36 Agile Project Manager Interview Questions (With Answers)

Updated 15 March 2023

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Organisations often adopt the agile style of project management that focuses on a collaborative approach to boost productivity and achieve project goals. Agile project managers facilitate agile teams and create and execute effective methodologies for project success by solving internal challenges. Hiring managers may look for management skills, leadership and knowledge of agile management software in a potential candidate. In this article, we cover 36 agile project manager interview questions and provide some sample answers to questions that interviewers may ask.

General Agile Project Manager Interview Questions

Interviewers may evaluate your personality, communication skills and attitude through general agile project manager interview questions. Here are some commonly asked questions:

What is your motivation for working as an agile project manager?
What is the agile style of project management?
Which skills are necessary for an agile project manager?
What changes do you expect inside agile management software in the next few years?
Mention recent updates and developments in agile management software.
Who are our main competitors in the market?
Why is it necessary for an agile project manager to be proactive?
How is agile project planning different from traditional project planning?
Describe sprints in agile project management and their significance in planning.
What alternative career path would you choose if not an agile project manager?

Questions About Experience And Background

Questions that focus on your experience and background help hiring managers confirm your qualifications and past work performance. They might question your educational background and discuss your previous employer, accomplishments and projects. Practising answers to the following questions can help you prepare for your interview:

What factors do you consider to be essential before delegating responsibilities to your team?
Do you have experience working with other project management software apart from agile management?
What one mistake have you made in your career as an agile project manager, and what did you learn from it?
What is the difference between a project manager and an agile project manager?
What agile indicators do you use before deciding that a project is off track?
How do you usually conduct a debriefing with your team after a project? What approach do you follow for engaging debrief sessions?
What is your approach when conducting a sprint retrospective meeting?
Based on your experience, what are the benefits and limitations of working with agile?
How do you use your leadership skills to resolve conflicts between team members?
Describe your typical day as an agile project manager.

In-Depth Questions

Agile project managers aim to deliver projects with outstanding business value to users. They lead many cross-functional teams in an organisation and are accountable to higher management. These in-depth questions can help you convey your expertise as an agile project manager during an interview:

What are the leading frameworks in agile management software?
Explain what the minimum and maximum duration of a scrum cycle are.
What are the latest developments in agile management software?
Explain the best agile metrics.
What is the agile manifesto?
Tell me four differences between risk impact and risk probability.
Explain the role of kanban boards within agile.
List some agile project management tools and their roles in project planning.
Who is instrumental in the agile estimation process, and why do you think estimation is necessary despite its disadvantages?
What is the concept of yesterday's weather in agile project management?

Interview Questions With Sample Answers

Here are some possible agile project manager interview questions with sample answers to help you give adequate responses to recruiters:

1. What is the difference between agile and scrum?

Hiring managers may ask this question to understand a candidate's clarity on agile project management software. Answer this question by discussing the key differences and a few similarities between agile and scrum. Also, explain your work experience with these methodologies to demonstrate your comprehensive insight into agile.

Example: 'Agile is a project management and software development methodology that enables teams to deliver work efficiently. Its flexible approach allows cross-functional teams to associate and stay on track with a project using tracking tools. Scrum methodology is an agile framework that facilitates team collaboration for software development and testing. You can split each project in the scrum into small workable builds called sprints. In each sprint, team members take up a specific project function and complete it within the sprint timeline of two to three weeks,

Scrum and agile follow collaborative iterations and incremental builds for projects. In my experience, Scrum is rigid and produces quick results, while agile is flexible and suitable for small teams with creative and experimental project approaches.'

2. What process do you follow to plan an agile project?

This question aids recruiters in identifying your work style with agile. You can explain your agile project planning process one step at a time. Alternatively, you could describe a standard agile project plan and discuss how you remain efficient in the project with detailed planning.

Example: 'I follow a systematic method and involve concerned stakeholders while planning an agile project. The project starts with developing the product vision and discussing it with my team to finalise the product vision statement. The next step is to set project goals through a product road map and identify a strategy to accomplish those goals. Once the plan is ready, my team creates sprint plans and conducts daily scrums to meet sprint deadlines.

Afterwards, I review the sprints and plan a sprint retrospective meeting with all the teams to discuss challenges and improvement areas. I focus on involving all the team members in an engaging discussion for successful project execution.'

3. What is the work breakdown structure?

Interviewers might want agile project managers who can handle extensive and complex projects. The work breakdown structure assists managers in finishing projects within target dates while adhering to the client's specifications. You can describe the work breakdown structure, features and importance through your response.

Example: ‘Work breakdown is the hierarchical arrangement of tasks by breaking them into sections and tracking them. This technique aims to create a common understanding of the project scope. Each section is descriptive and simplifies complex tasks into small sub-tasks, which prevents delays and facilitates careful monitoring. There are four levels in the work breakdown structure. They are project deliverables, work accounts, work packages and activities, and they support the cautious organisation of each task component.'

4. What factors are responsible for impediments in scrum during the project planning process?

The scrum team may face challenges throughout the project, and hiring managers typically want to understand how project managers identify these issues and resolve them. Identify challenges in the scrum process and suggest some solutions to them. Alternatively, you could give examples from your work experience in your answer.

Example: ‘A few factors responsible for challenges in the scrum process are a lack of resources or team members, conflicts between departments, operational issues, a lack of cooperation between stakeholders and technical glitches within the software. As a project manager, I try to satisfy customer demands by delivering products on time and according to their requirements. Effective communication between all collaborators helps resolve conflict issues. It is also important to communicate the team's requirements to the upper management to resolve operational and technical barriers in the project execution process.'

5. What do you understand by scrum of scrums, and how is it different from a daily scrum? Could you explain with an example?

As a project manager, you might execute sophisticated projects by connecting with multiple teams. Interviewers may try to learn about your leadership and management skills through this question. It is advisable to answer by detailing the concept of scrum of scrums. Including an example from your experience can give the recruiters more insight into your scrum knowledge.

Example: ‘Scrum of Scrums is an agile technique that allows for connecting multiple teams virtually and reducing the number of communication lines. The manager divides the teams into smaller groups that connect with each other for the assignment and delivery of sprints. This helps all the team members work towards a common goal and deliver quality projects. A daily scrum is a stand-up meeting where a team plans the work for the day and tracks a project's development.

I feel Scrum of Scrums is important for delivering customer value through integrated product development, while daily scrum is necessary to track the progress of team members and avoid delays.'

6. How does an agile team maintain project requirements?

Interviewers may test your knowledge and understanding of the agile team. You can showcase how you assist or plan to assist your team in maintaining project requirements at the different stages of product development. Approaching your answer this way might help you perform well in the interview stage.

Example: ‘An agile team uses a product backlog to maintain project requirements. An agile team is a group of people working on a project and having all the resources to produce a quality product. The three important roles in an agile team are the product owner, scrum master and development team. The product owner prioritises customer requirements, and the scrum master looks after the development team's requirements and facilitates daily meetings. The project manager provides resources and personnel to assist the agile team in maintaining project requirements.'