Guidance
Delivery manager
Find out what a delivery manager does and the skills you need to do the job.
This describes the role of a delivery manager and the skills required, including:
- an introduction to the role, telling you what you would do in this role and the full list of skills
- a description of the levels in this role, from associate delivery manager to head of (Agile) delivery management, specifying the skills you need and the corresponding skill levels (awareness, working, practitioner, expert)
This role is part of the Digital, Data and Technology Profession in the Civil Service.
Introduction to the role of delivery manager
A delivery manager is accountable for the delivery of products and services.
Skills needed to be a delivery manager
You will need the following skills for this role, although the level of expertise for each will vary, depending on the role level.
- Agile and Lean practices. You can lead on a range of Agile and Lean tools and techniques. You can provide coaching on these tools and techniques in and outside of your team. You can represent and be an advocate for these tools and techniques. You can innovate and ensure that you are up-to-date with the latest trends. You can establish a feedback loop for teams. You can take responsibility for the translation and measurement of value (what you put in and what you will get out) and ensure this relates to practical government objectives and the user needs. You can ensure the team has a situational awareness of work and priorities across the team. You can ensure that working practices are iterated to achieve effective delivery.
- Commercial management. You can identify and use appropriate commercial frameworks. You can identify the right purchasing strategy for your organisation, working with internal commercial colleagues when needed. You can monitor the performance of third parties and build relationships with them, and internal colleagues, to support effective delivery.
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can communicate effectively across organisational, technical and political boundaries, understanding the context. You can make complex and technical information and language simple and accessible for non-technical audiences. You can advocate on behalf of a team and communicate what it does, to create trust and authenticity. You can successfully respond to challenges.
- Financial management. You can support effective budget management within the constraints of a project. You can monitor projected budgets against expenditure.
- Life cycle perspective. You can understand the different phases of product delivery and can contribute to, plan or run them. You can maintain a product or process through the delivery phases, into live and then into retirement. You can lead a team through the different phases of the product delivery life cycle. You can maintain and iterate a product over time to continuously meet user needs. You can understand incident management and service support to ensure that products are built effectively.
- Maintaining delivery momentum. You can solve issues and unblock problems. You can lead a team and set the pace, ensuring teams are working towards delivery commitments. You can engage in elements of risk management such as effectively managing and tracking the mitigation of risks. You can manage various dependencies across teams, departments and government as a whole.
- Making a process work. You can effectively focus on the outcome. You can challenge and improve disproportionate organisational processes where it impacts the pace of the team. You can identify what works best for the team and when to use certain processes. You can understand that all steps in a process must add value. You can influence and make positive changes to the organisation.
- Planning. You can take a consistent and ongoing approach to planning, forecasting, estimating, managing uncertainty, metrics and measurements, contingency planning and roadmapping. You can communicate plans, planning assumptions and progress to a range of stakeholders. You can maintain the cadence of delivery and manage the relationships between different people within and across teams.
- Team dynamics and collaboration. You can build successful delivery teams. You can understand team styles and how people work together. You can maintain, influence and motivate a team. You can give and receive feedback, enabling the feedback loop. You can ensure the health of a team and support conflict resolution, improving team performance. You can ensure that the team works in a transparent way and that the work is understood externally. You can create an open and collaborative working environment. You can demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and a willingness to learn. You can recognise how people work together, creating the best team makeup depending on the situation. You can help teams maintain a focus on delivery while being aware of the importance of professional development.
