Course 348:
Agile Project Management

(3 days)

 

Course Description

In the world of business today, flexibility and responsiveness are the watchwords to success. No longer can organizations wait for months of planning before a project gets started, and then wait for months to realize a return on the investment in that project. Agile project management practices accelerate the implementation and delivery of solutions to business problems and capitalization of business opportunities. Agile project management uses iterative development, incremental delivery, empowered teams, and continuous planning to provide the flexibility, risk reduction, and responsiveness modern businesses require. This course presents the basic tools an Agile project manager needs to successfully deliver solutions to the organization. The course also compares the Agile project management practices to the traditional structured project management approaches to demonstrate how both can co-exist so that the organization gains the advantage of accelerated project completion without the loss of organizational control.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Perform continuous planning throughout the project
  • Obtain and provide realistic estimates for project completion
  • Expand management practices to include coaching and empowering
  • Understand how to manage an Agile environment even within a structured organizational approach

Who Should Attend

Managers, programmers, developers, executives, and anyone interested in learning the benefits of Agile project management.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of current project management processes, such as those defined in the PMBOK® Guide or the CMMI® (Capability Maturity Model Integration).

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Course Outline

Unit 1: Overview

  • The Project Management Process
    • Mandatory Elements *
    • Transitions
    • Traditional Life Cycle Models *
  • Process-Oriented Management
  • The Rise of Agile Methods
  • The Agile Manifesto
  • The Declaration of Interdependence

Unit 2: The Agile Approach

  • The Value Proposition
    • Product Value
    • Project Value
  • The People Factor *
  • Testing *
  • Documentation *
  • Management *
  • Structuring the Evolutionary Project

Unit 3: Plan the Agile Project

  • Initiation *
    • The Problem Definition
    • Getting Started
    • The Product Roadmap
  • Lean Management Concepts
  • Timeboxing
  • Iteration Planning
  • Estimating Techniques
    • Planning Poker
    • Story Points
    • Velocity and Capacity
    • Filling the Gaps
  • Replanning
    • Plan, Plan Again *
    • Big Plans and Small Plans

Unit 4: Manage Risk the Agile Way

  • Classic Approaches to Delivery
  • Principles of Incremental Delivery *
  • Managing Incremental Delivery
  • The Backlogs *
    • Product Backlog
    • Iteration Backlog
  • The Burndown Lists
  • Visible Demonstration of Progress
  • What Could Go Wrong? *

Unit 5: Inspire the Project Team

  • Monitoring and Controlling *
  • Coach Rather than Manage
  • The Self-Organized Team
  • Big Visible Boards *
  • Daily Stand-Up Meetings
  • Removing Obstacles *

Unit 6: Develop the Product in Iterations

  • Execution
  • Classic Approaches to Development
  • What Is Iterative Development
    • Iteration Lengths *
    • Iteration Size
  • Iterating Development Cycles
  • Planning the Iterations *
  • Executing the Iterations
    • Cadence and Rhythm

Unit 7: Interfaces and Interactions

  • The Bigger Picture
    • Program Management
    • Portfolio Management
  • Scaling Agile Projects
  • Coordination and Collaboration Among Multiple Agile Teams *
  • Interfacing with Non-Agile World

Unit 8: Retrospectives

  • Closing
  • Lessons Learned
  • What Is a Retrospective?
  • Conducting a Retrospective *

Unit 9: The Bottom Line

  • Applying Classic PMBOK® Guide Project Management to Agile
  • The Declaration of Interdependence
  • Agile Best Management Practices
  • Where to Go for More Information

* The topics marked with an asterisk indicate an exercise with participant involvement such as a discussion, individual or paired exercise, or a group exercise involving a case study. 

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