At nTier, we go beyond conventional training and education; we offer edutainment. Our approach to learning blends the latest advancements in cognitive learning science with an element of entertainment, ensuring that knowledge is not only imparted but also retained for longer durations. By infusing fun and exhilaration into the learning experience, we create an environment where information sticks with your people effectively.
AGILE
COGNITIVE LEARNING SCIENCE
We don't just do training and education, we do edutainment
Our Agile Courses
AGILE COURSES
Let us create an in-depth, hands-on, Lean-Agile training curriculum
nTier training classes are available for private groups of 3 or more people at your site or online anywhere in the world. Let us create an in-depth, hands-on, Lean-Agile training curriculum to help your teams and organization take it to the next level.
Benefits of our classes are:
- Custom curriculum centered around your team and organizations experience level
- Courses customized to address your specific roadblocks and pain points
- Training scheduled whenever it works best for your team (Day, Evening, ½ Day increments, etc)
- No risk of proprietary information being shared with others
- Can be used as an opportunity for team growth and bonding, leading to higher performance
PASSION IS WHAT DRIVES US
Founded in 2006 on the core belief that there is a superior way to train technical teams
SCALED AGILE COURSES
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Leading SAFe®
Thriving in the Digital Age with Business Agility
New to the Scaled Agile Framework®? Leading SAFe® offers an introduction to the foundations of SAFe and provides the principles and practices to confidently drive your Lean-Agile transformation. The course and resulting certification equip you with the guidance and tools to build a culture of resiliency and a shared language that engages employees and focuses on customers so that organizations can work with agility at scale.
Take a Leading SAFe course to discover how companies can build business agility, and how to make SAFe work inside your organization. You’ll come away with an understanding of how to align your entire organization around the same clear objectives, and how to improve the flow of value and work from strategy to delivery. You’ll learn what makes companies more customer-centric and how to run key SAFe alignment and planning events, like PI planning.
Attendees learn:
- How to realize the benefits of SAFe, including:
- How to establish Team and Technical Agility and organize around the flow of value
- How to align massive organizations around clear, common objectives
- How to participate successfully in critical SAFe events, such as PI Planning
- How to adopt a customer-centric mindset
Leading SAFe® answers the questions:
- What is SAFe?
- What is business agility and how does SAFe support it?
- How does an organization get started with the Scaled Agile Framework®?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe® Studio with your first class attendance
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- Curated content-playlists based on your interests and roles, including templated resources and facilitation guides to get you started
- SAFe Agilist certification exam
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SAFe® for Teams
Establishing Team Agility for Agile Release Trains
What does it mean to be part of an Agile team on an Agile Release Train (ART) that delivers value to customers? SAFe® for Teams covers the tactical skills to be a high-performing member of an ART. The course also gives you the guidance and tools to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams. Get the most out of your learning experience by taking it in context with your team and other teams on your ART.
SAFe for Teams will teach you all about your role on an Agile team and how your team works with others as part of an ART. You’ll learn how to plan and execute work, how to apply Scaled Agile Framework® and Agile principles, and how to continuously improve. Taking the Scaled Agile Framework® for Teams with your team will empower all of you with the collective knowledge to collaborate effectively, do the best possible work, and hit the ground running before your next planning event.
Attendees learn:
- Your role on the team and your team’s role on the ART
- How to apply SAFe principles to scale Lean-Agile delivery
- How to plan and execute iterations and PIs
- How to continuously improve the ART
SAFe® for Teams answers the questions:
- How does an Agile team function inside of an ART?
- How do we as an Agile team plan and execute iterations and the PI?
- How do we work with other teams on the ART to effectively deliver value?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help prepare you to take the certification exam, claim their digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe® Studio with your first class attendance
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- Curated content-playlists based on your interests and roles, including templated resources and facilitation guides to get you started
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe® 6.0 Practitioner certification exam
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Release Train Engineer (RTE)
Facilitating Agile Release Trains
Unique to SAFe®, the Release Train Engineer (RTE) is part of the trio of leaders, including product managers and system architects. This is critical in leading Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to deliver value. The RTE must create the right environment, have the right conversations, facilitate the right meetings, and gather the right people to make decisions based on the right data.
In the SAFe® RTE course, you’ll learn to execute SAFe and continuously improve PI Planning and other vital SAFe events. You’ll discover how to coach leaders, teams, and Scrum Masters in new processes and mindsets. And you’ll get the guidance and tools you need to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams.
Attendees learn:
- How to lead ARTs and large solutions in a SAFe organization
- How to apply Lean-Agile knowledge and tools to release value
- How to foster relentless improvement
- How to build a high-performing ART by becoming a servant leader and coach
SAFe® Release Train Engineer answers the questions:
- How do I plan for and execute a PI?
- How do I create an environment of relentless improvement?
- How do I lead and serve my ART?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe® Studio with your first class attendance
- Access to RTE Essentials Online Learning Series
- Facilitation Guides for all ART events
- Online collaboration tools for facilitating SAFe ART events, like PI Planning and System Demo
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice Scaled Agile Framework every day
- SAFe® Release Train Engineer certification exam
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SAFe®Product Owner/Product Manager
Delivering Value through Effective Planning Interval Execution
What skills do you need to deliver value in an Agile enterprise? The SAFe® Product Owner and SAFe® Product Manager (POPM) course covers the tactical responsibilities of these roles in the Agile Release Train (ART). The course and resulting certification give you the guidance and tools to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams.
Learn how product owners and product managers should work together to achieve the best possible customer and business outcomes. The SAFe POPM course will teach you how to adopt a customer-centric approach to building products, using the Scaled Agile Framework® to deliver more value, faster. Topics covered in this course include the daily role of POs and PMs; collaborating with engineering teams and business stakeholders; how to write epics, features, and stories; and how to design, prioritize, build, test, and deliver products with increased productivity and higher quality.
Attendees learn:
- How to perform the role of a PO and a PM on a daily basis
- How to put the customer at the center of your design, build, and test process
- How to prepare for and lead PI Planning
- How to decompose Epics to Features and Features to Stories
- How to collaborate with Agile teams to forecast work
SAFe® POPM answers the questions:
- How do POs and PMs plan and execute work during a PI?
- How do I integrate a customer-centric mindset to deliver products customers want?
- How do you connect SAFe Lean-Agile principles and values to the PO/PM roles?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- Product Management Video playlist and customer research tools to support product owners in their role
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- Curated content-playlists based on your interests and roles, including templated resources and facilitation guides to get you started
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager certification exam
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SAFe® DevOps
Optimizing Your Value Stream
Delivering valuable solutions faster doesn’t involve just engineers developing software. It involves introducing a shared DevOps mindset among all the people who define, build, test, deploy, and release software-driven products.
The SAFe® DevOps course helps people in technical, non-technical, and leadership roles optimize their development value stream from end to end. Take this course with your entire cross-functional team to map your current value stream from concept to cash. Design a Continuous Delivery Pipeline that’s relevant to your business. And get the guidance and tools you need to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams.
SAFe® DevOps Attendees learn:
- How to incorporate continuous testing and continuous security into the delivery pipeline
- How to integrate continuous exploration, integration, and deployment, and release value to end users on demand
- How to design and implement an actionable DevOps transformation plan tailored to your organization
- How to evaluate and improve your current state using tools like the DevOps Health Radar and Transformation Canvas
SAFe® DevOps answers the questions:
- What is DevOps and how does it enable strategic business objectives?
- What are the mindset, culture, and technical practices to successfully define, build, test, deploy, and release?
- How do I use value stream mapping to measure flow and spot bottlenecks in the delivery pipeline?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- Value Stream Mapping workshop
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- Curated content-playlists based on your interests and roles, including templated resources and facilitation guides to get you started
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe DevOps certification exam
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SAFe® Scrum Master
Applying the Scrum Master Role within a SAFe Enterprise
The SAFe® Scrum Master course equips attendees to coach Agile teams to deliver business value at scale. The course teaches you the tactical skills needed to be an effective Scrum Master in a SAFe organization. It also gives you the guidance and tools necessary for working in remote environments with distributed teams.
If you want to become a certified scrum master with the skills to help leading companies succeed with Agile and scrum, the SAFe® Scrum Master course is for you. Learn how scrum masters empower and lead Agile teams. Understand how to facilitate Agile events like iteration planning, team sync, and iteration retrospectives. And discover how to help teams plan and complete their work using SAFe Scrum and SAFe Kanban. You’ll also learn the principles of servant leadership, so you can help develop high-performing, engaged, continuously improving teams in your own organization.
After taking the course, you’ll know how to:
- Empower and lead an Agile team
- Facilitate Agile events like iteration planning, team sync, and iteration retrospectives
- Help teams plan and complete their work
- You’ll also learn the principles of servant leadership, which are crucial for key SAFe team roles. These skills will enable you to develop high-performing, engaged, and continuously improving teams in your own organization.
Attendees learn:
- How to facilitate Scrum events
- How to support PI execution
- How to coach teams to improve constantly
- How to implement DevOps for continuous flow and delivery
SAFe® Scrum Master answers the questions:
- How do Scrum Masters facilitate planning and execution of work during a PI?
- How do you coach and lead Agile teams inside a SAFe enterprise?
- How do you become a servant leader to build a high-performing team?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help prepare you to take the certification exam, claim their digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe® Studio with your first class attendance
- Team Event Facilitator Guides
- Online collaboration templates for all SAFe team events
- Toolkits to help prepare and execute PI Planning
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe Scrum Master certification exam
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SAFe® for Architects
Architecting for Continuous Value Flow with SAFe
In SAFe®, architects play a key role in the trio of leaders, including product managers and the Release Train Engineer. These people work together to deliver and guide Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to enable continuous value flow.
In the SAFe® for Architects course, you’ll get the context to align architecture with business value. You’ll understand how system, solution, and enterprise architects collaboratively deliver architectural solutions. And you’ll get the guidance and tools you need to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams.
