A crash course in Agile Project Management – 2023

This course introduces you to:

Section 1 – The foundations of Agile

Section 2 –  Agile planning and prioritisation.

Section 3 – Agile communication and organisational agility.

The learning objective is to demonstrate critical knowledge of Agile software development and the ability to understand various Agile frameworks, such as Scrum and Kanban.

Here is a list of the topics we will cover in this course:

• History of Agile
• The Agile Mindset and Manifesto
• Agile vs Waterfall
• Benefits of Agile.
• Three Core Roles
• Agile teams – High-Performing Teams
• Organising an Agile Team
• Agile Frameworks – Scrum and Kanban
• Introduction to Agile Planning and Prioritisation
• Gathering prioritisation, managing backlogs and prioritisation techniques. Understanding & Creating User Stories, Themes & Epics

• Scoping, estimation techniques and release and iteration planning.
• Monitor progress, and communication within an agile team. Metrics – Scrum, Kanban metrics.
• Identifying risk, adapting to change, technical debt and failure patterns and mitigation strategies.
• Agile communication – internal and external. Part of the core of Agile is good communication.
• How Estimation is done in Agile
• Planning Poker in Agile
• Burn down Charts
• Minimum Viable Product
• Team Velocity

· Introduction to Scrum

• Scrum Theory and Pillars
• Scrum Events
• Sprint Planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Retrospective
• Sprint Review
• Scrum Roles
• Product Owner
• Scrum Master
• Development Team
• Scrum Artifacts
• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Increment
• Definition of Done

· Introduction to Kanban

• Kanban Principles
• How Kanban is different from Scrum.
• Finding various inefficiencies in your process using the Kanban board
• Definition of done in Kanban
• Daily Stand-up in Kanban

Agile has been trending in project management as a preferred way to complete projects. This popular methodology incorporates tools and techniques that offer more flexibility and agility on your projects.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

1) Demonstrate the ability to participate effectively in agile practices/processes for software development.

2) Understand standard agile practices.

3) Apply agile principles and values to a given situation.

4) Identify and address the most common problems encountered in adopting Agile.

5) Implement Scrum and Kanban.

I hope that you enjoy the course. The main aim is for you to gain a foundational knowledge of agile principles.