What do Agile professionals look like in Enterprise companies?

The big thing with PMP and Project Management is that it has become not just a skill set, but also a profession. Before you had a job and a job title, and within the context of your work you did project management. Now more and more professionals are being designated as Project Managers.

This transition has been the fuel that has driven a lot of the success of the PMP certification and of PMI. The PMP has become synonymous with Project Management, so when someone asks you for a PMP you know what they are looking for or someone uses PMP when asking for project management…like when someone asks you for a Band-Aid or a Xerox. When they ask you for a band-aid they are asking you for a bandage using the brand name to refer to bandages in general. When they ask you for a Xerox copy, they again are using the brand name to ask for a type of product (known as a genericized trademark).

With Agile we are getting a sense that it is a more a skill set than a profession right now. This can be seen in a number of ways including the two most prevalent:

· Responses we are seeing to our Agile salary survey are not as heavy as anticipated, and a large number of responses are coming from consultants not enterprise professionals.

· With customers we are working with, we are not seeing many Agile specific positions. Most customers are Project Managers using Agile, Developers using Agile or Testers working in an Agile project. It seems people are keeping their title and adding that they work in Agile.

What this is saying could be two things. One, Agile is still very new. Organizations have not restructured themselves utilizing titles like Product Owner, ScrumMaster, Agile Evangelist, Agile Practitioner or Agile Project Manager. It is just a matter of time and growth in the industry

Or it could be saying that Agile is seen more as a skill set not a specific job function. Professionals will continue to say they are a Project Manager using Agile or a Developer in an Agile Project or a BA doing User Stories.

Right now, the enterprise is seeing is an additional skill within the context of their overall job position. Time will tell if industry adoption goes to the point that SDLC professional job titles are significantly adjusted.