Attendees learn:
- How to develop and communicate the architectural vision
- How to develop solution vision, intent, and roadmaps
- How to prepare and deliver software effectively and continuously
- How to lead and coach architects and team members during Program Increment (PI) Planning and execution
SAFe® for Architects answers the questions:
- How do I plan for and execute a PI?
- How do I plan the architectural runway to consistently deliver business value?
- How do I create clarity and visibility into the architectural vision for an ART?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help prepare you to take the certification exam, claim their digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- Curated content-playlists based on your interests and roles, including templated resources and facilitation guides to get you started
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe® for Architects certification exam
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SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master
Advancing Scrum Master Servant Leadership with SAFe
As a practicing scrum master in a SAFe organization, you have the tactical skills to coach Agile teams to deliver business value. Build on that solid foundation in the SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master course and discover how to facilitate success for Agile teams, Agile Release Trains (ARTs), and the organization. And get the guidance and tools you need to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams.
Take your leadership skills to the next level. The SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master course will give you the tools to improve your coaching and facilitation skills, avoid common missteps, and encourage relentless improvement. You’ll learn how to apply Lean, Kanban, DevOps, and SAFe principles to improve team and business outcomes. You’ll up-level your facilitation skills for key Agile and SAFe events, whether they’re in person or across teams and time zones. And you’ll discover how communities of practice can support continuous improvement.
Attendees learn:
- How to apply SAFe principles to facilitate, enable, and coach in a multi-team environment
- How to adopt scalable engineering practices, Kanban, DevOps, and Agile architecture to optimize flow
- How to advance your facilitation skills for ART and team event planning, execution, and delivering end-to-end value
- How to build communities of practice to support high-performing teams and ART efficiency
- How to lead distributed teams effectively in remote environments
SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master answers the questions:
- What’s the next step in my learning as a SAFe Scrum Master?
- How can I improve my coaching and facilitation skills to support my team?
- What are common anti-patterns to avoid when encouraging relentless improvement at scale?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help prepare you to take the certification exam, claim their digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- Team Event Facilitator Guides
- Online collaboration templates for all SAFe team events
- Toolkits to help prepare and execute PI Planning
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe Advanced Scrum Master certification exam
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SAFe® Agile Product Manager
Using Design Thinking to Create Value Products in the Lean Enterprise
In SAFe®, product managers play a key role in the trio of leaders, including architects and the Release Train Engineer. These people work together to lead the Agile Release Trains (ARTs) in continuously delivering value.
In the Agile Product Management course, you’ll explore how to use design thinking to put your customers at the center and create products that are desirable, feasible, and sustainable. You’ll discover how continuous exploration fuels innovation. You’ll get the guidance and tools you need to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams. And you’ll explore how to define a vision, strategy, and roadmap to satisfy existing customers and attract new ones.
Attendees learn:
- How to create innovation in the value stream
- How to use design thinking to achieve desirable, feasible, and sustainable products
- How to use product strategy to set clarity and direction for the ART
- How to develop and evolve short-term roadmaps that result in long-term value
Agile Product Management answers the questions:
- How can I use design thinking to achieve customer centricity?
- How do I prepare a product strategy, vision, and roadmap for my ART?
- What are the right mindsets, skills, and tools to create successful products?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- Curated content-playlists based on your interests and roles, including templated resources and facilitation guides to get you started
- Access to content, tools, and resources you need to practice SAFe every day
- SAFe® Agile Product Manager certification exam
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SAFe® Lean Portfolio Manager (LPM)
Aligning Strategy with Execution using the Scaled Agile Framework
Aligning strategy with execution is critical to any organization’s success and a key aspect of Scaled Agile Framework®. With a Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) approach, you can collaborate across silos, empower teams, and organize around value to adapt to what customers want, faster.
The Lean Portfolio Management course helps executives, project management officers (PMOs) and other key stakeholders plan dynamically and be flexible enough to adjust initiatives and budgets as the market changes. The LPM course provides the guidance and tools attendees need to work effectively in remote environments with distributed teams. You’ll learn how to connect portfolio strategy and initiatives to the agility planning and execution of work, how to integrate feedback from participatory budgeting, and how to adapt to change while maintaining your funding vision and roadmap.
Attendees learn:
- How to connect the portfolio to the enterprise
- How to maintain portfolio vision and roadmap
- How to establish Lean budgets and guardrails
- How to create portfolio flow
Lean Portfolio Management answers the questions:
- How do I connect strategy to execution?
- How do I manage flow and solve perpetual overload?
- How can I fund and govern dynamically?
- How does Lean Portfolio Management fit into SAFe?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- Complete LPM Practice Guide to help plan and execute a successful LPM adoption
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to perform better as part of an Agile Team
- Lean Portfolio Manager certification exam
- Access to the optional Getting Started with LPM Workshop
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SAFe® Practice Consultant (SPC)
Implementing SAFe® offers attendees the broadest level of insight into each layer of a SAFe implementation. This course and resulting certification will help you understand the roles of each person in a SAFe organization and then plan and guide a SAFe transformation. It’s also the first step toward becoming a certified SAFe Practice Consultant.
You’ll learn how to identify value streams, launch agile release trains, optimize flow, and apply OKRs to Strategic Themes that define the targeted outcomes for the SAFe transformation. You’ll also practice the principles of Agile product management and product delivery. If you’re looking for a comprehensive and practical understanding of how to help an organization achieve business agility effectively, Implementing SAFe® is the right course for you.
Attendees learn:
- How to coach a SAFe transformation
- How to launch Agile Release Trains
- How to Organize around Value Streams
- How to build solutions with Agile Product Delivery
- How to empower a Lean portfolio
- How to understand each role within a SAFe implementation
Implementing SAFe® answers the questions:
- How do I plan and coach a SAFe transformation?
- How can I demonstrate your expertise in and promote business agility?
- How do I build successful solutions using Agile product management principles and skills?
What’s included:
- Course workbook and SAFe Studio access to help you prepare to take the certification exam, claim your digital badge, and tools to get started in your SAFe role
- Remote learning via SAFe® Virtual Classrooms
- One-year membership to SAFe Studio with your first class attendance
- All the materials that you need to get started as a SAFe Trainer including complete trainer guidance and online enablement
- Downloadable toolkits to help you prepare, facilitate and take action from key SAFe activities like Organizing Around Value
- Platform access to e-learning modules and curated members-only content to support your SAFe transformation
- Member discussion forms to engage in ongoing conversations on the SAFe framework or how to better perform as part of an Agile Team
- SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC) Certification Exam
LEAN KANBAN COURSES
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Lean-Kanban Practitioner
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the origins of Kanban, the theory behind it and how it relates to agile software development
- Know how to complete a “Value Stream Mapping” and what to include
- Comprehend throughput and how to organize the work
- Grasp how to manage the process and the input queue
- Understand options for tuning the Kanban implementation
- Comprehend relevance and implementation of key metrics
Course Outline:
- Kanban Overview and Introduction
- House of Lean
- Defining Kanban
- Motivation for Kanban
- Kanban Implementation Best Practices
- Kanban Flow
- Adopting Kanban for Existing Teams
- Lab – Push vs Pull Systems – Airplane Lab
- Value Stream Mapping (seeing the big picture)
- The Value Stream
- Making Work Visible
- Value Stream Lab (Part 1- Defining the Start and the End)
- Card Walls
- Demand Analysis
- Allocating Capacity
- The Work Card
- Value Stream Lab
- Part Two – Designing the Card Wall
- Throughput
- Identifying Work Item Types
- Sizing Work Items
- Building User Stories
- User Story Lab
- Story points
- Visual Control
- Pull vs. Push
- Theory of Constraints
- Service Levels: Class of Service
- Throughput Application Lab (Incorporating Class of Service into the Card Wall)
- Managing the Process
- Daily Standup Meetings
- After Meetings
- Queue Replenishment Meetings
- Release Planning Meetings
- Triage
- Geographically Dispersed Teams
- Improving the Process
- The Importance of Cadence
- Limiting Work-In-Progress
- Identifying Bottlenecks
- Removing Waste from the Value Stream
- Lab – The Pull vs Push – Airplane Lab Part Two (Kaizen)
- Key Metrics Review
- WIP
- Lead Time Throughput and Measuring Flow
- Blocked Work
- Quality
- Failure Load
- Lab – Ball Flow Game with Cumulative Flow Diagram Demonstration
- Day Three – Optional Summary Session
- Lab – Putting It All Together
- This lab is devoted to incorporating specific Kanban principles into current in-house issues. Students will provide real examples of work flow and work with the instructor to get the foundation for Kanban setup
- Deliverable: A card wall the students can begin using immediately
- Lab – Putting It All Together
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Advanced Lean-Kanban Practitioner
Course Number:
N/A
Moving beyond the basics of Kanban, this advanced course examines some of the more challenging Lean and Kanban topics facing teams and organizations today. Picking up where nTier Training’s entry level Kanban course stops, this course takes a deeper dive into relevant Lean theories, practices, organizational and team dynamics, offering pragmatic approaches to keeping Lean practices fresh and relevant through the process of continuous improvement. Attendees will take their Kanban skills to the next level while developing potential solutions to the challenges that their teams are facing by collaborating with like-minded individuals in this highly-interactive course. Participants start by brainstorming many of the real world challenges they face daily as members of a Lean organization. The course then explores a multitude of topics surrounding the implementation of Lean and Kanban practices, providing ample time to discuss potential solutions for the listed challenges as the course progresses. Integration with Scrum, scaling Kanban, and the Lean waterfall will also be addressed. The course concludes with a retrospective, outlining the next steps Lean team members and leaders should take in guiding their lean practices to higher levels of performance.
Audience:
This is not an entry level Kanban fundamentals course. This workshop is for experienced Kanban team leaders, project managers, program managers and team members desiring to improve their ability to implement and optimize Lean Kanban practices as well as integrate them with Scrum and traditional waterfall development practices.
Course Duration:
3 to 4 days
Prerequisites:
Participants should complete the Kanban Fundamentals course (or an equivalent course) or possess corresponding Kanban knowledge.
