11313 Courses

Agile Sprint Planning 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?

Implementing Scrum for Teams 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

Business Intelligence Business Intelligence (BI) refers to a set of technology-based techniques, applications, and practices used to aggregate, analyze, and present business data. BI practices provide historical and current views of vast amounts of data and generate predictions for business operations. The purpose of Business Intelligence is the support of better business decision making. This course provides an overview of the technology and application of BI and how it can be used to improve corporate performance. What you will Learn You will learn how to: Specify a data warehouse schema Identify the data and visualization to be used for data mining and Business Intelligence Design a Business Intelligence user interface Getting Started Introductions Agenda Expectations Foundation Concepts The challenge of decision making What is Business Intelligence? The Business Intelligence value proposition Business Intelligence taxonomy Business Intelligence management issues Sources of Business Intelligence Data warehousing Data and information Information architecture Defining the data warehouse and its relationships Facts and dimensions Modeling, meta-modeling, and schemas Alternate architectures Building the data warehouse Extracting Transforming Loading Setting up the data and relationships Dimensions and the Fact Table Implementing many-to-many relationships in data warehouse Data marts Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) What is OLAP? OLAP and OLTP OLAP functionality Multi-dimensions Thinking in more than two dimensions What are the possibilities? OLAP architecture Cubism Tools OLAP variations - MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP BI using SOA Applications of Business Intelligence Applying BI through OLAP Enterprise Resource Planning and CRM Business Intelligence and financial information Business Intelligence User Interfaces and Presentations Data access Push-pull data access Types of decision support systems Designing the front end Presentation formats Dashboards Types of dashboards Common dashboard features Briefing books and scorecards Querying and Reporting Reporting emphasis Retrofitting Talking back Key Performance Indicators Report Definition and Visualization Typical reporting environment Forms of visualization Unconstrained views Data mining What is in the mine? Applications for data mining Data mining architecture Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CISP-DM) Data mining techniques Validation The Business Intelligence User Experience The business analyst role Business analysis and data analysis Five-step approach Cultural impact Identifying questions Gathering information Understand the goals The strategic Business Intelligence cycle Focus of Business Intelligence Design for the user Iterate the access Iterative solution development process Review and validation questions Basic approaches Building ad-hoc queries Building on-demand self-service reports Closed loop Business Intelligence Coming attractions - future of Business Intelligence Best practices in Business Intelligence

Effecting Business Process Improvement 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

Use Cases for Business Analysis The use case is a method for documenting the interactions between the user of a system and the system itself. Use cases have been in the software development lexicon for over twenty years, ever since it was introduced by Ivar Jacobson in the late 1980s. They were originally intended as aids to software design in object-oriented approaches. However, the method is now used throughout the Solution Development Life Cycle from elicitation through to specifying test cases, and is even applied to software development that is not object oriented. This course identifies how business analysts can apply use cases to the processes of defining the problem domain through elicitation, analyzing the problem, defining the solution, and confirming the validity and usability of the solution. What you will Learn You'll learn how to: Apply the use case method to define the problem domain and discover the conditions that need improvement in a business process Employ use cases in the analysis of requirements and information to create a solution to the business problem Translate use cases into requirements Getting Started Introductions Course structure Course goals and objectives Foundation Concepts Overview of use case modeling What is a use case model? The 'how and why' of use cases When to perform use case modeling Where use cases fit into the solution life cycle Use cases in the problem domain Use cases in the solution domain Use case strengths and weaknesses Use case variations Use case driven development Use case lexicon Use cases Actors and roles Associations Goals Boundaries Use cases though the life cycle Use cases in the life cycle Managing requirements with use cases The life cycle is use case driven Elicitation with Use Cases Overview of the basic mechanics and vocabulary of use cases Apply methods of use case elicitation to define the problem domain, or 'as is' process Use case diagrams Why diagram? Partitioning the domain Use case diagramming guidelines How to employ use case diagrams in elicitation Guidelines for use case elicitation sessions Eliciting the problem domain Use case descriptions Use case generic description template Alternative templates Elements Pre and post conditions Main Success Scenario The conversation Alternate paths Exception paths Writing good use case descriptions Eliciting the detailed workflow with use case descriptions Additional information about use cases Analyzing Requirements with Use Cases Use case analysis on existing requirements Confirming and validating requirements with use cases Confirming and validating information with use cases Defining the actors and use cases in a set of requirements Creating the scenarios Essential (requirements) use case Use case level of detail Use Case Analysis Techniques Generalization and Specialization When to use generalization or specialization Generalization and specialization of actors Generalization and specialization of use cases Examples Associating generalizations Subtleties and guidelines Use Case Extensions The <> association The <> association Applying the extensions Incorporating extension points into use case descriptions Why use these extensions? Extensions or separate use cases Guidelines for extensions Applying use case extensions Patterns and anomalies o Redundant actors Linking hierarchies Granularity issues Non-user interface use cases Quality considerations Use case modeling errors to avoid Evaluating use case descriptions Use case quality checklist Relationship between Use Cases and Business Requirements Creating a Requirements Specification from Use Cases Flowing the conversation into requirements Mapping to functional specifications Adding non-functional requirements Relating use cases to other artifacts Wire diagrams and user interface specifications Tying use cases to test cases and scenarios Project plans and project schedules Relationship between Use Cases and Functional Specifications System use cases Reviewing business use cases Balancing use cases Use case realizations Expanding and explaining complexity Activity diagrams State Machine diagrams Sequence diagrams Activity Diagrams Applying what we know Extension points Use case chaining Identifying decision points Use Case Good Practices The documentation trail for use cases Use case re-use Use case checklist Summary What did we learn, and how can we implement this in our work environment?

