Scrum and Agile Practices

The use of Scrum and agile practices to manage software development is becoming wide-spread. Many people are aware of Scrum and would like to find out more or evaluate its suitability for their organisations.

This course is designed to provide an honest, independent perspective of Scrum that arms participants with sufficient understanding to decide on the next step for their organisation. One of the features of the course is its clear explanation of the relationship between Scrum and other popular agile practices. The course is delivered by a Certified Scrum Master with many years of experience in the software industry.

This course is ideal for educating large groups about Scrum, as a pre-requisite for further training or to kick-start an organisation’s first Scrum project. The course can also serve as a component of a comprehensive change management program for introducing Scrum into an organisation.

Course Features

• Offers an honest, independent perspective of Scrum empowering participants to decide on the next step for their organisation.
• Ample time is allowed for discussion of real-world problems and participant’s concerns.
• Includes many role-play exercises that give participants an opportunity to develop an in -depth understanding of Scrum.
• Delivered by a Certified Scrum Master with many years of experience in the software industry.

Participant Benefits

• Introduces participants to some basic ideas about agile software development and explores the underlying philosophy of Scrum.
• De-mystifies some of the agile jargon to provide a good foundation for further exploring Scrum in detail.
• Provides an in-depth explanation covering the purpose and contents of the Product Backlog and the responsibilities and benefits of the Product Owner.
• Walks participants through a detailed explanation of how Scrum Sprints work.
• Provides participants with insight into some of the more common agile practices and how they support Scrum.
• Discusses some of the change management issues associated with the introduction of Scrum based on a tried and proven change management approach.

Who Should Attend

• Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum Masters, Agile Teams
• Software Development Managers, Software Engineers, Software Developers, Requirements Engineers, Requirements Analysts
• Business Analysts, Business Systems Analysts, Systems Analysts, Functional Analysts
• Test Managers, Test Engineers, Test Analysts, Quality Assurance Staff
• Chief Information Officers (CIO), Executives, Enterprise Architects, Data Architects
• Engineering Managers, Systems Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Control Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Human Factors Specialists

Course Duration

• 2 days full-time.

Course Agenda

History of Agile Practices

• Problems with the waterfall life cycle model
• The history and philosophy of Agile methods
• The ‘Lightweight’ approaches of the 1990 ’s
• The Manifesto for Agile Software Development
• Some popular Agile methods
• eXtreme Programming (XP)
• Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM)
• Feature Driven Development (FDD)
• Crystal
• The Agile approach as an alternative to the waterfall life cycle model

Introduction to Scrum

• History and philosophy of Scrum
• The New Product Development Game
• Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland at OOPSLA ’95
• ‘Inspect and adapt’ as the underlying Scrum philosophy
• The Scrum life cycle
• Scrum roles
• Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team
• Other roles
• Stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Managers
• Scrum work products

The Product Owner and Product Backlog

• The product backlog as a project ‘to-do list’
• Product Backlog Items
• Software features vs. software requirements
• Creating, refining and prioritising the Product Backlog
• Characteristics of a good Product Backlog (DEEP)
• Responsibilities of the product owner
• Why is the Product Owner required?

Understanding Scrum Sprints

• Sprint Planning
• Understanding ‘velocity’
• Creating the Sprint Backlog
• Removing obstacles to progress
• Tracking progress during the Sprint
• The Potentially Shippable Product Increment and the definition of ‘done’
• The Sprint Review
• Responsibilities of the team
• Responsibilities of the Scrum Master
• The Sprint Retrospective

Agile Practices Supporting Scrum

• Agile practices as the ‘enablers’ of Scrum
• User Stories
• Test-Driven Requirements
• The Planning Game
• Kanban
• Test-Driven Development
• Refactoring
• Continuous Integration
• Test Automation

Implementing Scrum and Managing Change

• The ADKAR change management model and Scrum
• The dangers of ‘Scrum-But’
• Creating a Scrum change ‘roadmap’