Course Objectives:
- Learn how to more effectively and efficiently find and remove waste through value stream mapping
- Explore Lean tools and techniques, such as Kaizen Blitzes, that help guide teams to higher levels of performance
- Understand the science behind Little’s Law, optimizing WIP, queues and service levels
- Learn to apply the theory of constraints (TOC) to effectively manage product flow
- Gain insight into implementing Lean practices in traditional waterfall environments
- Understand how to scale Kanban across multiple teams throughout an organization
- Discover and examine potential solutions to your most challenging impediments
- Learn how to kick-start a Kanban initiative in one day
Course Outline:
Section One: Lean Concepts
- The What and Why of Lean
- The House of Lean
- Seven Principles of Lean
- The Seven Deadly Wastes
- Related to software development
- Related to business and operations
- Visualizing the Workflow
- Systems Thinking
- SIPOC
- Value Stream Mapping (VSM) – Advanced Concepts
- Spaghetti Diagrams – Physical and Virtual
- Identifying Constraints, Wastes and Other Impediments
- Analyzing the VSM
- Applying the Theory of Constraints
- Defect Counts and Process Variability
- Root Cause Analysis
- Identifying the CTQ (Critical to Quality) Factors
- Organizational Impediments
- Reengineering your processes
- 5S
- Standard Work
- Drive Quality Upstream
- Theory of Constraints
- Application of SMED to Software Development
- Kaizen Blitzes
- Organizational Social Engineering and Establishing a Lean Leadership Mindset
- Executive Level
- Middle-Management Level
- Team Level
- Continuous Improvement and Evolutionary Change with Kaikaku
- What is Kaikaku?
- Why Evolutionary Change is Superior to Big-Bang Change
- Team Retrospectives
- Start Delivering Continuous Value with Your Current Team and Project
- Kanban Principles Revisited
- Proto-Kanban
- Evolving a Traditional Waterfall to Kanban
Section Two: Advanced Kanban
- Building an Information Flow: The Seven Cadences
- How to Use “Cadence” in Workflow Management
- Feedback Loops to Improve Service Delivery
- Strategy Review
- Operations Review
- Risk Review
- Service Delivery Review
- Delivery Planning Meeting
- Replenishment – Commitment Meeting
- Kanban Daily Standup
- WIP and Queues
- Fine-tuning WIP Limits and Queues
- Dealing with Resistance to WIP Limits
- Service Classes, SLA’s and the Silver Bullet
- Metrics
- Scaling Kanban
- The Challenges
- Synchronization
- Cadence
- When to Use Kanban
- Kanban Weaknesses
- AntiPatterns
- Kanban Kick-Start: How to Implement Kanban in A Day
- Understand the Team
- Plan the Workshop
- The Workshop
- Post-Kick-start
- Optional Fourth Day: Lean Kanban Kick-Start Coaching
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Lean Startup and Product Management
Course Number:
N/A
In today’s business environment, project managers face mounting pressure to create better products, more suitable for and better loved by customers, faster than ever before. Organization’s need to respond to swift changes in the market, both technological and competitive, while remaining innovative. Lean product management is an integration of Lean and Agile concepts which allows product mangers to shorten time to market by improving their focus and communication with users, customers and research and development. This workshop includes interactive exercises and examination of real-world situations, covering the key factors for successful Lean product management implementation.
Audience:
Product managers, managers and other roles who work with customers on product or project discovery and with research and development on delivery.
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
A basic background in Agile is recommended.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the basic principles of Lean startup
- Learn to apply the Lean product process to product development and idea generation
- Discover how to use a design sprint to answer tough business questions
- Explore the concepts of radical collaboration to streamline product development
- Examine techniques to building Lean teams
- Discover how to apply Lean startup principles to enterprises
Course Outline:
- Introduction
- Lean Startup Overview
- Case Studies – What Worked? What Didn’t?
- Setting Up for Success
- Common Wastes in Product Development
- Hypothesizing and Innovating
- Applying Lean Startup Principles to Enterprises
- Lean Startup/Product Development Overview
- Vision, Steer, Accelerate
- The Lean Product Process
- Product Market Fit
- Problem Space Versus Solutions Space
- The Process
- Lean Product Canvas
- Seven Steps to Creating a Successful Product
- Picking a Customer
- Creating a Portrait
- Identifying Facts
- Brainstorming Behaviors
- Finds and Needs Goals
- Identify Key Assumptions
- Test
- Iterate and Pivot
- Pivot or Persevere
- Failing to Pivot
- Types of Pivots
- The Design Sprint – Five Day Process for Answering Tough Business Questions
- Design Ideas
- Prototyping Ideas
- Testing Ideas with Customers
- Radical Collaboration
- Intentions – Red Zone or Green Zone
- Essential Skills
- Truthfulness
- Self-Accountability
- Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others
- Strategies for Success
- Problem Solving and Negotiating as a Team
- Steps to Building a Lean Team
- Designing Teams
- Clarity of Purpose
- Top to Bottom
- Business Focus
- Who Makes What Decisions?
- Clarifying or Redefining Management Roles
Close
Managing Agile Projects with Scrum and Lean
Course Number:
N/A
This Agile class is one of our most popular courses, covering key concepts from nTier’s Scrum Master, product owner and Lean/Kanban practitioner courses. This course takes a deeper dive into project management tactics and allows for extended hands-on lab time. After a one-day overview of Scrum and a brief synopsis of Lean, students will have an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned with two days of intensive lab work.
Audience:
This course is appropriate for anyone who is inexperienced working on or with agile teams. It is equally suited for individuals, teams and whole organizations exploring how to use Agile, those beginning their Agile journey or those currently struggling with Agile implementation. This course helps ensure students are prepared to begin using Agile more effectively and professionally.
Course Duration:
3-4 days
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required for this course.
Course Objectives:
- Provide a refresher on the origins and basics of Scrum and Agile
- Present a detailed explanation of the key Scrum “artifacts”
- Grasp the Scrum Master’s role in-depth
- Understand Lean principles and how to apply them with Scrum
- In-depth understanding of Scrum practices through experiential exercise
Course Outline:
- Agile Overview
- The Agile Potential
- The Agile Manifesto
- Agile Alone is NOT Enough
- Can Agile Fail?
- The Best Agile
- SCRUM Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How It Works
- Artifacts
- Rules of Scrum
- Definition of Done
- Lean Practices Specific to Software Projects
- Lean Principles
- Value Stream Mapping
- Set Management – Backlog, Throughput, Expenses
- Kanbans and Queues
- Smaller Batches Penny Lab
- WIP Limits – Airplane Lab
- Goals and Measurements
- Leveraging Lean Principles in Scrum Lab
- Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities
- Will the Real Product Owner Please Stand Up?
- Product Backlog and Requirements
- Roles and Personas
- Spikes and Special Stories
- Guiding the Self-Managing Team
- Leadership versus Management
- Agile Leader’s Role
- Leadership Lab
- Servant Leadership
- Changing Culture and Behavior
- Motivating Knowledge Workers
- Small Changes, Knowing When to Act
- Force Field Analysis Lab
- Encouraging Agile behavior versus slowing adoption
- Agile Planning
- Agile Planning Concept and Terms
- Business Case and Value Analysis
- The Project Charter
- Customer Value Prioritization
- Minimally Marketable Feature/Minimal Viable Product
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Business Functionality
- Prioritizing the Backlog
- Creating a Product Backlog Lab
- Class will intermittently revisit this lab
- Agile Estimation
- Stories and Sizing
- Relative Sizing
- Wideband Delphi
- Planning Poker
- Affinity Estimating
- Team Estimation Method
- Agile Estimation Lab
- Release Planning
- Release Planning Inputs and Outputs
- Velocity-Driven Release Planning
- Fixed Schedule Release Planning
- Release Planning for Course Project Lab
- Metrics and Measuring Progress
- Planning as You Go
- Reviewing Information Radiators
- Velocity and Measuring Progress
- Scrum Metrics
- Lean Metrics
- Even Easier Metrics
- Metrics Lab
- Watching The Horizon
- Sprints
- Sprint Planning
- Sprint Activities
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Sprint Planning and Execution Lab
- Sprint Review Lab
- Sprint Retrospective Lab
- Final Review and Next Steps
- Optional Fourth Day
- Selected Topics
- Discussion and Coaching
Close
Scrumban
Course Number:
N/A
This Agile class is one of our most popular courses, covering key concepts from nTier’s Scrum Master, product owner and Lean/Kanban practitioner courses. This course takes a deeper dive into project management tactics and allows for extended hands-on lab time. After a one-day overview of Scrum and a brief synopsis of Lean, students will have an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned with two days of intensive lab work.
Audience:
This course is appropriate for anyone who is inexperienced working on or with agile teams. It is equally suited for individuals, teams and whole organizations exploring how to use Agile, those beginning their Agile journey or those currently struggling with Agile implementation. This course helps ensure students are prepared to begin using Agile more effectively and professionally.
Course Duration:
3-4 days
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required for this course.
Course Objectives:
- Provide a refresher on the origins and basics of Scrum and Agile
- Present a detailed explanation of the key Scrum “artifacts”
- Grasp the Scrum Master’s role in-depth
- Understand Lean principles and how to apply them with Scrum
- In-depth understanding of Scrum practices through experiential exercise
Course Outline:
- Agile Overview
- The Agile Potential
- The Agile Manifesto
- Agile Alone is NOT Enough
- Can Agile Fail?
- The Best Agile
- SCRUM Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How It Works
- Artifacts
- Rules of Scrum
- Definition of Done
- Lean Practices Specific to Software Projects
- Lean Principles
- Value Stream Mapping
- Set Management – Backlog, Throughput, Expenses
- Kanbans and Queues
- Smaller Batches Penny Lab
- WIP Limits – Airplane Lab
- Goals and Measurements
- Leveraging Lean Principles in Scrum Lab
- Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities
- Will the Real Product Owner Please Stand Up?
