Agile Business Consortium Scrum Master® Course: In-House Training This two-day course covers the principles and theory of the Scrum framework and the role of the Scrum Master. IIL is an accredited training organization (ATO) and the course is delivered by accredited trainers. APMG's accreditation processes are respected globally and accredited by UKAS. A Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in The Scrum Guide, and also is the leader who serves the Product Owner, the Development Team, and the Organization. Why APMG - Agile Business Consortium Scrum Master® Course and Certification? The course, syllabus, and learning objectives are based on The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game - created and maintained by Scrum's creators Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland Increased business (non-IT) focus of course and exercises Developed in partnership with Agile Business Consortium - leaders in promoting and enabling business agility Course is highly interactive to encourage collaboration and reinforce learning objectives Candidates can sit the examination at the end of the training course No recertification requirements. APMG Scrum Master certification does not expire. Successful candidates are entitled to free 1-year membership with the Agile Business Consortium Successful candidates can claim a digital badge and share their success online What You Will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Gain a deep understanding of the Scrum Framework - the theory, practices, roles, rules, and values - as defined in The Scrum Guide Understand, in detail, the role of Scrum Master, and how the role interacts with different members of the Scrum Team and other stakeholders Master the Scrum principles to better understand their application when returning to the workplace Understand how to construct an effective development team with an appropriate mix of skills and experience Know how to act as a servant-leader for the Scrum Team, promoting and enabling self-organization to create high-value products. Learn how to facilitate Scrum Events and remove impediments to the Scrum Team's progress Help Scrum Product Owners shape and refine product backlogs to guide early and incremental delivery of valuable products Drive adoption of the Scrum framework for more effective product and solution development, working with stakeholders and other Scrum Masters to improve its effectiveness Day One Scrum Overview Self-Organization Agile Principles Empirical Product Development Scrum Events The Development Team Scrum Roles Day Two The Product Backlog Sprint Planning and Done Sprint Progress Scrum Simulation Growing as a Scrum Master
PMI-ACP® Exam Prep: In-House Training This course builds on the candidates' practical experience of Agile in the workplace to equip them with the broad range of knowledge and skills required for the PMI® Agile Certification exam. It will follow the PMI® requirements and reference the suggested reading list, including the Agile Practice Guide, but will not be limited to those areas. Within the profession and discipline of project management, Agile continues to develop as a significant and important aspect of bringing change to an organization. Where the products of change must be delivered to the business 'on time,' Agile is often the chosen methodology. In addition to equipping candidates for the PMI® Agile Certification examination, this course will also support candidates in taking a more informed and effective role in Agile projects. It will also enable them to take a significant role in encouraging and enabling the organization to become or develop as an Agile environment. What you will Learn You will learn how to: Appreciate the wider aspects of Agile project management tools and techniques Integrate various disciplines within Agile Tailor / customize Agile to suit the needs of different projects Prepare yourself for the PMI® Agile Certification examination Getting Started Introductions Agenda Expectations Foundation Concepts Defining 'Traditional' Project Management Project management parameters The 'traditional' approach to the parameters Strengths and weaknesses of the traditional approach Defining 'Agile' Project Management Project management parameters revisited The 'agile' approach to the parameters Strengths and weaknesses of agile Managing projects with traditional and agile methods Can the two approaches co-exist? Leveraging the benefits of both methods Options for using both methods on a project Avoiding the elephant traps Key aspects of the PMI® Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Handbook