Project Estimating and Scheduling Establishing realistic estimates and goals for projects that support business objectives and meet client expectations is one of the most challenging aspects of project planning. Delivering those results within the agreed-upon time, cost, and quality constraints is also challenging. Attempting to meet impossible deadlines with limited budgets often leads to unplanned product shortfalls, causing long-term support and utilization problems. We have all anguished about this recurring problem, but without having the skills or knowledge to take action, we are unable to break the cycle! The goal of this course is for you to be able to support business objectives and meet client expectations by selecting the right planning approach for realistic and cost effective schedules, as well as project budgets. To achieve that, you will focus on gaining the necessary knowledge, skills, and techniques. What You Will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Use the work breakdown structure (WBS) as the basis for effective estimating of project resources Estimate effort and duration using a variety of techniques Develop preliminary schedules using the critical path method Apply a variety of optimization techniques to refine preliminary schedules Establish realistic schedule and cost baselines, with appropriate contingency reserves Explain how earned value management (EVM) contributes to control time and cost performance Foundation Concepts Project management basic definitions and concepts PES Key driver: competing constraints PES Process and success factors Project Definition and the WBS Project definition overview Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Decomposition: WBS development technique Resource Planning Resource planning overview Identifying resource requirements Identifying and filling resource gaps Applying resource planning tools Effort and Duration Estimating Estimating overview Estimating perspectives and approaches Estimating techniques Effort and duration estimating best practices Project Scheduling Overview of project scheduling Dependencies and the project network diagram Critical path method (CPM) Optimizing the schedule Budget, Risk, and Contingency Planning Overview of budget, risk, and contingency planning Estimating costs Determining the budget Project risk management processes Planning contingency reserves Project Baseline and Control Overview of project baseline Negotiating and the project baseline Earned value management (EVM) Project variances and actions Project control

Scrum Product Owner Workshop The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. The Product Owner must be knowledgeable, available, and empowered to make decisions quickly in order for an Agile project to be successful. The Product Owner's key accountability is the Product Backlog. Managing, maintaining, and evolving the Product Backlog involves: Establishing a clear Vision that engages the Development Team and stakeholders Clearly expressing Product Backlog items Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve the Vision and goals Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all Working with the Development Team throughout the project to create a product that fits the customer's needs The overall course goal is to support you in becoming an effective Product Owner. What you will Learn You'll learn how to: Differentiate between poor, good, and great Product Owner attributes, and their impact on the team, product, stakeholders, and the organization Engage your stakeholders by knowing your customers and market Develop an effective and value-driven Product Backlog Evaluate the Product Owner's role in Scrum's 5 events and team engagement Foundation Concepts Agile foundation Product owner role Product Ownership Product ownership Project vision Understanding your customers and market Personas Stakeholder management and engagement The Product Backlog Epics and user stories Preparing user stories for a sprint The product backlog Visualizing the product backlog Product backlog prioritization Technical debt Sprint Planning and Delivery Sprint planning The sprint Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and Closing Sprint reviews Key agile patterns Retrospectives Closing the project