Associate delivery manager
At this role level, you will:
- work on a small or mature Agile team
- learn on the job
- potentially work alongside a delivery manager on a larger team, shadowing and providing support, or working to deliver an element under guidance and mentorship
Skills needed for this role level
- Agile and Lean practices. You can demonstrate experience in applying Agile principles in practice. You can provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver. You can show an awareness of Agile tools and are starting to use them intelligently. You can visualise and make visible the work of the team. (Skill level: working)
- Commercial management. You can act as the point of contact for contracted suppliers. You can understand appropriate internal contacts and processes within a government department. You can understand how and when third parties should be brought into digital, data and technology (DDaT) projects. (Skill level: working)
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders. You can support and host discussions within a multidisciplinary team, with potentially difficult dynamics. You can be an advocate for the team externally, and can manage differing perspectives. (Skill level: working)
- Financial management. You can understand the financial impact of the work you do and how cost and budgets are created. (Skill level: awareness)
- Life cycle perspective. You can understand how the needs of the team and the product vary across the stages of the product life cycle. (Skill level: awareness)
- Maintaining delivery momentum. You can actively address internal risks and issues and know when to escalate them. You can set the team cadence and tempo, ensuring it is sustainable. You can track, manage, escalate and communicate dependencies. You can actively remove or minimise risks, issues or dependencies where possible. You can understand how the risks, issues or dependencies impact the work of a team. (Skill level: working)
- Making a process work. You can guide teams to focus on the output rather than the process. You can help the team to find a process that works for them. You can support teams in establishing a process. (Skill level: working)
- Planning. You can understand the importance of planning and forecasting. You can show an awareness of the different ways to develop a plan. (Skill level: awareness)
- Team dynamics and collaboration. You can explain the importance of team dynamics, collaboration and empowering delivery teams. You can understand the importance of feedback. (Skill level: awareness)
Delivery manager
A delivery manager is accountable for the performance of the team.
At this role level, you will:
- build and maintain teams, ensuring they are motivated, collaborating and working well
- identify obstacles and help the team to overcome them
- focus the team on what is most important to the delivery of products and services
- encourage and facilitate continuous improvement of the delivery team
- coach and mentor both team members and others to apply the most appropriate Agile and Lean tools and techniques
The complexity or breadth of products or teams will vary in this role, depending on the context.
Skills needed for this role level
- Agile and Lean practices. You can identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use. You can recognise when something does not work and encourage a mindset of experimentation. You can adapt and reflect, be resilient and see outside of the process. You can use a blended approach depending on the context. You can measure and evaluate outcomes. You can help teams to manage and visualise outcomes. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Commercial management. You can act as the point of contact for contracted suppliers. You can understand appropriate internal contacts and processes within a government department. You can understand how and when third parties should be brought into digital, data and technology (DDaT) projects. (Skill level: working)
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can listen to the needs of technical and business stakeholders, and interpret them. You can effectively manage stakeholder expectations. You can manage active and reactive communication. You can support or host difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Financial management. You can balance cost versus value. You can consider the impact of user needs. You can report on financial delivery. You can monitor cost and budget. You can understand how and when to escalate issues. (Skill level: working)
- Life cycle perspective. You can recognise when to move from one stage of a product life cycle to another. You can ensure the team is working towards the appropriate service standards for the relevant phase. You can manage the delivery of products and services at different phases. (Skill level: working)
- Maintaining delivery momentum. You can facilitate the delivery flow of a team, managing the pace and tempo. You can actively address internal and external risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Making a process work. You can identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated. You can add value and can coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes. You can guide teams through the implementation of a new process. (Skill level: expert)
- Planning. You can understand the environment and prioritise the most important or high value tasks. You can use data to inform planning. You can manage complex internal and external dependencies. You can provide delivery confidence. You can remove blockers or impediments that affect plans and can develop a plan for difficult situations. You can ensure that teams plan appropriately for their capacity. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Team dynamics and collaboration. You can effectively bring people together to form a motivated team. You can help to create the right environment for a team to work in and can empower them to deliver. You can recognise and deal with issues. You can help create the best team makeup depending on the situation. (Skill level: working)
Senior delivery manager
A senior delivery manager is accountable for the effective delivery of complex, high risk products and services. The role is similar to a delivery manager role, but senior delivery managers have more experience across a range of products and services, throughout the entire product life cycle, and have greater responsibility and accountability as the main point of escalation.
