Agile Project Management

Description

Leverage your Project Management skills with Agile techniques

This course provides two days of experience in managing and controlling Agile Software Development projects, looking at the underlying philosophy and motivation for this trend in software development. It also examines the core practices and techniques of a number of Agile Methods, and their impact on project management activities.

Traditionally the role of technical project management has been to 'control' the project so that it stays on the original plan, and particularly to control change, so that the business could rely on the commitments reflected in the plan. In the modern environment, change represents an opportunity as well as a threat, and the role becomes focussed on orchestrating the project in the context of change, rather than managing the change itself.

This course is designed for:

  • Managers and executives responsible for software development
  • Project managers responsible for software development projects
  • Iteration Managers and Scrum Masters working on Agile projects
  • Business analysts gathering requirements for software development
  • Team leaders and developers building software systems
  • Business Managers who have to sponsor and are responsible for the introduction of new computer based information systems.

It addresses both the soft leadership skills and the hard project skills that are required to run a successful Agile project. It also teaches how to lead an Agile project, its stakeholders and team members while reporting and communicating in a transparent way to all parties involved.

Target Audience

Anyone considering a leadership role on an Agile project, particularly project managers and iteration managers. The iteration manager role could be a senior developer, senior BA or even the solution architect.

Outline
Prerequisites

Participants are expected to have experience in software development, and ideally have some experience with project management in software environments.  There is no need to be experienced with specific Agile methods as the course includes a discussion of the rationale and background of these methods.  This course does not teach you how to be a project manager. Instead, it teaches you how to apply your existing project management knowledge to Agile projects. For those requiring more of a grounding in Agile fundamentals, a suggested lead-in course is Taste of Agile.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this, course participants will be able to:

  • Understand the background to and the driving forces for taking an Agile approach to software development
  • Understand the core practices and philosophies behind a number of specific Agile methodologies
  • Appreciate the organisational and people challenges and opportunities the Agile approach brings to the software development process
  • Know how these have been overcome in some real projects
  • Know how project management should be addressed on Agile projects
  • Use some new techniques and methods for managing and guiding Agile projects.
Content

The first day of this course is the same as the 'Agile Leadership' course and hence if one completes this course there is no requirement to complete 'Agile Leadership seperately'.

Day one covers:

  • Introduction and Background
  • Some History
  • The Agile Manifesto
  • What Projects benefit from Agile
  • Collective wisdom
  • What about Requirements?
  • Do Just Enough
  • Common Elements
  • Focus on People and Communication
  • Roles and Responsibilities

The second day then deep dives into the roles and responsibilities of the Project Manager and Iteration Manager in each of the Agile phases.

  • Project Management Activities
    • Servant Leadership
    • Initiating a project and the Project Charter
    • Risk Management
    • Release Planning
    • Iteration Planning
    • Stakeholder Management
    • Steering and Guiding
    • Facilitation
    • Removing Obstacles
    • Monitoring Progress
    • Analysing Results
    • Knowing when to Stop
  • Some Agile Methods
    • Practices and techniques of  specific Agile methods
    • Energising and empowering self-organising teams
    • Working with Big Visible Charts (BVCs)
    • Identifying and resolving smells
    • Challenges and Issues
Method Used

Lecturing is kept to the minimum necessary. A participative approach is used to enable learning by discovery.