Project Accounting and Finance Skills Do you manage both project schedules and budgets, but do not have insight into how actual results relate to the approved budget? Do you desire to have more clarity about the relationship between your project's performance with the accounting and financial systems in your organization? Do you need to understand financial and accounting terminology to bridge the gap between the 'world of finance' and the 'world of project management? Organizations have a need to manage-by-projects, because projects are the means to deliver on strategic goals and objectives. Therefore, the project manager must have an understanding of the financial world of investments to ensure the organization will realize expected business value. This requires a foundation in the principles of accounting and finance to comprehend how the project's contribution provides an organization with a competitive advantage. Learn what you must do to give your organization the assurance it needs that its investment in your project will realize business value. Learn what you must do to give your organization the assurance it needs to know that its investment in your project will realize business value. What You Will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Explain the aspects of classical corporate accounting and finance effects on managing projects Determine how your project fits into the corporate income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement Analyze the financial aspects of managing projects Use earned value management as the basis for decision making throughout the project life Recognize the importance of the project manager's financial responsibilities Focus on what PMs do and should be doing, in support of accounting and finance Use financial information within a project environment to meet financial results Track and analyze the project's financial status and forecast with the goal of realizing benefits Generate work performance data to ensure a project's outcome aligns with financial metrics Foundation Concepts Accounting and Finance Terms and Concepts Accounting and Finance Essentials Financial Terms and Concepts Projects as Financial Investments Overview of 'Two Worlds' Project as Investments Accounting and Finance World: Standards, Principles and Practices Accounting and Finance Standards and Principles Accounting and Finance Practices Capital Budgeting Corporate Budgeting Accounting and Finance World: Economic Project Selection Methods Economic Project Selection Methods Economic Project Selection and the Business Case Project Management World Project Management and Financial Controls Project Management and Work Performance Data Project Management and Earned Value Management Project Management and Work Performance Reporting

Recovering Troubled Projects Despite our best intentions, many of the projects that organizations undertake either don't achieve their intended business results or end in complete failure. Most seasoned project managers have had their share of experiences with difficult or troubled projects and unless they are careful, they will encounter more. This workshop does not focus on 'failed' projects but rather on those projects which without appropriate intervention would be headed for failure. Failed projects are those beyond help and which should be terminated. Here we focus on projects that are salvageable. It is an exercise-driven, no-nonsense, professional practice-focused workshop positioning the participant to immediately apply the tools and lessons learned in the classroom. The workshop employs the use of both illustrative and practical/working case studies. Illustrative case studies will examine insights from real-world troubled projects. Participants will be asked to bring descriptions of their own examples of troubled projects on which they're currently working or on which they have worked in the past. A number of these will be used as the basis for the practical/working case studies. The approach builds on and complements the disciplines addressed in Project Management Institute's PMBOK® Guide and also addresses issues that arise when managing projects in a complex environment. What You Will Learn You will learn to: Recognize the value of a structured project recovery process Explain the reasons most projects fail Analyze the causes of a project's troubles Construct a negotiation process to use with key stakeholders Apply an effective strategy to planning the recovery effort Manage, evaluate, and adjust the ongoing recovery effort Foundation Concepts Recognizing a troubled project Defining the project recovery process The Reasons Projects Fail Putting failure in perspective Reviewing management issues Analyzing planning issues Exploring complexity issues Assess the Project Stabilizing the project Determining preliminary Go / No-Go Conducting a detailed recovery assessment Negotiate the Recovery Reviewing the basics of negotiation Setting reasonable expectations Obtaining appropriate PM authority Securing key stakeholder support Plan the Recovery Planning for recoveries Rebuilding the project team Reshaping the project plan Managing parallel activities Planning for change management Implement and Adjust the Project Implementing project recoveries Facilitating change Enabling continuous learning Fostering the project team Sustaining stakeholder engagement

Agile and Scrum Fundamentals 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