- Product Backlog and Requirements
- Roles and Personas
- Spikes and Special Stories
- Guiding the Self-Managing Team
- Leadership versus Management
- Agile Leader’s Role
- Leadership Lab
- Servant Leadership
- Changing Culture and Behavior
- Motivating Knowledge Workers
- Small Changes, Knowing When to Act
- Force Field Analysis Lab
- Encouraging Agile behavior versus slowing adoption
- Agile Planning
- Agile Planning Concept and Terms
- Business Case and Value Analysis
- The Project Charter
- Customer Value Prioritization
- Minimally Marketable Feature/Minimal Viable Product
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Business Functionality
- Prioritizing the Backlog
- Creating a Product Backlog Lab
- Class will intermittently revisit this lab
- Agile Estimation
- Stories and Sizing
- Relative Sizing
- Wideband Delphi
- Planning Poker
- Affinity Estimating
- Team Estimation Method
- Agile Estimation Lab
- Release Planning
- Release Planning Inputs and Outputs
- Velocity-Driven Release Planning
- Fixed Schedule Release Planning
- Release Planning for Course Project Lab
- Metrics and Measuring Progress
- Planning as You Go
- Reviewing Information Radiators
- Velocity and Measuring Progress
- Scrum Metrics
- Lean Metrics
- Even Easier Metrics
- Metrics Lab
- Watching The Horizon
- Sprints
- Sprint Planning
- Sprint Activities
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Sprint Planning and Execution Lab
- Sprint Review Lab
- Sprint Retrospective Lab
- Final Review and Next Steps
- Optional Fourth Day
- Selected Topics
- Discussion and Coaching
SCRUM MASTER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Facilitation
Course Number:
N/A
You may have adopted an Agile approach, but are you really taking advantage of what is possible when “going Agile?” What does it take to really make your teams flourish? Sometimes knowledge is not enough. It takes someone to facilitate the process, someone to make all the moving pieces work together.
All great championship teams have great coaches. If you want a champion performance from your teams, they need someone to not only coach but to facilitate the process.
Our two-day facilitation course will provide the tools needed to ensure your teams are working at their best. Through a combination of lecture, discussion and hands-on exercises, participants will embark on a journey to become a vital part of implementing Agile. The course focuses primarily on the mindset and role of an Agile team facilitator while also providing group facilitation tools and techniques for effectively designing meetings and workshops that both engage the entire audience and drive towards agreed-upon outcomes. Participants will understand the facilitator’s role, the mindset and behaviors needed to bring out the best in a team.
Audience:
Scrum masters, project managers, development team members and others who want to serve their team by providing focused, effective meetings that allow teams to quickly and effectively collaborate.
Course Duration:
2 Days
Prerequisites:
We recommend a basic background in Agile or prior completion of our Agile Foundations course.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the importance of maintaining neutrality when guiding group work and team decision-making
- Learn the key characteristics and behaviors to exhibit as a facilitator
- Understand the balance between unbiased facilitator and process enforcer
- Gain insights into the process of designing meetings for effective collaboration amongst the team
- Learn techniques for managing conflict
- Learn how to facilitate Agile ceremonies and other project planning events
Course Outline:
- Agile Facilitation and Roles
- Facilitator Role
- Facilitator Skills
- Assessing Your Listening Skills
- The Path to Service
- Designing Meetings
- Facilitate a “Generate” Brainstorming Session
- Facilitate a “Converge and Organize” Session
- Facilitate an “Evaluate and Build Consensus” Session
- Managing Dysfunctional Behavior
- Types of Dysfunctional Behavior and Conflict
- Dealing with Conflict
- Team Development and Facilitation
- Understanding Team Development
- Setting the Team Environment
- Characteristics of an Agile Team
- Designing Meetings for Team Interaction
- Facilitating Agile Events – Part One
- Setting the Facilitation Context
- Meetings
- Project Chartering
- Team Chartering
- Release Planning/Iteration Planning
- Facilitating Agile Events – Part Two
- Demo/Review
- Retrospective
- Facilitating Group Sessions for Distributed Teams
- Facilitating Phone Conference Calls
- Conclusion
- Self-Assessment and Action Plan
- End of Course Review
Close
Agile Practitioner – Coaching
Course Number:
N/A
A coach’s primary goal is to enable and empower their teams to move beyond the mechanics of agile to being agile – a state where the team is deliberately and gladly becoming a high performing team. Through thoughtful and deliberate engagement, the coach strives to enhance, in a measurable and sustainable fashion, team practices in order to provide focus on the business goals and objectives of the team or organization. Coaching involves a broad spectrum of teaching, mentoring, problem solving, planning, leadership, team-building and mastery of agile skills and knowledge.
Coaches must challenge organizations to change their culture — establishing new paradigms which permit agile-lean thinking and quickly deliver value. A coach must be competent, professional and ethical, having both business and technical knowledge as well as an understanding the impact change has on individuals and organizations.
This course is designed to teach, practice and reinforce the core coaching competencies of the Agile coach, enabling the Agile coach to succeed at reaching agreed upon team and organizational outcomes.
Audience:
This is not an entry level agile course. It is an intermediate course designed for those who want to gain a complete set of agile coaching skills, those looking to brush up on current coaching skills or those looking to expand and explore additional skills. The following individuals would benefit from the course: Project and program managers who are called to the Agile coach role, Experienced Scrum masters, product owners or iteration managers who desire an in-depth understanding of the complete range of business and agile coaching skills, Agile coaches who want to enhance and improve their professional coaching and mentoring skills, and Experienced coaches who wish to polish their skills and explore some new tricks and techniques.
Course Duration:
3 Days
Prerequisites:
We recommend that participants complete an ICAgile fundamentals course and Scrum master course (or equivalent Agile training) in addition having at least six months of real-world Agile experience.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the different roles, skill sets and disciplines of an Agile coach (i.e., coaching, facilitating, mentoring, teaching) and how to confidently transition in and out of those roles
- Discover different approaches and tools to address the dysfunctional behavior and conflict on teams
- Learn a new way of thinking that will help you and others to focus on the continuous team improvement, value-driven delivery, innovation, creativity and enjoyment that being truly agile brings to an organization
- Learn to create a trusting, safe, supportive environment in which teams can thrive
- Hone the ability to actively listen and ask powerful questions that will improve your ability focus on what is being said and maximize communication and collaboration by seeking and receiving information
- Learn to apply advanced techniques in planning and goal setting in order to meet the agreed-upon coaching results and help the team and organization achieve their goals
- Learn how to create and apply ethical and professional coaching agreements for your coaching engagements
- Understand and utilize the key skill and knowledge areas applied by some of the best agile coaches in the industry
- Clearly comprehend the difference between coaching and mentoring and know when and how to apply each
- Learn techniques that will create awareness and guide the design of actions and learning which will assist you in managing team progress and accountability
Course Outline:
- Introduction
- Warm-Up Exercises
- Agile Coaching Context Skills and Knowledge of Agile Coaching
- Teaching/Training
- Providing Feedback
- Coaching and Mentoring
- EQ
- Listening
- Powerful Questions
- The Coaching Conversation
- Assessing and Guiding
- Shu Ha Ri
- Agile Assessments and Maturity Models
- From Reactive to Creative Mindset
- The Mentoring Conversation
- Looking in Different Lenses Individual Change Process
- Agile Practices and Roles
- Familiar to Emerging, The Walking Edge
- Creating the Container
- Pivotal Conversations Culture and Conflict
- Cultural Evolution
- Conflict Dynamics
- Conflict Facilitation
- Conflict Protocol Agreements
- The Team Environment
- What Affects the Team
- Sphere of Influence
- The Enterprise Environment
- Organizational Evolutionary States
- Meeting Them Where They Are
- Taking Them to The Next State
- Systems Thinking
- Coaching Managers into Transformational Leaders
- Coaching Beyond IT: Finance, HR and Business
- Organizational Evolutionary States
- Bringing It All together
- Designing an Engagement
- Coaching Stance
- Next Steps
- Creating an Alliance
- Final Retrospective
- Next Few Steps
- Down the Road
Close
Training from the Back of the Room
Course Number:
N/A
Audience:
Trainers, teachers and Agile practitioners
Course Duration:
2 Days
Prerequisites:
Course Objectives:
- Discuss up-to-date cognitive neuroscience and its impact on training best practices
- Create an engaging environment for increased retention and learning
- Quickly design and plan a lesson on any topic by applying the 4Cs and the six learning principles
- Draw on a set of practical, brain-based strategies to immediately begin teaching more effectively
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & REQUIREMENTS COURSES
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Agile Business Analysis
Course Number:
N/A
Performing business analysis on a Scrum team can seem overwhelming given the level of agility provided to product owners. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you’re armed with the right information and solid techniques. After a brief overview of agile project delivery, this class will teach participants how to elicit requirements in agile projects. Agile metrics and product centricity are also reviewed, including how to work with the product owner to develop a product roadmap, and a discussion of best-practice techniques for eliciting requirements will take pace.
Audience:
This workshop is intended for business analysts or those performing business analysis tasks. It is also suitable for anyone wanting to learn Agile/Scrum analysis in-depth, including any stakeholder or participant in an organization planning to apply Agile.
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
Prior experience with business analysis on projects is helpful but not required.
Course Objectives:
- Describe agile values and principles, emphasizing the importance of business analysis work on an Agile project
- Identify the key practices of agile analysis and ways to make requirements practices “lean”
- Understand the value of a product roadmap and release planning for large, complex products
- Describe how agile methods differ from traditional development methods
- Define the key principles, practices and processes of agile development
- Identify the roles people play in an agile project
- Define and analyze agile requirements
Course Outline:
- Introduction to Agile Development
- Agile Overview
- The Agile Potential
- The Agile Manifesto
- Agile Alone is NOT Enough
- Can Agile Fail?
