Software Project Manager

• Posted : 3 years ago

Headquarters: Cedar Falls, IA
URL: https://www.farreachinc.com

• Communicating and coordinating with various stakeholders (clients, team members, partners)
• Leading the execution and delivery of multiple projects for our clients
• Managing projects
•  Keeping tabs on and reporting project status (including progress toward budget) to stakeholders
•  Identifying client goals, objectives, and system requirements
• Writing user stories and acceptance criteria
•  Creating basic screen mockups for client review
•  Creating client invoices
•  Conducting client meetings and team scrum ceremonies (backlog grooming, sprint planning, project retros, etc.)
•  Attending daily team standups
•  Testing our work to ensure it meets acceptance criteria and quality standards
•  Assisting with project and resource planning
•  Triaging and working with developers to address support requests from the clients you work with
•  Identifying process improvement opportunities
•  Creating positive and memorable experiences for our clients

• You are detail-oriented, have excellent organizational and time management skills, and aren’t afraid to confront the unknown head-on. 
• You are capable of effectively juggling multiple priorities at one time.
• At this stage in your career, you want to be asked to solve problems, rather than be "told what to do."
• You are passionate about your craft and are a motivated self-starter who is committed to continuous improvement.
• You communicate clearly, effectively, and consistently, both verbally and in written format.
• You are excited to join a small but growing team and contribute directly to our team’s and our clients’ success.
• You want to empower others to make a positive difference.

• Having a technical background and/or the ability to learn new technologies quickly
• Experience managing software development projects
• Experience working in an agency or consultancy environment (as opposed to a SaaS/product environment)
• Experience working in an agile/scrum environment
• Experience writing user stories and acceptance criteria
• Experience testing software
• Experience with user experience strategy and/or design

1. Demonstrate exemplary communication skills
   This role requires outstanding communications skills. In working with both your team and our clients, you’ll need to listen with a critical ear and communicate in a way your audience understands, no matter their level of technical knowledge. 
   
   Your teammates will rely on you to communicate a clear understanding of clients’ goals and objectives and to give them direct and timely feedback to help them succeed. As a team, we strive to give and receive feedback with grace and humility, acknowledging it and seeing it for the gift it is.
   
   Your clients expect a collaborative partner who listens, comprehends, and offers strategic solutions to their challenges in language they can understand. They rely on your consistency, transparency, and respect as it relates to project progress, even if conversations are sometimes uncomfortable.
   
   
2. Effectively manage multiple projects through the entire lifecycle
   Though we try to limit the number of projects team members work on at any one time, you will regularly need to juggle work between two or more projects within a given sprint. This will require exceptional communication and organizational skills and a focus on prioritizing your work in coordination with the team.
   
   The project lifecycle starts with a hand-off from the business development team at which point you will take ownership of the success of the project. From here you’ll dive into project discovery where you’ll quickly develop an understanding of clients’ business objectives and goals; effectively translate business needs into a backlog of user stories; and conduct user research and evaluate user feedback as needed. 
   
   Throughout the development and deployment of the application, you’ll groom stories and ensure work is queued up for the development team each sprint; set expectations for clients and the team; manage scope from both a budget and an effort perspective; clearly and consistently communicate project status and prepare invoices for clients; pay attention to the details to prevent surprises from derailing the project; and act as clients’ advocate with the team and the team’s advocate with clients.
   
   
3. Quickly and effectively build business- and user-domain knowledge and use it to create a compelling shared vision for the project.
   Critical to the success of our projects is the team’s understanding of the client’s business including their current and anticipated operating climates, risks and opportunities, and goals and objectives. You will uncover and bring this understanding to the team, translating the business’s needs into application and operational requirements. Focusing on the details and a propensity for asking “why?” will serve you well in this capacity.
   
   It will be important for you to advocate for the system’s users throughout the project to ensure value can be most effectively prioritized where it can best be realized. In addition, problem solving will be a valuable skill as challenges inevitably arise requiring your consideration from various angles and your ability to work together with the team to offer creative solutions. 
   
   Equally important will be your ability to apply knowledge and experience across projects and situations. Though each project is different, there are valuable lessons to be learned that can be helpful in tackling future challenges.
   
   
4. Perform quality assurance testing as needed
   We take the quality of the software we build seriously. As the translator of business needs to application requirements and the intermediary between the project team and the client, it will be important for you to keep your finger on the pulse of what we’re developing. Quality assurance testing is a great way to ensure we deliver on our promise to the client with the level of quality we expect.
   
   
5. Participate in project and resource planning with the team
   As consultants, we work on multiple projects for different clients concurrently. This reality makes project and resource planning a challenge that requires input from a variety of team members. In working with the resource prioritization team, you’ll advocate for your projects, clearly communicating goals, timelines, and resource needs to help us plan our sprints in a way that ensures we meet our short- and long-term commitments to all our clients and the company.
   
   
6. Ensure an outstanding experience for your clients.
   We want to be long-term partners for our clients, there to help them with all their strategic software needs. To ensure clients to want to work with us beyond one project (and to want to recommend us to others), we need to make sure their experience is not only positive but positively memorable.
   
   You will act as the account manager for a subset of our clients (those whose projects you lead). This means that you’ll be responsive to their needs, educating them, answering their questions, ensuring they always know where things stand, that they have the information they need to make decisions, that we’re building the right solution to solve their problems, and that we are their strategic partner. You’ll craft memorable experiences to help keep them engaged throughout the project lifecycle and you’ll listen carefully for opportunities for us to add value for them, whether on their current project or as it relates to a separate business initiative or challenge they’re facing.
   
   As account manager, you’ll keep in touch with your client to uncover any additional needs they may have.

• Generous health/dental insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Company-paid group term life insurance
• Company-paid long-term and short-term disability insurance
• Flexible Spending Plan
• Generous PTO
• Paid parental, bereavement, jury duty leave
• 8 paid holidays
• Flexible work schedule
• Remote work allowed 

1. Though not all candidates will make it through the entire process, here it is from start to finish:
2. Complete our application (15 min.)
3. Internal review of your application
4. Complete our culture assessment (~30 min.)
5. An interview (video call or in-person) with a cross-section of our team (2 – 5 people) designed to assess both culture and position fit (60-90 min.)
6. Offer extended

To apply: https://weworkremotely.com/remote-jobs/far-reach-software-project-manager