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It's a good thing that you kept a level head and presented congratulations to that person. As an adult there are times when we have difficult choices to make and it can be difficult to keep a level head. It appears that there was a key piece of experience that the job required that she had.
If Agile methodologies is a key component of that role and you lack the experience, that is all it was. Tenure shouldn't be the only reason people are promoted. That being said, you need to be very clear with the goals you want to achieve with management. Most management look for internal opportunities before going outside the company so by proving yourself more than capable in your current role and making sure they know what you are looking to achieve you are setting the groundwork for a promotion at some point in time.
Keep doing what you are doing, and make a plan. Communicate that plan to management. Once the right opportunity comes up and they begin discussing a position your name will come up. It can be a long process so be patient.
Do NOT discuss the pain point with a new manager. It will just appear that you are a person who wants to complain if you complain before the manager is able to see your performance. Keep up what you are doing and look for the next opportunity. There could be one that you would fit in even better than the one you originally wanted. Just look for that opportunity. Make sure the new manager knows your goals and desire to advance and prove to them that you deserve that chance. You'll get it. These difficult times are what separate the good employees from the mediocre ones.
Good luck!
This. I work for a small startup that is expanding rapidly. One of the original employees has expressed to me his assumption that he will be put in charge of the department he currently manages himself. His expectation is that they will hire underlings for the department, and he will just "tell them what to do". I'm not going to be the one to break to him that it will never happen. Ever. He has zero skill for management. He's disorganized, has zero attention to detail, is lazy, does not communicate, has crappy people skills and refuses to follow company protocol (he proudly states that he specifically does the opposite of what the protocol calls for). A new hire was just brought in, and it's pretty obvious that he's being groomed to take over that department. The original employee has had ample opportunity to prove his worth as a manager, but has either chosen not to, or is incapable of doing that job.
I'm not in any way saying that this situation is similar to yours, but "time on the job" is not an indicator for how well someone can manage.
I knew a man years ago, who was a leading rocket expert. He had started a company that got huge, and a major military supplier. An investment group bought up enough stock and got enough proxies to take the company over, and fired him.
He was self taught and did not have a college education. He could not get another job, due to the lack of that one piece of paper. He got so desperate for a job, as he was a widower and had a young daughter to raise. A new military rocket plant was being built, and he applied for a job as a technician to work on rockets. The HR took one look at his application and told him to wait in a room (by himself) until they could get the man he needed to talk to him. He waited over 2 hours, and was getting angry and was ready to walk out when 2 senior vice presidents that he knew walked in and told him they were taking him out to dinner. He soon realized they were wining and dining him, so he quit drinking after on drink to stay sharp. By the time they left the table, he had been hired as the new plant manager, to start the next day. Those two realized what he could do, and did not let him get away.
The lead for the project, who thought he would be plant manager lived across the street from me. He told me that when this man was brought in to lead the entire project as plant manager, he was ready to quit on the spot. The first thing the new manager asked was, if there was any problems that had them stumped. He thought lets, take his new boss down a peg. There was one problem they had been unable to solve in 2 months. He said his new manager started looking at blue prints, and on the 5th page, says here is the problem. What you needed is this. He said when he looked at the blue print with the new manager he knew he was right, and making that change solved the problem. He suddenly decided to stay and find out what else this new manger could come up with. He said he thought maybe this was the man to head the project if he is so smart just checking the blue prints he could find a problem they had been unable to solve.
Six weeks later he was told to be at the airport at 7 a.m., bringing a couple of changes of clothes (suits) as they were flying to Washington D.C. When they got there, they went directly to the Pentagon with no appointment. When his boss told the receptionist who he was, and which admiral he wanted to see, they had a guide come out to take them back into the heart of the Pentagon. The Admiral was waiting at the door to his office, and he could tell immediately they were old friends. His boss took some plans out of a round case, and told the Admiral he wanted to jump up to the third upgrade instead of building the one that was under contract. Normally such a change would have to go through channels, and take at least 6 months to a year to get approved. They left that same day and flew home that evening, with the changes approved and the new contract to build them instead of the original version. He said at that point he knew they were lucky this man was the new plant manager, as he was so far ahead of him in knowledge, and on a first name basis with the heavy weights back at the Pentagon there was no wonder he was the boss. In those few weeks, he had not only solved their problems, but had jumped the project ahead by what would normally have taken years to reach. He stayed as he knew he was young enough that he would be his boss's replacement when he retired, and would by then be one of the best rocket men in the country. His future was guaranteed, being the #2 to his boss for a few years.
When the first rocket rolled off the assembly line, they took it to the navy, that was going to fire it as the first actual test. The target was hundreds of miles away. The launch went perfect, and they actually hit the target dead center. The big shots from the Pentagon were there when it was fired, and it was immediately put into full production as a proven weapon with that one shot. And that is not normal, and he told me he knows they would not have something that developed and they would have problems to solve after that first shot if he was still in charge. The first few shots are to test the weapon and find where the problems are. As he said, with his boss those extra shots were not needed, as he gave them a perfect weapon far advanced over the one the plant was built to build.
People like the OP that think just because they have been on the job longest means they should be promoted are wrong. Any decent company, chooses people to come in and get familiar with the company and procedures, and when they are up to speed in a few months, give them the official promotion they were hired to fill. These people have experience and training that the current employees lack. As the true example above shows, just because you have been there a long time, does not mean you should be the one promoted.
This. I work for a small startup that is expanding rapidly. One of the original employees has expressed to me his assumption that he will be put in charge of the department he currently manages himself. His expectation is that they will hire underlings for the department, and he will just "tell them what to do". I'm not going to be the one to break to him that it will never happen. Ever. He has zero skill for management. He's disorganized, has zero attention to detail, is lazy, does not communicate, has crappy people skills and refuses to follow company protocol (he proudly states that he specifically does the opposite of what the protocol calls for). A new hire was just brought in, and it's pretty obvious that he's being groomed to take over that department. The original employee has had ample opportunity to prove his worth as a manager, but has either chosen not to, or is incapable of doing that job.
I'm not in any way saying that this situation is similar to yours, but "time on the job" is not an indicator for how well someone can manage.
That's exactly the problem, that people think when manage needs a leader, they simply select someone who has the most seniority of the employees.
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