- THE Best Agile
- Self-Organized Teams
- The Business Analyst Role in Agile
- Business Analysis in Agile Projects
- Multiple Levels of Planning
- The “Ever Unfolding Story”
- Progressive Requirements Elaboration
- How to Do Requirements-Driven Agile
- Requirements as the Basis for Agile Backlog
- How Agile Methods Impact Requirements Risks
- Agile Business Analysis: Product View
- Agile’s Big View
- Working with Your Product Owner
- Product Vision
- Product Roadmapping
- Keeping Your Eye on Requirements
- Agile Business Analysis: Release Planning
- Release Planning
- User Stories, Epics and Sagas
- Quality Attributes and Interfaces
- Grooming the Backlog
- Agile Business Analysis: Sprints and Iterations
- Use Cases in Agile
- Actors and Roles
- Understanding User Stories
- Comparing and Contrasting User Stories and Use Cases
- Right Sizing User Stories (Just Enough Detail)
- Defining “Done”
- Testing Stories
- Estimating in Agile Projects
- Calculating Capacity
- Determining Velocity
- Selecting Stories
- Metrics to Remember
- Velocity
- Software Quality
- Team Success and Sustainable Pace
- Metrics Overview
- Conclusion
Close
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Duration: 2 Days
Description
Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage, because it is both so powerful and so rare. A high-functioning team can achieve its potential, resulting in a more productive organization. Additionally, improving teamwork is an important endeavor beyond merely helping organizations become more effective. It also reduces the stress and dissatisfaction of the people who populate those organizations, which has a profound impact on the lives of their friends and family members, as well.
This workshop can be modified to address individual team needs.
Audience
This workshop is for any team that is having problems delivering results!
Objectives
Overall: Reach a common understanding of what it means to be a team and make substantial progress toward becoming a more cohesive team.
- Understand the expectations for a cohesive team, based on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team model
- Have a basic understanding of the degree to which the team meets the expectations (“know where we are”)
- Take the first steps toward building trust and understanding conflict styles
- Develop an action plan for improving teamwork
- Establish a plan for making progress on commitment, accountability, and results
Prerequisites
The team must read ‘The FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS of a TEAM’ book.
There is a short survey that everyone attending must complete.
Each participant will be asked to complete the DISC personality survey.
Outline
- Module 1. Workshop Opening and The Five Dysfunctions Model
- Open the Workshop
- Introduce The Five Dysfunctions Model
- Module 2. Debriefing the Team Assessment
- Initial review
- Team Assessment—Overall Scores
- Team Assessment — Breakout Session on Detail
- Summarize Insights
- Module 3. Building Trust
- Intro to Trust
- Explain the Fundamental Attribution Error
- Introduce the Personal Histories Exercise
- Introduce the Behavioral Profiling Exercise
- Module closing
- Module 4. Mastering Conflict
- Introduce the Topic of Conflict
- Introduce the Conflict Profiling Exercise
- Introduce the Conflict Norming Exercise
- Discuss the Conflict Resolution Model
- Introduce the Conflict Resolution Exercise
- Module closing
- Module 5. Achieving Commitment
- Review Homework
- Introduce the Topic of Commitment
- Thematic Goal Explanation
- Thematic Goal Exercise
- Module closing
- Module 6. Embracing Accountability
- Introduce the Topic of Accountability
- Introduce the Team Effectiveness Exercise
- Discussion About Achieving Accountability
- Module Closing
- Module 7. Focusing on Results
- Introduce the Topic of Results
- The Team Scoreboard
- Establish a Team Scoreboard
- Module Closing
- Module 8. Concluding the Workshop
- Review Assessment Results
- Summarize Key Points
- Cascading Communication Agreement
- Workshop closing
- Thank You!
Close
Agile Story Mapping
Course Number:
N/A
Audience:
Course Duration:
1 Day
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required for this course.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the inputs for user stories
- Learn how to properly document user stories
- Grasp how to decompose and aggregate stories as needed
- Learn about grooming the product backlog
- Understand relative sizing as a method for estimating
Course Outline:
- User Stories
- Requirements and the Product Backlog
- Epics, Features and Release Planning
- Building a Product Backlog from Release Planning Stories
- Creating a User Story Template
- I.N.V.E.S.T in Good User Stories
- Handling Non-Functional Requirements
- Just Enough Elaboration
- Conducting a Story-Writing Workshop
- Roles and Personas
- Creating Acceptance Criteria and Defining “Done”
- Story Aggregation and Decomposition
- Spikes and Special Stories
- Grooming The Backlog
- Prioritization
- Looking Ahead
- Groom Continually
- Value Assessment
- Risk-Based Prioritization
- Estimation Basics
- Estimates versus Commitment
- Relative Sizing
- Planning Poker
- Sizing the Product Backlog
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User Story Workshop
Course Number:
N/A
Creating user stories as a means of tracking project requirements is far different than creating large documents to capture all requirements up front. This change may seem overwhelming and intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. This course provides in-depth training for creating user stories, decomposing user stories, grooming the product backlog and estimating using relative sizing. In accordance with nTier’s hands-on teaching philosophy, this workshop is 50 percent lecture and 50 percent exercises with interactive discussion.
Audience:
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required for this course.
Course Outline:
- User Stories
- Requirements and the Product Backlog
- Epics, Features and Release Planning
- Building a Solid Product Backlog from Release Planning Stories
- Creating a User Story Template
- I.N.V.E.S.T in Good User Stories
- Handling Non-Functional Requirements
- Just Enough Elaboration
- Conducting a Story-Writing Workshop
- Roles and Personas
- Creating Acceptance Criteria and Defining “Done”
- Story Aggregation and Decomposition
- Spikes and Special Stories
- Grooming the Backlog
- Prioritization
- Looking Ahead
- Groom Continually
- Value Assessment
- Risk-Based Prioritization
- Estimation Basics
- Estimates versus Commitment
- Relative Sizing
- Planning Poker
- Sizing the Product Backlog
Close
NEW Training from the Back of the Room
Course Number:
N/A
Audience:
Trainers, teachers and Agile practitioners
Course Duration:
2 Days
Course Objectives:
- Discuss up-to-date cognitive neuroscience and its impact on training best practices
- Create an engaging environment for increased retention and learning
- Quickly design and plan a lesson on any topic by applying the 4Cs and the six learning principles
- Draw on a set of practical, brain-based strategies to immediately begin teaching more effectively
Close
NEW Servant Leadership
Course Number:
N/A
Servant leadership: The continuous endeavor to empower and serve the people you lead! Servant leaders challenge their organizations to go farther, reach higher and Improve faster while at the same time having fun and taking care of the organization’s most vital resource, people. The idea of addressing the bottom line first by always taking care of people requires leadership skills that are well beyond the traditional “command and control” style of management. Through this course you will learn and practice the most critical skills needed to become a servant and true asset to those you lead!
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
This course is appropriate for anyone desiring to serve high-performing teams as a servant leader.
Course Objectives:
- Explain the high costs and disadvantages of employee disengagement and traditional command and control management
- Discuss why Servant Leadership is more effective in most situations
- Define characteristics of Servant Leaders and High Performing Teams
- Identify characteristics of Servant Leadership that are underdeveloped within you
- Design a plan to improve underdeveloped Servant Leadership Characteristics
- Explain the different levels of team maturity and the role of the servant leader at each level
- Present options to craft workshops and meetings that foster interaction and innovation
- Demonstrate the use of powerful questions to help an individual identify and assess possible solutions to their own problem
Course Outline:
- Why Lead This Way
- The High Cost of Employee Disengagement
- Signs of Disengagement
- Top Causes for Disengagement
- Hidden Costs of Command and Control Management
- The Concept of Teams
- Seeing the Whole – Value Streams
- Cross Functional Teams
- Characteristics of High Performing Teams
- Guiding the Self-Organizing Team
- Leadership versus Management
- Servant Leadership
- What is Servant Leadership?
- Organizational Hierarchy
- Servant Leader Inverted Hierarchy
- Real World Servant Leaders – What do they do?
- Servant Leader Characteristics
- Measuring the Effectiveness of Leaders
- The Servant Leadership Assessment – Assessing Yourself
- Team Development
- Team Maturity Stages
- Servant Leader Roles Through These Stages
- Welcoming, Building Trust
- Understand the Organization Mission & Values
- Setting the Team’s Igniting Purpose!
- Establish Team Norms
- Encouraging and Leading Self-Organization
- Establish Whole Team Responsibility
- Facilitation
- Designing Meetings and Workshops for Interaction and Innovation
- Facilitating Meetings
- Facilitating Planning Workshops
- Facilitating Continuous Learning
- Coaching and Mentoring
- Powerful Questions
- Coaching the Team
- Coaching Individuals
- Addressing Dysfunctional Behavior and Conflict
- Dysfunctional or Not?
- Conflict Resolution
- Example Techniques for Resolving Conflict
- Correcting Unwanted Behavior
- Setting Clear Development & Growth Goals
- Building Trust Between Team Members
- Enhancing Communication
- Become a Barrier Buster!
- The Next Steps
- Coaching Others to be Servant Leaders
- The Next Steps
SCRUM COURSES & CERTIFICATION
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Agile (Scrum) Team Quick Launch
Course Number:
N/A
This customizable, four-day workshop is designed to quickly get a team or teams up and running with Scrum. In-class exercises introduce participants to their roles, responsibilities, interactions, tools and Scrum processes. These exercises are then extended to include information from the team’s current project. This workshop allows the team to learn Scrum within their own context and prepares them for their first release planning session and sprint. The workshop’s typical crawl-walk-run format includes: a crawl stage with presentations and discussion of key concepts; a walk stage that includes an experiential exercise to learn how to apply concepts; a run stage where the exercises is repeated using actual data from the team’s project.
Audience:
This course is appropriate for one or more newly formed Scrum teams just starting or about to start on a new project.
Course Duration:
4 Days
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required for this class.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the fundamentals of Agile, Scrum and Lean
- Discover how to leverage early and continuous feedback to deliver products that delight customers -Define key roles and responsibilities of Agile team members
- Learn how to improve team productivity and quality by removing impediments and highlighting organizational inefficiencies
- Understand how to improve lead time and throughput by managing the amount of work in progress
- Learn how to guide continuous improvement of the team and the organization
- Begin to harness the power of self-organization early in the team’s forming process
- Learn how to use retrospectives to continuously improve
- Create and agree to ‘Definition of Done’
- Learn how to right slice and size agile requirements, specifications and documentation for the team -Gain an understanding of the fundamentals of emergent architecture and design
Course Outline:
- Agile Overview
- Agile Framework
- Agile Advantages and Potential
- The Agile Manifesto and Principles
- Can Agile Fail?