At this role level, you will:
- have strong communication skills and engage senior stakeholders
- coach and mentor delivery managers
Skills needed for this role level
- Agile and Lean practices. You can coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices. You can act as a recognised expert and advocate for the approaches, continuously reflecting and challenging the team. You can create or tailor new ways of working, and constantly innovate. (Skill level: expert)
- Commercial management. You can take responsibility for complex relationships with contracted suppliers. You can identify appropriate contractual frameworks and identify appropriate suppliers. You can negotiate with contracted suppliers. You can get good value out of contracts and suppliers. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels. You can manage stakeholder expectations and moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales. You can speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government. (Skill level: expert)
- Financial management. You can negotiate, influence or set budgets in complex environments. You can write or input into business cases and can communicate business-value propositions. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Life cycle perspective. You can apply experience in multiple parts of the product life cycle. You can recognise when it is right to move forward and when it is right to stop. You can recognise the appropriate deliverables and the right people to meet them. You can work with other Agile delivery operations throughout the product life cycle. You can plan and engage with the appropriate stakeholders at a particular stage in the project. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Maintaining delivery momentum. You can optimise the delivery flow of teams. You can actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists. You can identify innovative ways to unblock issues. (Skill level: expert)
- Making a process work. You can identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated. You can add value and can coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes. You can guide teams through the implementation of a new process. (Skill level: expert)
- Planning. You can lead a continual planning process in a very complex environment. You can plan beyond product delivery. You can identify dependencies in plans across services and co-ordinate delivery. You can coach other teams as the central point of expertise. (Skill level: expert)
- Team dynamics and collaboration. You can identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them. You can identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team, and help to stimulate the right responses. You can engage in varying types of feedback, choosing the right type at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision stick. You can accelerate the team development cycle. (Skill level: practitioner)
Head of (Agile) delivery management
A head of (Agile) delivery management is an experienced practitioner who exemplifies what good looks like across the delivery roles.
At this role level, you will:
- represent and champion the role within your department, across government and in industry
- lead the community of practice for this role and build capability and excellence (in an Agile, Lean practice)
- be responsible for the recruitment of the right people to the right teams
- support professional development and continuous improvement of your community
- work with other heads of roles to promote effective cross-functional delivery
- be a skilled team leader who can confidently communicate the value of the role to digital and non-digital stakeholders
- be credible and influential across departments
Skills needed for this role level
- Agile and Lean practices. You can coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices. You can act as a recognised expert and advocate for the approaches, continuously reflecting and challenging the team. You can create or tailor new ways of working, and constantly innovate. (Skill level: expert)
- Commercial management. You can act as the escalation point and resolve large or high risk commercial management issues. You can coach others in appropriate commercial management. (Skill level: expert)
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels. You can manage stakeholder expectations and moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales. You can speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government. (Skill level: expert)
- Financial management. You can negotiate, influence or set budgets in complex environments. You can write or input into business cases and can communicate business-value propositions. (Skill level: practitioner)
- Life cycle perspective. You can successfully lead teams through the full product life cycle. You can identify which tools and techniques should be used at each stage. You can develop sustainable support models. You can identify and deal with potential risks across or between all stages of the product life cycle. You can coach others. You can contribute to the assessment of other teams, providing guidance and support as they move through stages of the product life cycle. (Skill level: expert)
- Maintaining delivery momentum. You can optimise the delivery flow of teams. You can actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists. You can identify innovative ways to unblock issues. (Skill level: expert)
- Making a process work. You can identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated. You can add value and can coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes. You can guide teams through the implementation of a new process. (Skill level: expert)
- Planning. You can lead a continual planning process in a very complex environment. You can plan beyond product delivery. You can identify dependencies in plans across services and co-ordinate delivery. You can coach other teams as the central point of expertise. (Skill level: expert)
- Team dynamics and collaboration. You can change organisational structures to fixable and sustainable designs. You can lead on strategy for an entire organisation, joining up business needs with innovative analysis. You can make and justify decisions characterised by high levels of risk, impact and complexity. You can effectively build consensus between organisations (private or public) or highly independent and diverse stakeholders. You can solve and unblock issues within teams or departments at the highest level. You can understand the psychology of a team and have strong mediation skills. You can coach an organisation on team dynamics and conflict resolution. (Skill level: expert)
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Published 7 January 2020
Last updated 21 December 2022 + show all updates
Last updated 21 December 2022 + show all updates
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The 'commercial management' skill description has been updated in the 'Introduction to the role of delivery manager' section.
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The ‘communication skills’ skill has been renamed ‘communicating between the technical and non-technical’ to ensure consistency across the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.
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First published.