Project Management
Agile Fundamentals
Scrum. Kanban. Retrospectives. Lean. What’s this Agile stuff all about? This Agile Fundamentals course focuses on agile as a mindset and not just a methodology or framework. Agile is applicable to organizations and businesses beyond those doing software development. The key is understanding and applying the fundamentals of “being Agile” so teams experience sustained results and success “doing Agile”.
This course is designed to provide participants with key insights into value-driven development, adaptive planning techniques and maximizing collaboration with customers and within teams and organizations. Using hands-on activities, students will experience the value of continuous feedback, learning and adaptation for products, processes, teams and organizations, and continuous improvement. Transitioning from a traditional plan-driven approach to a change-driven approach requires team members to live into the mindset of agile to drive the necessary behavioral change.
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify the 4 values and 12 principles behind the manifesto and list a couple that they believe would have significant impact in their current environment.
- Give at least one example of where Agile could be useful outside the context of a software development project.
- List several well known Agile processes as well as key characteristics of an Agile mindset. Explain the relationship between the Agile mindset, values, principles, and practices.
- Describe a way to share tacit information.
- Identify at least one example of a work environment that encourages Agile team behaviors and describe at least one technique to improve distributed Agile work environments.
- Discuss and explain at least one method to encourage team collaboration.
- Give at least two examples of tools and techniques for explicitly sharing knowledge.
- Describe the differences between teams that are self-organizing and those who rely on more management direction.
- Explain the novice to expert development model: Shu-Ha-Ri.
- Compare and contrast a feedback-based empirical method from a plan-driven method.
- Explain the importance of focusing on quality throughout the process.
- Describe the explicit and hidden cost(s) of cutting corners (such as build up of technical debt).
- Define WIP and describe how limiting WIP can improve flow or cycle time.
- Discuss what should be included in integration using both software and non-software examples.
- Evaluate a release plan and explain the balance of costs and benefits on its proposed release cadence.
PREREQUISITES
This course is applicable to any practitioner who is part of a team or organization that is just starting to consider agile or is already in the process of transitioning to agile, regardless of role or experience.
AUDIENCE
This program is suitable for current project team members and project managers transitioning to agile and interested in gaining experience with the agile mindset, agile principles and widely applied frameworks and practices.
Upon completion of the course, students can claim 8 Technical PDUs, 4 Leadership PDUs, and 4 Strategy PDUs from the Project Management Institute (PMI)®.
Is there a discount available for current students?
UMBC students and alumni, as well as students who have previously taken a public training course with UMBC Training Centers are eligible for a 10% discount, capped at $250. Please provide a copy of your UMBC student ID or an unofficial transcript or the name of the UMBC Training Centers course you have completed. Online courses are excluded from this offer.
What is the cancellation and refund policy?
Student will receive a refund of paid registration fees only if UMBC Training Centers receives a notice of cancellation at least 10 business days prior to the class start date for classes or the exam date for exams.