- The Best Agile
- Scrum Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How it Works
- Artifacts
- Rules of Scrum
- Definition of Done
- Lean Practices
- Lean Software Development Principles
- Value Stream Mapping
- Leveraging Lean Principles in Scrum
- Lean Labs
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Business Functionality
- Prioritizing the Product Backlog
- Product Backlog Lab
- Agile Estimation
- Stories and Sizing
- Relative Sizing
- Planning Poker
- Team Estimation Method
- Estimation Lab
- Release Planning
- Release Planning Preparation
- Release Planning Meeting
- Velocity-Driven Release Planning
- Fixed Schedule Release Planning
- Measuring and Monitoring Progress
- Release Planning
- Lab Sprints
- Sprint Planning
- Sprint Activities
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Sprint Labs
- The Next Steps
- How Do We Get Started?
- Common Mistakes in Agile Transformations
Close
Agile Practitioner – Product Owner
Course Number:
N/A
Audience:
Attendees typically include executives, product managers, product owners, consultants, lean-agile leaders and Agile change agents.
Course Duration:
2 Days
Prerequisites:
No prior experience is needed, as this course can be adjusted to fit any skill level.
Course Objectives:
- Review the high-level concepts of Agile and Scrum
- Understand the product owner role and their responsibilities in an agile environment
- Learn to plan, initiate and lead a Scrum project
- Understand the five levels of agile planning and how to apply them to agile projects
- Gain an understanding of Lean development principles and how to apply them
- Learn to identify, engage and involve business stakeholders in your agile project
- Become familiar with agile product management within a large enterprise
Course Outline:
- Agile Introduction
- Agile Overview
- Agile Manifesto
- Scrum Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How It Works – The Ceremonies
- Artifacts
- Rules of Scrum
- Definition of Done
- Basic Lessons from Lean
- Learn the Lean Principles
- Understand the Seven Wastes
- Value Stream Mapping
- Grasp the Flow of Kanban
- Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities
- Will the Real Product Owner Please Stand Up?
- The Product Owner and Scrum Master Team
- Leading Self-Organizing Teams
- Stake Holder Management
- Adaptive Planning
- Agile Planning Concepts
- Multiple Levels of Planning
- Agile Project Chartering and Pre-Planning
- Product Roadmap
- Customer Value Prioritization
- Story Mapping
- Minimally Marketable Feature (MMF)
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Business Functionality
- Spikes and Technical Stories
- Risk-Based Prioritization
- Grooming and Prioritizing the Product Backlog
- Product Backlog Lab
- Agile Estimation
- Relative Sizing
- Team Estimation Method
- Planning Poker
- Release Planning
- Release Planning Preparation
- Release Planning Meeting
- Velocity-Driven Release Planning
- Fixed Schedule Release Planning
- Measuring and Monitoring Progress
- Release Planning Lab
- Scaling Scrum
- Scaling Frameworks Overview
- Scaled Agile Framework
- Portfolio and Program Backlog Flow
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Scrum Developer
Course Number:
N/A
This intensive, hands-on boot camp teaches teams how to integrate agile development, test-driven development (TDD), applying object-oriented (OO) design principles and practices, design patterns, refactoring and continuous integration (CI) into the development process in order to fully harness the power of modern best practices to create the most valuable software possible.
If your organization wants to learn Agile by doing Agile, this is the course! It can be customized to any Agile implementation you choose (SAFE, SCRUM, XP, Lean, etc.). As a boot camp, at least 70 percent of class time is spent in hands on programming.
Note: The course length can be customized to fit your team’s availability.
Audience:
Course Duration:
5 Days
Prerequisites:
We recommend six months of programming experience with an Object Oriented language (Java, C#, VB.net, C++).
Course Objectives:
- Teach your team to produce a higher return on investment (ROI)
- Get hands-on, intensive practice using OO principles
- Build an iterative development habit
- Practice doing CI
- Learn to apply design patterns in the real world
- Understand why the best Agile is the one you customize
- Code every day of training and prepare to be challenged with a final all day lab that locks in the practices
Course Outline:
- Foundations and Review
- Why Agile
- Scrum in 20 minutes
- Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Definitions and Uses of TDD
- Principles and Techniques of TDD
- Benefits of TDD
- Best Practices in TDD
- TDD Anti-Patterns
- Where TDD should happen
- Applied Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- Definition and Motivation for OOP
- Ensure Understanding of OOP Fundamentals
- OOP “First Principles”
- Team Driven Design
- When, Where and How design should be done in Agile
- Lightweight UML for Improved Collaboration
- Pictures are worth 1000 words and even more dollars
- The Agile Development Micro-cycle
- Design
- Test
- Code
- Refactor
- Who needs two weeks
- Implementing Iterative Coding
- Refactoring
- What is Refactoring?
- Why Refactor?
- Handling API Changes
- Identifying Code Smells
- Refactoring and Testing
- Using your IDE
- Continuous Integration
- Why Continuous Integration?
- What Is Jenkins?
- How Jenkins Works
- Creating A First Job
Comprehensive Lab (full day) – Putting it All Together
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Agile Practitioner – Product Owner One-Day Add-On
Course Number:
N/A
Audience:
Course attendees typically include executives, product managers, product owners, consultants, lean-agile leaders and Agile change agents.
Course Duration:
1 Day
Course Objectives:
- Review the high-level concepts of agile and Scrum
- Understand the product owner role and the responsibilities of that individual in an agile environment
- Learn to plan, initiate and lead a Scrum project
- Understand the five levels of agile planning and how to apply them to agile projects
- Gain an understanding of Lean development principles and how to apply them
- Learn to identify, engage and involve business stakeholders in your agile project
- Become familiar with agile product management within a large enterprise
Course Outline:
- Agile Review – Agile Jeopardy™
- Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities
- Will the Real Product Owner Please Stand Up?
- The Product Owner and Scrum Master Team
- Leading Self-Organizing Teams
- Stakeholder Management
- Adaptive Planning
- Agile Planning Concepts
- Multiple Levels of Planning
- Agile Project Chartering and Pre-Planning
- Product Roadmap
- Customer Value Prioritization
- Story Mapping
- Minimally Marketable Feature (MMF)
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Advanced Concepts
- Running a User Story Workshop
- Spikes and Technical Stories
- Risk-Based Prioritization
- Refining and Prioritizing the Product Backlog
- Product Backlog Lab
- Release Planning
- Preparing for Release Planning Meetings
- Conducting a Release Planning Meeting Workshop
- Scaling Scrum
- Scaling Frameworks Overview
- Scaled Agile Framework
- Portfolio and Program Backlog
- Select Topics
- Student Selected Topics
- Lab – Identifying and Solving Common Problems
- The Next Steps
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Agile Practitioner – Agile (Scrum) Foundations
Course Number:
N/A
This highly informative course is intended to solidify the core principles of Agile, Scrum and Lean for individuals and teams. It teaches that Agile project delivery is radically different from traditional waterfall methodologies thus requiring understanding, acceptance and support for a successful transformation. The course explores best practices as it exposes common missteps, increases the awareness of associated symptoms and provides guidance to avoid the pitfalls commonly encountered during Agile transformations.
This course can be modified to include a certification test if necessary or desired by the organization.
Audience:
This course is appropriate for anyone who is inexperienced with working on or with agile teams. It is equally suited for teams and organizations exploring how to use Agile, those beginning their Agile journey and those who are currently struggling with Agile implementation.
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the fundamentals of Agile, Scrum and Lean
- Discover how to leverage early and continuous feedback to deliver products that delight customers
- Define key roles and responsibilities of Agile team members
- Learn how to improve team productivity and quality by removing impediments and highlighting organizational inefficiencies
- Understand how to improve lead time and throughput by managing the amount of work in progress
- Learn how to guide continuous improvement of the team and the organization
Course Outline:
- Agile Overview
- Agile Framework
- Agile Advantages and Potential
- The Agile Manifesto and Principles
- Can Agile Fail?
- The Best Agile
- Scrum Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How It Works
- Artifacts
- Rules of Scrum
- Definition of Done
- Lean Practices
- Lean Software Development Principles
- Value Stream Mapping
- Leveraging Lean Principles in Scrum
- Lean Labs
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Business Functionality
- Prioritizing the Product Backlog
- Product Backlog Lab
- Agile Estimation
- Stories and Sizing
- Relative Sizing
- Planning Poker
- Team Estimation Method
- Estimation Lab
- Release Planning
- Release Planning Preparation
- Release Planning Meeting
- Velocity-Driven Release Planning
- Fixed Schedule Release Planning
- Measuring and Monitoring Progress
- Release Planning Lab
- Sprints
- Sprint Planning
- Sprint Activities
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Sprint Labs
- The Next Steps
- How Do We Get Started?
- Common Mistakes in Agile Transformations
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Agile Practitioner – Scrum Master
Course Number:
N/A
This highly informative and rapid paced course is intended to solidify the core principles of Agile and Scrum while preparing individuals to become servant leaders within their team and organization. It teaches that Agile project delivery is radically different from traditional waterfall methodologies requiring understanding, acceptance, and support for successful transformation. The support comes in the form of a servant leader, called a Scrum Master that leads, coaches, and guides the team to become self-organizing and high performing. The course explores best practices as it exposes common missteps, increases the awareness of associated symptoms, and provides guidance to avoid the pitfalls commonly encountered during Agile transformations.
Participants learn the Scrum fundamentals while learning tips on how to be a Scrum Master. Students will gain the skills necessary to start leading teams, a good first step in their Agile journey. This class comes with the option for a written test to validate and certify learning at the end of the course.
This two-day course strikes the balance between the Agile Foundations course and the one x Day Scrum Master add on course, offering a more economical (both in time and money) option for those in resource constrained environments.
Audience:
This course is appropriate for anyone who is inexperienced with working on or with agile teams. It is equally suited for teams and organizations exploring how to use Agile, those beginning their Agile journey, and those who are currently struggling with Agile implementation. This course helps ensure students are prepared to begin using Agile more effectively and professionally.
