(Agile Project Manager) Head - Digital Hub at Co-operative Bank of Kenya

The holder will be responsible for managing several concurrent high visibility projects using agile methods in a fast-paced environment that may cross multiple business divisions.

The role holder will also facilitate Sprint Planning, Release Planning participation, Daily Stand-Ups, Stakeholder Demos, Sprint Retrospectives, and other related agile meetings.

The Agile Project Manager also guides Product Owners in developing, maintaining and grooming Product Backlog, and identifies and manages dependencies.

The role holder also reviews reports, analyzes data and provides feedback to teams in support of continual improvement efforts and provides metrics and status to senior management.

Digital Hub Job Responsibilities

• Define project scope and schedule while focusing on regular and timely delivery of value; organize and lead project status and working meetings; prepare and distribute progress reports; manage risks and issues; correct deviations from plans; and perform delivery planning for assigned projects.
• Assist in team development while holding teams accountable for their commitments, removing roadblocks to their work; leveraging organizational resources to improve capacity for project work; and mentoring and developing team members. Facilitate the scrum team for better creativity and works to improve the efficiency of the development team. Managing outside influencers. Remove the impediments for the scrum team.
• Arranges daily stand-up meetings, facilitates and schedules meetings, demos and decision-making processes in order to ensure quick inspection and proper use of adaptation process. Conducts retrospective meetings, organizes and facilitates the sprint planning meeting and acts as safeguard for his team.
• Support the Product Owner in managing customer expectations for project deliverables, managing stakeholder communications, and helping to implement an effective system of project governance. Help product owners to make the product backlogs in good shape and make them ready for the next sprint.
• Define and manage a well-defined project management process and champion ongoing process improvement initiatives to implement best practices for Agile Project Management. Is responsible for managing the scrum process with the coordination of the scrum team in agile methodology.
• Promote empowerment of the team, ensure that each team member is fully engaged in the project and making a meaningful contribution, and encourage a sustainable pace with high-levels of quality for the team.

Qualifications for the Digital Hub Job

• An IT related Bachelor’s degree or Business related degree with relevant IT professional qualifications.
• At least 7 years’ experience in managing large, complex projects in a high-tech development environment with multi-function teams with at least 2 years serving as an active Agile Project Manager or Scrum Master in a software development organization. Balanced business/technical background.
• Certified Agile project manager/Scrum Master with relevant practical experience as an agile project manager/Scrum Master or experience working in a Scrum Framework.
• Strong understanding of the full software development life cycle, processes and procedures with an understanding of team needs, basic fundamentals of iterative and incremental development as well as Service oriented environments and Agile practices.
• Thorough understanding of the lean/Agile software development methodologies, techniques, values and procedures – User Stories, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing, Agile
• Games, Kanban, Extreme Programing (XP), Crystal, Feature Driven Development (FDD).
• Ability to produce quantifiable metrics of performance and use these to maximize productivity.
• Coaching capability on agile scrum with a Continuous improvement mindset – Must continually be growing one’s craft, learning new tools and techniques to manage oneself and a team. Must be able to lead and demonstrate value-add principles to a team.
• High level of mathematical aptitude and strong problem-solving skills, Logical, analytical with an investigative creative mind and ability to handle complex information with accuracy and attention to detail. Knows and appreciates the value of metrics and incremental delivery.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills when working with both internal business and technical people with external customers, ability to solidify vague requests, explain issues, and guide to solutions.
• Design thinking experience and/or training is desirable.