Fundamentals of Agile

Organizations today are seeking ways to improve the efficiency of their system and software development efforts while still meeting quality objectives. Agile brings a level of improvement to product development that increases quality, time to market, value delivery, and motivation of those involved in the process. It takes individuals out of their functional silos and puts them in self-managed and customer-focused multidisciplinary teams. This two-day comprehensive course builds your knowledge and skills in the agile approach to projects, in particular Scrum. You will learn what agile is all about, why it works, and how to effectively plan and execute projects using agile principles. You will learn the role of the project manager, product owner, and business analyst on agile projects, and how to write user stories, which are the most common method of representing requirements. You will learn techniques for building and managing a product backlog of user stories, and techniques for estimating and prioritizing requirements for releases and iterations.

The agile method Scrum will be used as a reference method during the course, but the techniques described also apply to other agile methods.

Course Topics
Agile Overview

What is Agile?

The Agile Manifesto

Agile versus Waterfall

Agile Characteristics

Self-Organizing Teams

High Performing Teams

Emergent and Servant Leadership

Information Radiators

The Scrum Method

Roles of Scrum
The Scrum Process

  • Product Backlog
  • Sprint Backlog
  • Discovery Sessions
  • Release Planning Meeting
  • Sprint Planning Meeting
  • Sprint Review
  • Sprint Retrospective
  • Daily Scrum
  • Definition of Done

Time Boxing
Backlog Prioritization Techniques

Agile Estimating and Planning Techniques

Product Roadmap/Story Maps
Personas
User Stories
Estimating Techniques

  • Planning Poker
  • Ideal Time
  • Relative Sizing/Story Points
  • Fibonacci Sequence
  • Affinity Estimating

Velocity
Burndown and Burnup Charts
Risk-Based Spike
Capacity and Estimating

Programming Practices

Simple Design

Sustainable Pace

Refactoring/Technical Debt

Pair Programming

Test Driven Development (TDD)

Who Should Attend
  • Business customers or anyone with a desire to understand the agile process or the Scrum product owner role
  • Management and executive team responsible for overseeing the business
  • Business analysts, product owners
  • Agile product managers or traditional product managers
  • Traditional project managers transitioning to or curious about agile practices
  • Line managers or functional managers
  • Anyone who desires to learn about agile and better interface with agile teams

This course is taught by industry leaders who presents concepts in an interactive fashion and shares practical examples. This workshop is offered periodically throughout the year. Check the Course Schedule for the latest offerings.