Course Duration:
2 Days
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this class.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the fundamentals of Agile and Scrum
- Discover how to leverage early and continuous feedback to deliver delightful products to customers
- Define key roles and responsibilities of Agile team members
- Learn how to improve team productivity and quality by removing impediments and highlighting organizational inefficiencies
- Learn how to guide continuous improvement of the team and the organization
Course Outline:
- Agile Overview
- Agile Framework
- Agile Advantages and Potential
- The Agile Manifesto and Principles
- Can Agile Fail?
- The Best Agile
- Scrum Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How it Works
- Artifacts
- Rules of Scrum
- Definition of Done
- Product Backlog
- Defining the Product Backlog
- User Stories – Business Functionality
- Prioritizing the Product Backlog
- Product Backlog Lab
- Agile Estimation
- Stories and Sizing
- Relative Sizing
- Planning Poker
- Team Estimation Method
- Estimation Lab
- Release Planning
- Release Planning Preparation
- Release Planning Meeting
- Velocity Driven Release Planning
- Fixed Schedule Release Planning
- Measuring and Monitoring Progress
- Release Planning Lab
- Sprints
- Sprint Planning
- Sprint Activities
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Sprint Labs
- Guiding the Self-Organizing Team
- Leadership versus Management
- Servant Leadership
- Changing Culture and Behavior
- Motivating Knowledge Workers
- The Next Steps
- How Do We Get Started?
- Common Mistakes in Agile Transformations
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Agile Practitioner – Scrum Master One-Day Add-On
nTier’s one-day Scrum master add-on training course teaches students how to become servant leaders who lead, coach and guide teams to become self-organizing and high performing. This servant leader, called a Scrum master, knows that typical command-and-control management techniques only get you so far. In order to access a team’s true potential, the Scrum master must lead by example, place the team’s needs before their own and act as a coach, giving the team the freedom it needs to grow while establishing boundaries that protects the team, the project and the organization.
Accepted participants will learn how to be a Scrum Master, honing the practices and mindset proven to increase the agility of a development team, a project and an organization. Students will gain the skills necessary to become change agents within the organization, ensuring the proper execution of Scrum and facilitating transformation efforts more effectively. This class comes with the option for a written test to validate and certify learning at the end of the course.
This one-day add-on course can be delivered immediately following the Agile Foundations course or much later in the Agile Transformation process for individuals desiring to learn the skills needed to become effective Scrum masters.
Course Duration:
1 Day
Audience:
This course is appropriate for anyone desiring to serve high-performing teams as a servant leader.
Prerequisites:
All participants are expected to understand Scrum basics prior to attending this course. We recommend completing a Certified Agile Practitioner – Agile Foundations or its equivalent prior to this add-on.
Course Objectives:
- Gain the tools and techniques to build high performing teams
- Learn how to serve your high performing team as a servant leader
- Absorb the concepts of the Scrum Master as a coach, servant leader, and facilitator
- Gain valuable facilitation skills to keep your team’s Scrum ceremonies on track
- Understand how to form teams with insights on team structure, team purpose, and fostering collaboration
- Learn to avoid common impediments and roadblocks by understanding the five dysfunctions of a team
Course Outline:
- Agile Review – Agile Jeopardy™
- Guiding the Self-Organizing Team
- Leadership versus Management
- Agile Leader Roles and Responsibilities
- Servant Leadership
- Changing Culture and Behavior
- Motivating Knowledge Workers
- Small Changes – When to Act
- Team Development
- Understanding Team Development
- Characteristics of an Agile Team
- Designing Meetings for Team Interaction
- Dysfunctional Teams and Their Signs
- Facilitation
- Facilitating Meetings
- Facilitating Sprint Planning
- Facilitating Reviews
- Facilitating Retrospectives
- Coaching
- Scrum Master and Product Owner Relationship
- Coaching the Team
- Coaching Individuals
- Select Topics
- Student Selected Topics
- Lab: Identifying and Solving Common Problems
- The Next Steps
LEAN-AGILE TRANSFORMATION COURSES
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Servant Leadership
Course Number:
N/A
Servant leadership: The continuous endeavor to empower and serve the people you lead! Servant leaders challenge their organizations to go farther, reach higher and Improve faster while at the same time having fun and taking care of the organization’s most vital resource, people. The idea of addressing the bottom line first by always taking care of people requires leadership skills that are well beyond the traditional “command and control” style of management. Through this course you will learn and practice the most critical skills needed to become a servant and true asset to those you lead!
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
This course is appropriate for anyone desiring to serve high-performing teams as a servant leader.
Course Objectives:
- Explain the high costs and disadvantages of employee disengagement and traditional command and control management
- Discuss why Servant Leadership is more effective in most situations
- Define characteristics of Servant Leaders and High Performing Teams
- Identify characteristics of Servant Leadership that are underdeveloped within you
- Design a plan to improve underdeveloped Servant Leadership Characteristics
- Explain the different levels of team maturity and the role of the servant leader at each level
- Present options to craft workshops and meetings that foster interaction and innovation
- Demonstrate the use of powerful questions to help an individual identify and assess possible solutions to their own problem
Course Outline:
- Why Lead This Way
- The High Cost of Employee Disengagement
- Signs of Disengagement
- Top Causes for Disengagement
- Hidden Costs of Command and Control Management
- The Concept of Teams
- Seeing the Whole – Value Streams
- Cross Functional Teams
- Characteristics of High Performing Teams
- Guiding the Self-Organizing Team
- Leadership versus Management
- Servant Leadership
- What is Servant Leadership?
- Organizational Hierarchy
- Servant Leader Inverted Hierarchy
- Real World Servant Leaders – What do they do?
- Servant Leader Characteristics
- Measuring the Effectiveness of Leaders
- The Servant Leadership Assessment – Assessing Yourself
- Team Development
- Team Maturity Stages
- Servant Leader Roles Through These Stages
- Welcoming, Building Trust
- Understand the Organization Mission & Values
- Setting the Team’s Igniting Purpose!
- Establish Team Norms
- Encouraging and Leading Self-Organization
- Establish Whole Team Responsibility
- Facilitation
- Designing Meetings and Workshops for Interaction and Innovation
- Facilitating Meetings
- Facilitating Planning Workshops
- Facilitating Continuous Learning
- Coaching and Mentoring
- Powerful Questions
- Coaching the Team
- Coaching Individuals
- Addressing Dysfunctional Behavior and Conflict
- Dysfunctional or Not?
- Conflict Resolution
- Example Techniques for Resolving Conflict
- Correcting Unwanted Behavior
- Setting Clear Development & Growth Goals
- Building Trust Between Team Members
- Enhancing Communication
- Become a Barrier Buster!
- The Next Steps
- Coaching Others to be Servant Leaders
- The Next Steps
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Agile Transformation Workshop
Course Number:
N/A
This intensive workshop is designed to help an executive or leadership team understand what Agile is and how to develop an organization’s Agile transformation roadmap through several days of training, visioning, collaboration and planning. Our Agile experts will work with the leadership team to identify their organization’s current strengths, gaps and opportunities in order to develop a strong business and technology transformation strategy with clear objectives and measures for success. The end-result of this workshop will be an executable roadmap that combines people (culture), process and technology to start the organization on its Agile journey.
Participants will evaluate real-world case studies and learn methods used for transforming organizations both from an Agile and cultural perspective. The workshop will also include valuable insights into hard-won lessons learned and proven successful techniques used to insure a healthy transformation that sticks. There will also be discussions about how to best lead this type of change and the common challenges real companies have addressed through their Agile adoption.
Note: This workshop is custom made for your organization. After participants complete a short 20-minute pre-workshop survey, your expert agile transformation coach will discuss different approaches with the change sponsor and other key players to create a workshop specifically designed for your executive team.
Audience:
This workshop is designed specifically for corporate and business unit executive teams, change management specialists and portfolio and program managers.
Course Duration:
2 to 3 Days
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this class.
Course Objectives:
- Review the high level concepts and principles of Agile, Lean and Scrum
- Understand the role of executives and managers leading Agile Transformations
- Learn the keys to success, common challenges, and potential pitfalls encountered in Agile transformations
- Create a draft Agile transformation roadmap for the organization
Course Outline:
Outlines for this course are customized for your executive team. The example below was previously used in an executive workshop. .
- Work Shop Overview
- The Power of Self -Organizing Teams
- Ground Rules
- Objectives
- Agile Overview
- The Agile potential
- Agile Overview
- The Agile Manifesto
- Scrum Overview
- Roles and Responsibilities
- How Scrum Works
- Lean Overview
- Lean Thinking Introduction
- Seven Principles of Lean Software Development
- Seven Wastes
- Key Techniques from Lean
- Kanban
- Kaizen
- Introduction to Agile at Scale
- Scaling Frameworks
- Picking a Flavor
- Keys to Success
- Transforming Culture – It Is Not a Light Switch
- Learning from Past Successes and Failures
- The Agile Vision – The Destination
- Beginning with The End in Mind
- The Journey, Not the Destination
- The Agile Transformation Roadmap
- How Will We travel
- Baby Steps
- The First Steps
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Agile for Managers and Leaders
Course Number:
N/A
This course is both for managers and executives that are either taking over agile teams or beginning the transition to using an agile framework for project delivery. The primary focus of this training experience is on the manager as a leader and the skills required to overcome common challenges and guide Agile organizations toward continuous improvement. Class time will be equally divided between discussion and hands-on exercises.
Audience:
This course is designed for mangers, project managers and executives.
Course Duration:
2 Days
Prerequisites:
Students should complete an introductory Agile or Scrum class within six months of taking this course or possess equivalent experience on an Agile/Scrum team.
