is used widely among other author. There are few steps proposed by the author in this article that manage the literature in systematic manner to facilitate the finding of the most relevant information in the field of research. Steps to conduct systematic literature review including developing reviewing protocol, identification and selection of primary
studies, data extraction and lastly reporting the results. The reported result is the main activity that leads to the knowledge gap tracking. Knowledge gap is important in research to identify the researchable problem. Research always starts with a problem and questions. Agile project manager’s competency model research questions that need to be answered during the literature review process are as followed:-
Q1: What are the characteristic of agile project manager in software development project?
Q2: Is there any competency model for agile project manager in software development?
Q3: How agile project manager play role in determining in project success?
The searching strategies have revealed 150 papers that associated with agile development project and project manager competency model. There is certain filtration and process used in the process of finding the primary paper.
Figure 1: The Systematic Review Process adapted [32]
Figure 1 shows the systematic review process that help in displaying primary result that closely related to agile project manager towards achieving a successful agile project development project. The search strategy included electronic databases and hand searches of conference proceedings. The electronic databases were searched by using the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect – Elsevier, SpringerLink, Wiley Inter Science Journal Finder and etc. 150
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Identify relevant studies search online databases and conferences proceeding Execute studies on the basis of titles Execute studies on the basis of abstract Obtain primary papers and critically appraise study n = 150 n = 120 n = 60 n = 30
articles have been identified using these searching strategies which later refined by article publication year. The article which was published in 5 years ago is used to locate the latest finding on the field of research. Search result displayed 120 articles from various journals and conference preceding which then refine to dedicated journals and conference proceeding as stated in Figure 1. First level reading has been conducted in order to obtain primary article that reflects the idea of agile project manager in conducting the agile development project.
4 Discussion and Future Work
Fifteen articles are used in identifying the knowledge gap in agile development process and five articles regarding project manager competency model. The result of reading articles represented in two illustration format; map of findings and traceability metrics. Both representations help in identifying the area of research discussed in this paper. Based on the literature review, roadmap as illustrated in Figure 1 produced consists of area that related to agile project manager competency model. The area includes the discussion or interested area on software development process, agile development process and agile project manager competency model. Anchor papers that identified through systematic review process, become the major reference to produce the following roadmap. Due to the author limitation, article filtration activity only involves authors of the paper instead of group of reviewers. Research questions that identified earlier have been answered after the implementation of review process. There is a variety of agile project manager competency model which has been identified by using traceability metrics. The agile project manager competency model acquire into three types of competency which include the skills, knowledge and experiences. However, these models need to give specific attention on measuring the agile project manager’s skills, knowledge and experiences. It is due to the fact that it will help in easy adaption from one environment to another environment as an efficient project manager. These three models that related to the agile project manager competency model have being derived from the literature review activity. The more skills, knowledge and experience gain by the agile project manager, it is easier for agile project manager to handle the complexity of the project. An excellent agile project manager's leadership can result in higher morale, and able to increased
productivity and profitability in business strategy.Among the three models, measurement skills, knowledge and experience of agile project manager can be considered as one of the important criteria that help in handling the high complexity of the project manages in determining of success project. There is a large volume of published studies describing the agile development process and project manager competency model. So, there is a need for future literature survey to know the agile project manager in terms of interpersonal skills awareness.
Table 1: Competency Model of Agile Project Manager adapted by [23]
Table 1 shows the three perspectives of competency model of agile project manager which has been derived from the literature review activity. The perspective of the input competencies is referring to the characteristic which acquires to become an effective agile project manager. The characteristic includes the knowledge, skills and experience. This area also provides the evaluation for agile project manager which is using the Project Management Competence Development Framework (PMCDF). This is the way to measure the agile project manager's knowledge, skills and experience. The output competencies refer to how the agile project manager gives a solution in managing high risk of the project and how to handle stakeholder commitment. If the input and output competency of agile project manager provides a satisfied result, it will produce the
successful outcome in project delivery. The input and output competency also will affect the agile project manager's performance. Besides, the better quality of agile project manager competency model will facilitate a success in agile software development project and good business strategy. There is a large volume of published studies describing the usage of agile software development project. So, there is a need for future literature survey to study know the quality of agile project manager attributes in managing a successful agile software development project.
5 Conclusion
As a conclusion, the lack of guidance for agile project managers will affect the project completion. An agile project manager plays important role among the project team in any IT project especially in software development project. An effective agile project manager is needed in order to fulfil the objective and contribute to the success of the project. By using the agile approach, it will provide the clear guidelines for the visionary agile project
manager to success in software development process. Agile approach also provides the opportunity for project team to deliver a rapid solution to fix any changes in project task within the time limit.
6 Appendices
Table 2 shows the traceability metrics of agile project manager using agile development process. The traceability metrics and map of findings and used to locate the current research and resolve problem in the field of agile project manager competency model. The result of reading articles represented in two illustration format; map of findings and traceability metrics. Both representations help in identifying the area of research discussed in this paper. The map of finding contains the paper reference which has been match with research contents. The research contents include the Process Model, Competency Model, Evaluation or Assessment of project manager and management concept. All the research contents contribute with the sub contents with realistic and based on the Literature Review.
Table 2: Traceability Metrics on Characteristics of Agile Project Manager using Agile Software Development (ASD) Process adapted by [32]
Paper Reference 1: [11] 2: [4] 3: [7] 4: [24] 5: [12] 6: [28] 7: [23] 8: [13] 9: [1] 10: [16] 11: [26] 12: [29] 13: [2] 14: [25] 15: [30] Process Model Software Development Process Agile Development Process Competency Model Project Manager's attributes Skills Communication Skills Team Building Skills Problem Solving
Skills
Experience
Decision Making Managing Workloads Managing Vision and
Purpose
Knowledge
Coaching Staff Planning
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