Overview Eligibility requirements Exam information Exam Blueprint Continuing certification requirements Key aspects of the PMI Agile Certification Examination Content Outline Introduction Agile exam content outline Tools and techniques Knowledge and skills Domains and tasks (not examined) An Introduction to Agile and Implementing Agile Definable work vs. high-uncertainty work Project factors that influence tailoring The Agile Manifesto and 12 Principles Agile mindset Agile domains and tasks Agile Tools and Techniques Related to PM 'Hard Skills' Planning, monitoring, and adapting The need for planning, monitoring, and adapting The Agile approach to planning and plans The Agile planning tools and techniques The Agile monitoring tools and techniques The Agile approach to adapting Product quality A definition of 'product quality' Setting the standard for product quality Agile tools and techniques for achieving product quality Risk management A definition of 'risk' What is 'at risk'? The acceptability of risks The Agile tools and techniques for managing risks Agile Tools and Techniques Related to PM 'Soft Skills' The difference between PM 'hard and soft' skills Communications The importance of communications Forms of agile communications Communications within the project Communications from the project Communications to the project Making communications the cultural norm Interpersonal Skills Defining and understanding management Defining and understanding leadership Defining and understanding servant leadership Delegating vs. empowering Playing to people's strengths Overcoming the roadblocks Core Agile Tools and Techniques The philosophy of core Agile tools and techniques Agile estimation Will traditional forms of estimating work for agile? The relationship between estimating and guessing The relationship between estimating and sizing The where, who, and how of agile estimating Agile analysis and design Product analysis and design from a user point of view Product analysis and design from a supplier point of view Product analysis and design from an agile project point of view Value-Based Agile Tools and Techniques The role of value-based tools and techniques in bridging traditional PM with Agile Value-based prioritization Value-based prioritization and agile projects Investment appraisal methods Regulatory driven Customer driven Ranking methods (MMF, MoSCoW) Metrics What should we measure / track? Methods of measuring / tracking Adding value with metrics Process Improvement Value-stream analysis Value-stream mapping Agile Knowledge and Skills Context of Agile Knowledge and Skills vis-Ã -vis Agile Tools and Techniques Agile Knowledge and Skills Process focused People focused Product focused Project focused Exam Preparation and Course Closure The application process - where are you now? The 'Exam-Focused Journal' - what you still have to do Further preparation - self-study schedule Exam topic review Practice exam Practice exam debrief Course closure
Agile Sprint Planning: In-House Training The goal of the course is to provide you and your team with the ability to develop effective and realistic Sprint plans. Without effective Sprint Plans, iterations are set up for failure. But Sprint Planning cannot be improved on its own, in isolation. The Scrum processes are highly intertwined and influence each other. The surrounding artifacts, events, and roles must be examined closely, and enhanced, in order to improve Sprint Planning. This course will remind you of the theory to reinforce the principles, but will concentrate on next-level skills, so that you and the team are able to create realistic and usable Sprint Plans. This course is not introductory. You are already aware of the Scrum framework and have been implementing Scrum on your projects. Now is the time to improve efficiency and effectiveness, to facilitate successful Agile projects. What you will Learn You'll learn how to: Identify and correlate the key symptoms and root causes of ineffective sprint plans Improve key Product Backlog elements Evaluate Agile roles in sprint planning Appraise key product practices Enhance project transparency The Product Backlog User stories Acceptance Criteria Backlog Refinement Supporting Roles Product Owner (the Backlog) Development Team Stakeholders and SMEs Supporting Product Practices Roadmaps and release plans and story maps Definition of Done Technical Debt Transparency Daily Scrums Information radiators Retrospectives Sprint Planning Capacity and Velocity Sprint Planning Meetings The Sprint Backlog Summary What did we learn, and how can we implement this in our work environments?
