Agile Process Kick-Start : Real World Agile for Real World Software Teams
Who Should Attend/Prerequisites
This hands-on course is appropriate for all software team members, including Project Managers, Team Leads, Development Managers, Product Managers, Software Architects, Systems Architects, Developers, Testers, CIOs, and CTOs.
Class Size Limit: 12 (Minimum 6)
Course Overview
This two-day course provides the foundation for adopting Agile practices. We will focus on using Scrum to manage an Agile, iterative development process.
What are Agile practices and how can they work for you? This course is designed to answer those questions and more. Speaking from our real world experiences implementing Agile practices in several organizations, we'll show you what agile looks like and how it works from a practitioners viewpoint. We'll specifically focus on the use of Scrum to iteratively and incrementally deliver high quality, valuable, working software to your customers quickly.
About DTS Agile
At DTS Agile, we're not just agile trainers or coaches. We're an active software development team that uses Agile practices on a daily basis. Agile practices permeate every aspect of our work, from software development to project management. We've adopted Scrum as our overarching Agile Project Management/Software Development process. However, we also incorporate elements of Extreme Programming (XP) and Test Driven Development (TDD) into our daily practices. By using Agile to guide both our project management and engineering practices, we have been able to continuously improve the quality and value of the software we deliver to our customers. We also use Agile to continually improve our organizational culture and our development practices.
DTS Agile is redefining the way agile training is delivered. For starters, our trainers are active members of the Data Transfer Solutions Agile software development team. Training isn't our primary gig, developing working software is. But, once a month, we'll be opening our doors and inviting the software development community into our shop. We'll be providing Agile training courses based on our real-world experience delivered by active Agile practitioners. In addition to our interactive, workshop-based training sessions, you'll have a chance to meet and interact with our onsite development teams. You'll get answers and insights from front line Agile developers and project managers that you can take back to your teams.
Agenda
What are agile practices?
You've heard the buzzwords and everyone around you seems to be "doing Agile". But just what are Agile practices and where do they come from? And what makes them work so well? We'll review a brief history of Agile and provide some concrete numbers of how Agile practices stack up with other software development methodologies. We'll briefly cover the varieties of Agile practices and introduce you to the Agile Manifesto.
The Scrum Framework
The Scrum framework is the guiding set of patterns and practices for many Agile teams. It helps enable a collaborative environment that readily accepts change as the norm in complex software development projects. It provides the basis for the iterative and incremental delivery of high quality, valuable working software to customers very quickly. We'll take a look at what Scrum is and how it works.
Scrum Roles
Scrum is lite on roles, but big on responsibility and commitment. There are three basic roles in Scrum: The Product Owner, The ScrumMaster, and The Team. We'll cover the roles and responsibilities of each; from the vision and direction set forth by the Product Owner to the servant leadership of the ScrumMaster and the unprecedented commitment of the Team.
Agile Planning and Estimating
Estimating and planning are essential to the success of any project. Agile projects are no exception. But planning looks very different in Agile projects than it does in traditional waterfall type projects. We'll review how to create effective backlogs with user stories. We'll discuss the different planning horizons in Agile projects including iteration planning, release planning, and product planning. We'll also cover how to estimate using story points and other Agile estimating methods.
Scrum in Action
So, you've planned your release and iterations and it's time to get to work. What does Scrum look like on the ground and in action? We'll run through the basics of the iteration and work through several exercises to give you a real view into how it feels to be on a Scrum team. Through simulated iterations, you'll learn how to conduct planning sessions, find out what the daily stand up is all about, understand how to track your team's progress using burndown charts, conduct frequent product reviews with your customers and stakeholders, and how to run effective team retrospectives that provide continuous improvement to your agile practices and your products.
How to Scale Scrum
But I'm in a big organization, how does Scrum work for us? You may be asking that question, or you may be wondering how Scrum works with distributed teams. We'll review the basic concepts of Scrum's Scalability. We'll also cover the challenges facing large Scrum teams and distributed teams and provide insights and solutions from our own experiences.
Agile Tooling
Tooling is not a primary focus in Agile practices, but we have found that it definitely makes things easier. We'll review some of the tools available for managing Agile projects. We'll also share our Agile Project Management solution with you. We'll show you what we use and how we use...and we'll do it by giving you visibility into some of our current working projects.
Cost:
$1,200 per attendee.