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Agile Project Management
Course Description
Overview
If you’ve been asked to manage an agile project, or want to expand your capability to do so, or just want to know what it’s all about, then this course will give you the knowledge and skills to hit the ground running. No longer just the preserve of software development, agile methods are increasingly being used to deliver wider business change. Although many of the traditional project tools are still valid, new approaches also need to be used. If you already have project management experience and want to manage agile projects too, this course will equip you with what you need. It will also benefit agile team members, project controls staff, those seeking a project management role, or senior management personnel who oversee agile projects.
What You Will Learn from This Course:
• What is agile and why is it being used?
• When to use agile and when to choose other methods
• How to adapt and augment your existing project management skills
• How to get the best out of your agile team
• How to implement project controls for agile
• How to deal with agile project risk
• How to assure an agile project
• How agile projects fit into the wider business agenda
Why Should You Attend this Course?
Agile methods bring proven benefits, not just for developing software, but also in other contexts. But managing an agile project is different. Using only the traditional “waterfall” management methods are unlikely to succeed in an agile environment. This course will give you the tools you need to deliver in this new paradigm. Organisations often wonder how agile projects can be controlled. This course will show you how to apply a range of project controls in the agile context.
From an organisational viewpoint, every project needs good governance and assurance must be gained. We will learn how both of these can be achieved, without stifling the pace and engagement that agile brings.
We will see how agile projects fit with other more traditional projects, how a project can use both agile and traditional methods and how to tackle several simultaneous agile projects.
We will explore how an organisation can best support agile methods, how to create the environment so that they can succeed and therefore how to realise the benefits that they promise.
The agile team works in a different way, and therefore needs to be managed differently. We will learn how to do this and make it a success. Critical among these are the changes to the “soft” skills that you already use as a project manager.
The course is full of practical techniques and examples, with the intention of turning knowledge into practical benefit. The worked examples, case studies and exercises are intended to make it much easier to apply the knowledge that you have gained.
Finally, the instructor will include opportunities to discuss the real-world problems and issues and questions that are affecting delegates in their own projects and working lives, so that improvements and solutions can be implemented as soon as delegates return to their desks. Often, helpful advice can be gained from the experience of other delegates, and the course setting provides opportunities to do this.
Who Should Attend This Course?
• Project managers
• Agile team members
• Project controls staff
• Project management office staff
• Project team members
• Project sponsors
• Senior management
Outcome of this Course
By the end of this intensive course, attendees will be able to:
• Understand what is different about agile project management
• Know when to use agile
• Enable the benefits that agile brings
• Select the best management style
• Get the best out of their team
• Manage project stakeholders
• Deploy agile project controls
• Manage agile risk
• Use appropriate governance and assurance methods
• Deploy several projects at once
• Deliver successful agile projects
Course Length
16 hours (4 modules of 4 hours each)
Course Content
An interactive mix of lecture, case studies, group discussion and activities will be used to illustrate and apply the methods, tools and techniques needed to manage agile projects. The following topics will be covered:
Introduction to agile project management
• Why agile?
• Agile described – process, tools and language
• Myths about agile
• What is different and what stays the same about agile project management
• When to choose agile, waterfall or hybrid
Management style
• The role of the project manager in agile
• Mindset and leadership
• Organisational environment, culture and enablers
Teams and teamwork
• Team structure and roles in agile
• Relationship between the project manager and scrum master
• The role of the product owner
• Resourcing for agile
• Stakeholder management
• Agile team skills and attitudes
Project controls
• Agile and the project planning process
• Scope and requirements management
• Estimating
• Measurement, reporting and forecasting
• Cost control
• Earned value and agile
• Risk management
• Quality management
Governance
• Governance requirements and roles
• Project assurance
Other
• Managing multiple agile projects
• Fit to programmes and portfolios
• How to introduce agile for the first time
• Agile maturity
• Relationship to Lean and Six Sigma
• Some challenges of agile project management
Case Studies
• Presentation of real-life examples and case studies of how project management is used in a variety of agile projects
Practical Exercises
• Worked examples, where delegates participate in groups or teams to manage some fictitious but realistic agile projects.
Summary and Next Steps
• Summary
• Things you can do next
• Reference material
