Agile Foundations for Project Managers


An introduction to Agile software development for Project Managers - including Scrum and User Stories

This 3-day course is a practical starter for Project Managers charged with running an Agile project. The course covers the fundamentals of the two most popular Agile methods, Scrum and Extreme Programming, and provides Project Managers with an understanding of how the requirements process works for Agile teams, how engineering teams operate Agile and how the whole process is managed. In addition the course describes how project managers can reconcile PRINCE2 with Agile Project Management.

On completion of this course participants will be able to:
  • Start an Agile project
  • Track project progress
  • Understand the Agile requirements process
  • Work with Agile developers
  • Facilitate the regular Agile iterations and meetings
  • Determine when a project is done

Who should attend?


You are a Project Manager who has been tasked with running a project in an Agile way. You have run software projects before and might already posses PRINCE 2 or PMP certification.

Or you might be a Senior Developer, Architect or Business Analyst who is expected to project manage your current project in an Agile manor.

Agile methods


Understanding Agile
  • Benefits of Agile methods and why companies are adopting them
  • Management and technical practices
  • Relationship of Agile to XP, Scrum, Lean and Kanban
  • Time-boxing with short iterations & sprints, empirical processes
  • The state of Agility, Agile Methods and the Agile toolkit
Routines
  • Planning meetings
  • Shown & tell demonstrations
  • Daily stand-up/Scrum meetings
  • Software releases
  • Reviews and retrospectives
Artefacts
  • Product backlogs
  • Sprint backlogs
  • Definition of done
  • Burn-down and burn-up charts
  • Visual planning board
Roles
  • The development team
  • Scrum Master
  • Agile Coach
  • Product Owner: Business Analysts & Product Manager
  • Testers
  • Project Managers
Engineering practices
  • Design in Agile
  • Work breakdown
  • Improving quality
  • Test Driven Development (TDD)
  • Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD)
  • Continuous Integration
  • Pair Programming and Code Reviews
  • Refactoring
Testing
  • Automated Unit testing
  • Automated Acceptance tests
  • Iteration, System, Integration and User Acceptance tests
Agile manifesto
  • Agile principles and values
  • Scrum values
  • Agile declaration of independence

Requirements discovery & management


Prioritization
  • Absolute prioritisation
  • Moscow rules
User stories
  • Identifying and writing user stories
  • Business stories, Epics and work tasks
  • Identifying stakeholders, roles and personas
  • Non-functional stories
  • INVEST principles
Requirements management
  • Goal directed projects
  • Just in time requirements
  • Feature injection
  • Running scope-creep backwards
  • Managing product and sprint backlogs
  • Example driven analysis
  • Communicating requirements
  • Acceptance tests
  • Customer involvement
Responsibility for deciding requirements - Who decides?
  • Product Owners
  • Customers, Business Analysis
  • Product Managers
  • Subject Matter Experts
  • Project Managers
Maximising business value
  • Value management
  • Less is more
  • 7 practices that enhance productivity

Project management


Estimation
  • Empirical processes
  • Burn-down and burn-up charts
  • Release plans and roadmaps
  • Planning poker
Timelines
  • When will it be ready? Working to a deadline
  • Estimating completion dates
  • Data driven scheduling
Teams
  • Sizing and growing the team
  • Vertical teams
  • Embedded Testers & BAs
Project Manager role - Is a project manager necessary?
  • Project Management role on Agile teams
  • Change to the role
PRINCE2
  • Options and approaches for combining PRINCE2 with Agile approaches
Day management
  • Self-organizing teams
  • Visibility
  • Risk management
Managing Iterations & Sprints
  • Filling the Sprint
  • Documentation
  • Sprint length
Managing for the long term
  • Portfolio & Governance
  • Continuous improvement "Kaizen"
  • Building a learning culture
Impediments
  • Impediment removal
  • ScrumBut and the Scrum Wall
  • Tests of Agile

For more information about this course and to enquire about availability please contact Software Strategy.