How PRINCE2 Agile qualifications can help your career

Introduction

PRINCE2 Agile training is a great way for PRINCE2 project managers to learn new skills and develop their careers. It’s also a great way for those new to PRINCE2 and Agile to learn how these two approaches can be used together to achieve better results.

No matter where you are in your agile project management career, we can offer training and qualifications to help you develop your career and skillset.

To skip to the section most relevant to you, click one of the links below:

• I want to start a career in agile project management
• I want to add agile tools to my project management skills
• I want to advance my career with a PRINCE2 Agile qualification .

Start a career as an agile project manager

Is project management the right career for you?

Project management is the natural career development path for many roles. Project management is also a great stepping-stone to more senior positions such as project management office (PMO) director or chief operating officer (COO).

Potential for growth

Agile project management is a rapidly growing discipline. More organisations across the world are adapting their approach to project management and product development with agile tools and frameworks.

PRINCE2 Agile guidance helps you to perform a multitude of roles. Few businesses rely solely on agile methods to manage the entire project lifecycle.

Traditional ‘waterfall’ project management still provide the governance and controls necessary to ensure reliable delivery of products and services.

PRINCE2 Agile helps you to work effectively in organisations that use agile approaches. This is especially valuable in industries and sectors where Agile is not yet mature enough to supersede traditional project management approaches.

Project management skills

Starting your career in project management isn’t as difficult as you may think. Many of the soft skills required by project managers can be learned in many other roles. These skills include:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Leadership
• Time management.

So long as you have the required industry-specific knowledge and technical skills, it’s never too soon to start your journey into professional project management.

Project management career change

We are experts in the field of agile project management. In our 15+ years as an accredited training provider, we’ve helped thousands of students earn recognised agile project management qualifications and make the leap into agile project management.

No matter where your expertise lies, there’s likely to be an agile project management role suitable for you. Our past students have found successful employment in the following industries, to name only a few:

• Engineering
• Construction
• Education
• IT
• Finance
• Legal services

Agile project manager salaries

The average salary for an Agile Project Manager is £51,000 per annum with senior agile project managers earning an annual salary as high as £81,000 ^[1].

How can PRINCE2 Agile help you start a career in project management?

PRINCE2 is considered by many to be an industry-standard qualification in the project management profession. Thousands of organisations in the UK and EU rely on the stability and ease of communication which PRINCE2 provides to help facilitate project management and product development.

Standing out

Earning a PRINCE2 Agile qualification can help you stand out to recruiters looking for junior project managers capable of working within a PRINCE2 project environment and able to apply an agile approach when required.

Bespoke project management

These qualifications are a great way to begin your journey into project management.

PRINCE2 is a process-based project management methodology. It takes project managers through the entire project lifecycle step-by-step, outlining the requirements of each phase and helping ensure that nothing is omitted.

Couple your knowledge of PRINCE2 with an understanding of agile approaches, and you will have a key set of tools in your tool bag to start developing your agile project manager career.

Starting your project management career

PRINCE2 Agile is a great platform to build your project management career. PRINCE2 Agile is compatible with many other project management tools, process and approaches. After attaining your desired qualification, you can then go on to learn other methods and integrate these into your own unique style of project management.

Learn to manage agile projects effectively

Learn practical skills with PRINCE2 Agile

Practical skills

PRINCE2 Agile provides guidance applicable to all levels of agile project management. Whether you’re a developer working in a PRINCE2 project environment, an experienced PRINCE2 project manager, or have no experience in project management, the guidance will help you.

Boost your confidence

PRINCE2 Agile can help to increase your confidence of working in agile ways. This is what the different qualifications can offer you:

• PRINCE2 Agile Foundation is an entry-level qualification and has no prerequisites. This makes it a great point to start your journey into agile project management.
• PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner is an intermediate qualification, and to be eligible you must hold a PRINCE2 Foundation qualification or equivalent. It is ideal for experienced PRINCE2 project managers, senior management staff and those who want to kickstart a career in project management.

What will PRINCE2 Agile teach me?

You will learn practical, effective, and applicable tools, that you can immediately start to apply to the management of your agile projects.