Effecting Business Process Improvement: In-House Training Business analysts facilitate the solution of business problems. The solutions are put into practice as changes to the way people perform in their organizations and the tools they use. The business analyst is a change agent who must understand the basic principles of quality management. This course covers the key role that business analysts play in organizational change management. What you will Learn You will learn how to: Define and document a business process Work with various business modeling techniques Perform an enterprise analysis in preparation for determining requirements Analyze business processes to discern problems Foundation Concepts Overview of business analysis and process improvement Defining the business process Introducing the proactive business analyst Focusing on business process improvement for business analysts Launching a Successful Business Process Improvement Project Overview of the launch phase Understanding and creating organizational strategy Selecting the target process Aligning the business process improvement project's goals and objectives with organizational strategy Defining the Current Process Overview of current process phase Documenting the business process Business modeling options: work-flow models Business modeling options: Unified Modeling Language (UML) model adaptations for business processes Analyzing the Current Process Process analysis overview Evaluation: establishing the control group Opportunity techniques: multi-discipline problem-solving Opportunity techniques: matrices Building and Sustaining a Recommended Process Overview of the recommended process and beyond Impact analysis Recommended process Transition to the business case Return to proactive state
Agile and Scrum Fundamentals: In-House Training The overall goal of the course is to provide learners with the fundamentals of what Agile and Scrum are, and how to effectively apply Agile methods in your projects. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Describe Agile and Scrum foundation concepts Compare and contrast Agile roles to traditional roles Initiate an Agile project Develop Release Plans Build an Iteration Plan Execute an Iteration Implement Agile in your environment Getting Started Introductions Workshop orientation Expectations Foundation Concepts Project Lifecycles What is Agile? Why Agile? A range of Agile methods Focus on Scrum The People Side of Agile A range of Agile roles Focus on Scrum roles Unique characteristics of Agile Teams Building effective Agile Teams Initiating an Agile Project Conducting Sprint Zero Setting the vision Building the Product Backlog and User Stories Defining Acceptance Criteria Planning Releases Planning releases Estimating user stories Prioritizing user stories Selecting a Sprint length Estimating velocity Creating a release plan Planning an Iteration Conducting the Sprint Planning Meeting Building the Sprint Backlog Creating a Sprint Plan Running an Iteration Executing Sprint activities Using Burn-down and Burn-up Charts Negotiating changes during a Sprint Conducting the Sprint Review Meeting Implementing Agile Conditions of success for implementing Agile and Scrum Implementing Agile Final words
Implementing Scrum for Teams: In-House Training Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for developing products. It allows the team to deliver a potentially shippable set of functionalities for each iteration, providing the agility needed to respond to rapidly changing requirements. These characteristics have led to Scrum becoming the most popular method in the world of Agile projects. This two-day course provides a practical approach to implementing the Scrum method on your projects. You will learn how to initiate a Scrum project, how to build a Product Backlog, containing user stories, and how to plan and estimate releases and iterations. You will learn how to conduct Scrum events, such as the Sprint Planning Meeting, and how to track progress during an iteration. You will apply what you learn in a series of hands-on, team-based activities and simulations that take you through the entire Scrum process. The overall goal of the course is to enable you to successfully apply the Scrum method on appropriate projects in your environment. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Teach-back Agile and Scrum foundation concepts Initiate a Scrum Project Conduct Team Sprint Planning and Sprint Review meetings Develop Release Plans (including effective user stories and priorities) Build a Sprint plan (including effective estimates) Executive a Sprint (including essential Scrum ceremonies) Implement Scrum in your environment Foundation Concepts Agile Mindset, Values, and Tenets Agile Benefits and Methods Scrum Overview Teams: Self-Managing, Self-Organizing, and Self-Improving Initiating a Scrum Project 'Sprint Zero' Activities Defining the Vision The Product Backlog and User Stories Acceptance Criteria Story Map Planning Releases Planning releases Estimating user stories Prioritizing user stories Selecting a Sprint length Estimating velocity Creating a release plan Planning a Sprint The Sprint Planning Meeting Building the Sprint Backlog Creating a Sprint Plan Running a Sprint Conduct a Sprint Burn-down and Burn-up Charts Negotiating Changes During a Sprint The Sprint Review Meeting Sprint Retrospective Releasing into Production Closing the Scrum Project Implementing Scrum Scrum Simulation Exercise Conditions of Success for Implementing Scrum
