Get your project managers certified in AGILE

Agile certifications are aplenty, but should you upskill in this area, and how will this technical certification benefit you?

Familiarisation with agile principles and techniques can be beneficial as reports suggest agile projects contain fewer defects, take less time to complete and can help with cost savings.

What agile is will have different explanations depending on whom you ask. 

Referencing the Agile Manifesto – which was developed by 17 industry professionals in 2001 – Mark Shead, an agile coach and software engineer, explained on YouTube that agile is a collection of beliefs that teams can use for making decisions about how to do the work of developing software.

He added that “agile doesn’t make decisions for you”; instead, it gives teams a foundation to make decisions that result in better software development.

Agile in project management

When it comes to project management, agile methodology “is a process for managing a project characterised by constant iteration and collaboration in order to more fully answer a customer’s needs”, explained wrike, a work management platform.

It is characterised by building products that customers want, using short cycles of work that allow for rapid production and constant revision if necessary, it explained.

CIO notes that although agile is designed originally for the software industry, many industries use agile when developing products and services due to its highly collaborative and more efficient nature of the methodology. 

The report adds that agile is a perfect fit for organisations looking to transform how they manage projects and operate as a whole as it can help ensure company-wide process and methodological alignment. 

In the project management field, agile provides project teams, sponsors, project leaders and customers many project-specific benefits, including more rapid deployment of solutions, reduced waste through minimisation of resources, increased flexibility and adaptability to change; increased success through more focused efforts and faster turnaround times, to name a few. 

Agile certifications to level-up in your career 

Seeing the benefits of agile, professionals may want to consider upskilling themselves in the field with agile certifications.

Udemy, for instance, offers professionals a crash course in agile project management and agile delivery. This highly rated course will teach you key concepts of Agile Development, Agile Project Delivery and Agile Project Management and how to apply agile in your job and projects.

You will also understand the differences between Agile and traditional project delivery (other methodologies) as well as how to launch apps faster, in addition to learning to focus on an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). No prep work or previous knowledge is required, notes Udemy. The course is currently being offered for less than US$13.

The Project Management Institute offers the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) certification and spans many approaches to agile such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean, extreme programming (XP) and test-driven development (TDD.) 

PMI adds that this certification will increase your versatility, wherever your projects may take you. The course is ideal if you already work on agile teams or if your organisation is adopting agile practices. Non-members can expect to shell out US$495 for this agile certification.

Without a doubt, there are a myriad of ways to get certified in agile project management, depending on your budget and experience in the field. With many certifications available in the market, taking your career up to the next level is possible, regardless of your budget.