Agile Project Management Class Outline

I. General project management
Discuss how Software projects are managed using the traditional approaches.
• Project Managements triple constraints
• PMI definitions

II. Agile Project Management
Software projects are increasingly challenged to do more, faster, with less. That’s the driver for Agile and Lean practices being applied within software projects. This session will introduce you to Agile, Agile Project Management and contrast Plan driven to Agile.
• Agile Manifesto
• Discuss all the various Agile Methodologies,
such as XP, Scrum, DSDM, ASD, Crystal, FDD, AUP and Microsoft Solutions Framework
• Highlight/discuss the strengths/value of each  methodology

III. Agile Planning
Discuss five levels of Agile Planning. Learn to differentiate between Vision and goals.
• Focus on learning to plan the Backlog, Product  Releases and Iterations

Practice Session:
In this session we’ll explore the release planning dynamics. Teams will be introduced to a case study and they will start with planning the case study at the five levels. (Vision, the goals and the features set)

IV. Release & Iteration Planning
Focus on practicing agile principles to add general agility to your projects.
• Backlog planning
• Iteration planning
• Daily planning
• Activities within Iterations
• Ground rules within Iterations

Practice Session:
In this session we’ll explore the release planning dynamics. Teams will be composed of Product Owner, Coach and developer roles and will negotiating the trade-offs associated with fitting the proper content (prioritization, estimation) into an iteration.

V. Estimation & Work-Item Planning
This session begins our examination of specific Agile estimation techniques and how the techniques may also be applied to more traditional projects. We’ll provide overviews of what are estimates and agile view of estimating.
• Planning Game (for release and iteration planning)
• Story based requirements & card based planning
• Wideband - Planning Poker
• Velocity - based estimation & planning
• Estimate in story points and Ideal days
• Explore the concept of “doneness”

Practice Session:
In this session we’ll explore the use of Planning Poker, a derivation of the Wideband Delphi technique. We will apply these techniques to the case study.

VI. Agile Self-directed teams
Many of the agile methods subscribe to a self-directed team model to increase the creativity, innovation and productivity within development teams.
• Scrum terms
• Team Roles
• Relationship of team maturity and performance

Practice Session:
In this session we’ll explore the self directed team concept and how to empower the teams.

VII. Agile Coach
Agile Project Managers adopt the more effective coaching style in leading these teams. This session explores the critical attributes of high performance coaches.
• Agile PM
• What’s my coaching style
• Communication
• Listening
• How to adapt and learn
Practice Session:
In this session we’ll take the “what’s my coaching style” quiz and learn about our own unique coaching styles. You’ll learn how to create the sorts of conversations that are bi-directional and constructive-leading towards performance and collaboration improvements. It will also help hone and improve your listening skills.

VIII. Track, Measure & Report status
Agile teams track and report iteration status at team level. Iteration velocity is used as a performance tool.
• Discuss visual radiators
• Measure how we are doing
• Create Burn Up and Burn Down charts
• Discuss impacting forces
• Discuss re-planning estimating
Practice Session:
In this session we’ll create the charts, learn how to use them.

IX. Retrospectives
Often we fail to learn from our mistakes and errors and carry those lessons actively forward for improvement. Agility is truly about establishing a spirit of continuous improvement by reflecting on progress iteratively and making finely grained adjustments as required. Here we’ll explore some of the secrets to running project retrospectives and making practical adjustments.
• Discuss feedback and review at the end of  each iteration

X. Lean Methodologies
We will discuss what lean principles are, and how they apply to Software development.
• Lean concepts like the cost of defects and rework
• How much up-front design is right
• Finish before starting something else
• Feature Crews, JIT assignment
• Theory of Constraints

Practice Session:
In this session we’ll explore the effects of multitasking by team members. We will also experiment with the concepts of “Theory of Constraints“. See how we can use these concepts towards making our projects more productive.

XI. Adopting Agile Project Management
The primary reason for examining Agile Project Management is to leverage its practices for agile technical evolution into your project thinking and toolbox. Discuss challenges faced with adoption and how to overcome them.
• How to get started with agile principles
• How to adjust from Traditional to Agile PM

Click here to review our upcoming classes, and If you would like to learn more, call us at 954-575-8766, or email us at info@winnowmanagement.com.