Effective Presentation Skills: In-House Training In today's results-oriented, global working environment, the ability to create and deliver presentations effectively is a necessary skill set for people at all levels of an organization. Regardless of your role, it's important to know how to synthesize your ideas into a coherent and focused narrative, add visuals that support and reinforce your message, and deliver it in a way that resonates with your audience. In this highly interactive course, we will unpack and practice some of the tools and techniques used by top speakers and influencers all over the world. In this engaging two-day course, you will plan, write, refine, practice, and deliver a presentation to the class. Your presentation will be filmed on both days, and you will leave the course with a flash-drive copy of your videos; participants of the virtual classroom workshop should be prepared to present via webcam. In addition to discovering and enhancing your own personal delivery style, you will learn how to create an overarching goal for your presentation and then organize and structure it for maximum impact. You'll gain insight into how to anticipate your audience's needs and tailor the content and delivery in a way that connects with them and sustains their attention and engagement. You will also learn skills that will help you control nervous energy, remain focused on and attuned to your audience, improvise under pressure, deal effectively with questions, and build a compelling call to action. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Construct an effective presentation goal statement, opening, body, and closing that connect with an audience Analyze an audience's needs and style preferences, including relevant DiSC®-related elements Deliver a complete criteria-based presentation that will persuade others Align usage of visuals as well as verbal and non-verbal techniques to maximize the impact of your presentation Getting Started Introductions and social agreements Course structure Course goals and objectives Opening activities Planning and Organizing Video: 'The Art of Misdirection' Setting your presentation goal Writing a goal statement Analyzing your audience Applying the 'reality' test Creating and strengthening supports Structuring your presentation 5 components of an effective opening Presentation body Presentation closing Write your presentation opening Audience Analysis Video: 'How to Tie Your Shoes' Everything DiSC® introduction Audience DiSC® Styles Analyzing your audience Further audience analysis Effective Delivery Delivery challenges: virtual and in-person Keeping your audience engaged Your body as your instrument Verbal / paraverbal elements Body stance and nonverbal communication What are your 'tells?' Controlling nervousness Staying attuned to your audience Responding to questions Review and edit your opening Deliver your opening Visuals and Enriching Elements Using images in your presentation Guidelines for visual composition Using questions to engage your audience The power of the pause Practicing and Applying What You've Learned Preparation Delivery Feedback Opportunity to put into practice the program content and receive a video copy Summary and Next Steps What did we learn and how can we implement this in our work environment? Your personal action plan
Conflict Resolution Skills: In-House Training Many organizations have assumed that workplace conflict is always destructive. So, they have often believed that conflict is best dealt with by managers or even via policies and procedures. After all, conflict creates workplace stress and leads to many performance problems, generating very real organizational costs! However, savvy organizations have embraced the fact that when conflict is understood and harnessed, it can be leveraged to add value to teams and even enhance performance. With the right knowledge, skills, training, and practice, conflict can be productive and make organizations better! In this highly interactive course, learners will discover the connection between individual conflict response and team-empowering conflict resolution skills. Participants will explore conflict's visceral dynamics and the nuanced behaviors we individually engage in to communicate and respond to conflict. Learners will apply techniques for transforming unproductive conflict responses into productive ones. Additionally, learners will use a systematic method that prepares them to objectively dissect real-world conflict, while practicing many strategies for resolving it. They will also develop proactive conflict approach plans, which they can transfer back to their own workplaces. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Recognize the organizational costs of conflict Explain our physical and mental responses to conflict Communicate proactively and effectively with different types of people during conflict Replace unproductive conflict responses with productive ones Use the Conflict Resolution Diagram (CRD) process and conflict resolution approaches Relate team stages of development to shifts in conflict Develop a proactive conflict approach for your organization Create a conflict resolution plan for a real-world scenario Getting Started Introductions and social agreements Course goal and objectives Opening activities Conflict Facilitation Readiness Conflict responses and perceptions Conflict basics Conflict and organizations Dynamics of conflict Conflict Styles and Communication A look at the color energies model Conflict through the color energies and DiSC® lens Communication with opposite color energies Individual Response to Conflict The anatomy of conflict Recognizing unproductive conflict responses 4 steps to productive conflict Choosing productive conflict responses Team Performance and Conflict High-performing team relationships Conflict and project team performance Conflict Resolution Diagram (CRD) and process Conflict Facilitation - Preparation Recognizing context and stakeholder needs Using team conflict resolution approaches Preparing for Crucial Conversations® Conflict Facilitation - Clarity Exposing assumptions and biases Defining the conflict and using the CRD Conflict Facilitation - Action Proactive conflict management Conflict facilitation practice Summary and Next Steps Review Personal action plans
Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM): In-House Training Is your team treading water using waterfall? Do you feel trapped in an agile framework? Would you like to find solutions to the problems you've been wrestling with? Are you looking for ways to enhance your team's agility? Break free from your old ways by choosing a way of working that fits your team's context. Find strategies to improve your processes and strengthen your team with the Disciplined Agile® tool kit. Disciplined Agile Scrum Master is a nine-lesson, instructor-led course that shows you how to use Disciplined Agile (DA™) to improve your team's way of working. In just two days, you will become familiar with foundational agile and lean practices that DA supports, practice using the tool kit to solve problems, and learn how to build high-performance teams. Filled with activities, animations, supplemental reading, and more, this course will prepare you to take the Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) exam and, equally important, start using Disciplined Agile immediately. #BBD0E0 » What You Will Learn After the completion of this course, you will be able to: Apply foundational agile and lean practices in your own team setting Describe what business agility is and how it is core to value proposition of Disciplined Agile® Describe the significance of the Disciplined Agile mindset Define the DA™ principles, promises, and guidelines and how they set Disciplined Agile apart from other frameworks Explain how people are organized into DA teams Define the primary DA roles and how they each are key to the success of a self-organizing agile team Explain how to help your team work well together using the Lean principle of 'respect people' Analyze your team's context to make better process-related decisions Select the best-fit DA life cycles for your teams Apply the five DA steps of choosing your team's way of working (WoW) Apply the relevant agile and lean techniques to successfully initiate your team Apply the relevant agile and lean techniques to support your team producing business value Apply the relevant agile and lean techniques to support your team releasing their work into production Apply the relevant agile and lean techniques to support your team on an ongoing basis Recognize when to be resilient List and define the principles of Lean Significance of the Disciplined Agile® Mindset Business agility and how it is core to value proposition of Disciplined Agile Eight DA principles and how they are core to what sets Disciplined Agile apart from other agile frameworks Which situations each of the DA™ life cycles is best applied DA Practice of choosing a team's way of working (WoW) Foundations of Agile How people are organized into DA teams Primary DA roles and how they each are key to the success of a self-organizing agile team Help your team work well together (Lean principle 'Respect people') Inception phase and why it is important DA tool kit to tailor your way of working within a select phase according to context Agile techniques and ceremonies relevant to Inception Construction phase and why it is important Agile techniques and ceremonies that take place during Construction Eliminate Waste and Build Quality (Lean principles) Deliver Value Quickly (Lean principle) Transition phase and why it is important Ongoing phase and why it is important Learn Pragmatically (Lean principle) Elements of the process blade (onion) diagram Principles of Lean When to be resilient Benefits of explicit workflow Kaizen loops and PDSA techniques for continuous improvement Options for cross-team learning: "community of practice" and "center of excellence"
Virtual Agile Teams: In-House Training Agile teams are a must in this world of intense competition, marketing demands, and changing expectations. Global virtual teaming has become a necessity as organizations become increasingly distributed, with suppliers and clients actively engaged in joint projects. Agile Teams now work across geographical, organizational, and cultural boundaries to deliver solutions and services to global users. Distance and differences may amplify the effect of issues and factors that are relatively straightforward for co-located Agile teams. This workshop delivers practical concepts and techniques that participants will start using immediately with their virtual Agile teams. The goal of the course is to enable you to successfully execute your preferred Agile or Scrum methods in a virtual project team environment. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Explain the characteristics of a virtual team and how they differ from a co-located team Build an effective virtual Agile team using a Team Charter approach Develop Release Plans, including prioritizing user stories, with a virtual Agile Team Construct a Sprint plan, including effective user story estimates, virtually Execute a Sprint, including essential Agile or Scrum ceremonies, virtually Conduct effective virtual meetings in an environment supportive of Agile and Scrum methods Foundation Concepts Agile Mindset and Values Agile Benefits and Methods Scrum Overview Co-located vs. Virtual Teams Forming Virtual Agile Teams Exploring Virtual Leadership Focusing on Virtual Agile Leaders Developing a Virtual Agile Team Charter Meeting Team Challenges in a Virtual Environment Planning Releases with a Virtual Agile Team Planning releases overview Estimating user stories Prioritizing user stories Setting release parameters Getting consensus on the release plan Planning a Sprint for a Virtual Project Sprint Planning Overview Confirming Sprint Scope with Virtual Agile Teams Developing a Sprint Delivery Plan for Virtual Agile Teams Running a Sprint in a Virtual Environment Self-organizing a Sprint for a Virtual Agile Team Using Scrum tools in a Virtual Environment Conducting End of Sprint Meetings in a Virtual Environment Iterating as a Virtual Agile Team Creating an Environment for Success Piloting a virtual Agile team Creating an Agile-friendly virtual environment