PRINCE2 Agile Foundation helps you:

• Understand the requirements of PRINCE2 governance
• Learn about different agile approaches such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean Start-up and Cynefin
• Learn how the rigour and structure of PRINCE2 can be blended with the flexibility of agile approaches.

To view the full PRINCE2 Agile Foundation syllabus, click here.

PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner helps you:

• Learn a range of agile behaviours, concepts, techniques
• Tailor the PRINCE2 themes, processes, and management products to suit an agile context
• ‘Fix’ and ‘flex’ project performance targets in agile ways
• Learn to correctly apply PRINCE2 Agile in a practical project scenario.

To view the full PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner syllabus, click here.

Advance your career as a project manager

PRINCE2 Agile qualified project management professional earns an average annual salary of £51,000^[2]. The rapid growth of agile across all sectors provides ample opportunity for agile-certified project managers to seek higher pay and develop their careers.

Why use PRINCE2 Agile?

PRINCE2 is a methodology

PRINCE2 is the world’s most widely used project management methodology. It is a customer-focused project management methodology. PRINCE2 helps project managers reliably achieve project goals through planning, risk and change management, and by applying systematic controls through effective project governance.

Agile does not provide project management

Agile approaches typically do not concern themselves with project management and governance. Instead, they focus on how to deliver value to customers quickly and in the most efficient manner.

PRINCE2 and Agile can work to complement each other, capitalising on the strengths of each while accounting for the weaknesses inherent to either approach.

PRINCE2 Agile is important because it guides you how best to incorporate Agile into PRINCE2 without creating unnecessary friction and inefficiencies.

PRINCE2 vs Agile

PRINCE2 focuses on understanding what products are needed to support business goals. Agile helps create the said products efficiently.

Combining PRINCE2 and Agile together blends structure, direction and reliability with flexibility and responsiveness.

Those working in a PRINCE2 project environment are free to use any development approach they choose providing they comply with the management framework defined by PRINCE2.

PRINCE2 Agile helps organisation that are familiar with PRINCE2 start to incorporate agile methods into their development life cycle.

Advance your career with a PRINCE2 Agile qualification

Demonstrate your dedication to continued professional development

On passing your PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner exam, you will be awarded your qualification and the status of PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner.

Maintaining our status as a Registered Practitioner is not mandatory but it does provide some great benefits including:

• Access to the latest project management publications including industry reports and case-studies
• A digital badge that validates your certification and provide an easy means to display your achievements online.

Why maintain your Registered Practitioner status?

Your status as a PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner will expire after 3 years. To maintain your status, you must be a member of AXELOS and accrue 20 Continuing Professional Development Points (CDP) each year.

Earning CDP can be done in a number of ways, but most commonly through further training, professional experience and participation within the project management community.

Doing so shows employers that you are willing to invest your own time and money into your career and that they should invest in you.

Agile is the new norm

PRINCE2 Agile is a great way to incorporate modern methods into your approach to project management. It can provide you with a solid foundation on which to build further skills, knowledge, and expertise in agile project management.

Agile methods are becoming increasingly popular and failing to act now may limit employment opportunities in your future.

Global employment opportunities

PRINCE2 is used by multi-national organisations, NGOs, and government institutions all over the world.

If you’re searching for new work abroad, want to begin freelancing, or work in an international consultancy, PRINCE2 Agile can help you work better with customers, suppliers, and contractors.

PRINCE2 Agile was developed to be universally useful. Earning your qualification teaches you a common vocabulary and a shared understanding that can help facilitate communication with other trained professionals.

About our training

Knowledge Train is an accredited training organisation for PRINCE2 Agile.

Trainers

Our trainers have years of applied experience in both PRINCE2 and agile approaches, and have the skills needed to help others learn from their experience.

We hire trainers who can engage and motivate our students and help them learn the intricacies of each subject.

Our rigorous selection process for trainers and ongoing improvements means you can be assured you’ll get the best learning experience available.

For more information about instructor-led training courses leading to PRINCE2 Agile qualifications, see our PRINCE2 Agile course page. For self-paced PRINCE2 Agile online courses see our PRINCE2 Agile online course page.

References