Course Objectives:
- Gain insight from agile transformation case studies and understand the lessons learned from each example
- Learn to lead versus manage
- Know how to hold teams accountable in an Agile world
- Understand the common challenges organization’s face when transitioning to Agile and how to tackle them head on
- Understand how to estimate the Product Backlog and how to use key metrics to conduct long-range planning
- Learn how to guide continuous improvement of the Agile teams and the organization
Course Outline:
- Systems and Lean Thinking
- Rules and Fallacies that Cause Bad Decisions
- Laws of Systems Thinking and its Impact
- Identifying and Managing Waste
- Consequences of Our Actions – Causal Loop Diagrams
- Self – Organization and Empowerment
- Manager/Leader Role in Agile
- Overlapping Responsibilities
- Servant Leadership Characteristics
- Empowerment Scale
- Team Accountability
- Energizing Teams
- Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
- Creative Environment
- Sustainable Pace
- Building in Craftmanship
- Building Teams
- Hackman’s 5 Factors Model
- Leader and Team Performance Metrics
- Organizational Working Agreements
- Self Forming Team Workshops
- The Next Steps
DEVOPS / TECHNICAL COURSES
Click on the links below to view course outlines, pre-requisites, course length and course objectives.
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Agile Architecture
Many organizations and architects struggle with architectural design and decisions within an agile environment. They understand the importance of avoiding intense design up front but are unsure of how much design up-front to do, so they opt for the other side of the spectrum – no initial design at all. Neither end of the spectrum is sustainable as both are inherently risky.
Letting your architecture emerge and implementing just what you actually need (versus what you think you might need) is a balancing act of deferring design decisions that don’t need to be made early and addressing aspects of the system that will have a long-lasting impact on a project. This balancing act requires architects and designers to demonstrate technical leadership, finding the right middle ground and mitigating the risk involved with either too much or too little design.
In this highly-interactive workshop participants will examine the roles, responsibilities and practices of architects working in an agile environment as well as gain an understanding of the architecture and design effort required at the enterprise, domain, solution and software architecture level. Attendees will also explore the practices and techniques for effectively defining, refining and evolving architecture that supports agile values and the principles of good architecture and design.
Course Duration:
3 Days
3 Days
Audience:
Architects, designers and senior developers looking to understand their role and practices in an agile environment, as well as iteration managers, project managers and Scrum masters wanting to understand how the technical requirements underpin an Agile project.
Prerequisites:
Participants should complete Certified Agile Practitioner – Agile Foundations prior to taking this course or possess equivalent knowledge. Attendees should have some familiarity with software development and architecture.
Course Objectives:
- Develop an understanding of what architecture is and is not
- Understand the roles and responsibilities of architects in an agile environment
- Learn how to apply the values and principles of agile architecture
- Understand the difference between agile architecture and traditional software architecture
- Apply techniques for planning and aligning architecture activities throughout the enterprise
- Learn to communicate the architecture approach and required decisions to diverse stakeholders
- Gain practices and techniques for keeping architecture documentation light
- Recognize and manage technical debt
Course Outline:
- Course Introductions and Agile Review
- Definition of Business Agility
- The Challenge of Organizational Silos
- Agile Manifesto and Principles
- What is Software Architecture?
- Types of Architecture
- Design versus Architecture
- Difference Between Traditional and Agile Architecture
- Agile Architecture Values
- Agile Architecture Principles
- Architect Roles and Responsibilities
- Technical Leadership
- The Architect and the Agile Team
- Defining Your Role to Add Value
- Integration – Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Historic Context for SOA
- Programmable Interfaces
- Declarative Programming
- Service as APIs
- Enterprise Service Bus
- Loose Coupling
- Enterprise and Domain Architecture in an Agile Environment
- Governance – The Business Agility Enabler
- Maintaining the Big Picture
- Paving the Architectural Runway
- Identifying and Managing Architectural Risks
- Software Architecture in an Agile Environment
- The Need for Architecture on Agile Projects
- Team Responsibilities
- Avoiding Heavy Upfront Architecture
- Minimum Viable Architecture
- Scaling Agile and Architecture
- Practices and Principles for Good Architecture and Design
- Analysis and Design – OO versus Procedural Design Principles
- XP versus Sound Design
- Managing Technical and Architecture Debt
- GETTING REST Right
- REST versus Web Services
- REST Based SOA Pros and Cons
- REST Based Business Process Management
- Move to Cloud
- Architecting for the Cloud
- The CAP Theorem
- ACID and BASE
- Data Consistency
- DevOps
- Cloud-Oriented Architecture
- Data, Big Data and Agile Architecture
- Schemalessness in a Structured World
- Semantic Interoperability
- Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC)
- Big Data and Agile Architecture
- Agile Architecture in Practice
- Rethinking Integration
- Capabilities versus Affordances
- Alignment of Architecture with BPM
- Coding at Meta Level
- Dynamic Schemas, Coupling and Extreme Late Binding
- Agile Enterprise Architecture
- Enterprise Architecture and Frameworks
- Continuous Business Transformations
- Governance and Agile Architecture Roadmap
- Common Architectural Issues (Smells) to Guard Against
- Conclusion and Next Steps
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Extreme Programming (XP)
Course Number:
N/A
This course takes students through a basic understanding of the extreme programming (XP) methodology created by Kent Beck and Ward Cunningham. There are numerous books and sources of misinformation available on this process, which makes getting a firm grasp on just what XP is (and isn’t) difficult. This course will eliminate any confusion and set you on right path.
Participants will first discuss XP principles and practices and then use exercises to demonstrate how planning works in XP. A comparison between XP and other methods, such as Scrum, will be included with tips for how to mesh XP with these other options. In addition, participants will discuss how to best introduce XP into your organization and make it succeed in your unique environment.
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
A basic understanding of the software development lifecycle is recommended.
Course Objectives:
- A thorough grasp on Agile principles and values
- Deep understanding of Agile project management and evolutionary design
- Master customer practices such as storytelling and story testing
- Master development tools and build practical skills in automated micro-testing, code smells, refactoring, test-driven development and continuous integration
- Strategies to integrate these practices into your process and team environment
Course Outline:
- Introduction to XP
- XP Overview
- XP Mini-Simulation
- Evolutionary Design
- XP Planning Practices
- Chartering
- Understanding User Stories
- Agile Planning
- Release Planning
- Iteration Planning
- Test-Driven Development
- Pairing
- XP Continuous Practices
- Continuous Integration
- Design Improvement
- Small Releases
- XP Technical Practices
- Establishing Coding Standards
- Collective Code Ownership
- Simple Design
- System Metaphor
- Sustainable Pace
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DevOps Workshop
Course Number:
N/A
The DevOps workshop is an instructor-led training experience that covers the basics of DevOps and its associated tools. The goal of the course is to prepare operations staff to use the various tools under the DevOps umbrella. The course has hands-on exercises to reinforce the material, and at the end of the class, students will have a code base that they can refer to when solving real business problems.
Audience:
This course is appropriate for individuals and organizations seeking a foundational understanding of DevOps, specifically: Employees and managers responsible for designing, reengineering or improving process; Consultants guiding their clients through process improvement initiatives; Internal and external suppliers; Process stakeholders
Course Duration:
2 Days
Prerequisites:
An understanding of Unix Shell is a plus but not required.
Course Objectives:
- Develop an understanding of what DevOps is and is not
- Understand the objectives, terminology and benefits of DevOps
- Learn to create and manage the cultural change and mindset required for successful DevOps implementation
- Gain insight into common DevOps concepts and practices, including its relationship to Agile, Lean and IT Service Management (ITSM)
- Discover methods to improve workflows, break down communications stovepipes and improve efficiency of the delivery process
- Explore how critical success factors, feedback loops and key performance indicators will help drive continuous improvement
- Discover techniques for teams and individuals to realistically follow these principles and practices in a disciplined way
Course Outline:
- Why DevOps?
- Business
- IT
- What is DevOps?
- Introduction
- The Goals of DevOps
- Why the Business Should Care
- Demonstrated Results
- DevOps at Scale in the Enterprise
- Fighting the Complexity bogey
- Application Dev
- Infrastructure
- DevOps Principles
- DevOps and Related SDLC Processes
- Integration with Agile (XP, Kanban, SCRUM)
- Dev/Test Cycle
- Creating the Culture
- Characteristics of a DevOps Culture
- The People Impact of DevOps
- Stakeholders
- Roles
- Teams
- DevOps and Related SDLC Processes
- Practicing DevOps
- Continuous Integration and Delivery
- Continuous Deployment
- Automation
- Automation Practices
- The DevOps Lifecycle
- Related Technology
- Virtualization
- Microservices
- Containers
- OpenStack (101)
- Core DevOps Technology (Overview, Architecture, Install, Writing and Executing)**
- Vagrant
- Puppet
- Chef
- Ansible
- Docker
- Jenkins
- Teraform
- ACIoClicker (Orchestration)
- Git
- Next Steps
- Getting Started Adopting a DevOps Culture
- Challenges, Risks and Critical Success Factors
- Measuring Progress and Success
**Lab for each tool to demonstrate capability and give participants hands-on experience.
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JIRA Project Management
Course Number:
N/A
Master the knowledge needed to leverage JIRA’s flexible issue tracking tools within your organization. This two-day course will introduce participants to JIRA and the key concepts of issues, workflows, Scrum boards and reporting. Basic JIRA management concepts will also be covered. Students will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of these concepts with hands-on labs that establish a foundation of experience.
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course Objectives:
- Provide JIRA administrative training on the following modules:
- JIRA Cloud JIRA v7.1
- JIRA project management features
- JIRA Agile (Scrum and Kanban)
- JIRA workflow management
- Provide general JIRA usage training on the following Jira modules:
- JIRA Cloud JIRA v7.1f
Course Outline:
- Introductions and Administration
- High-Level JIRA Overview
- Issue Overview
- Workflow Overview
- Project Overview
- Portfolio Overview
- Reports Overview
- Agile Overview
- JIRA Administration and Configuration
- Global versus Project Level Configuration Choices
- Issue Types
- Issue Sets (Issue Type Scheme)
- Field Sets (Field Configurations)
- Screen sets (Issue Type Screen Schemes)
- Permission Schemes
- Statuses and Priorities
- Workflows
- Statuses
- Transitions
- Agile versus Standard
- Permissions
- Roles
- Project structure
- Configurable
- Permissions
- Workflow Rules
- Issue Type Content
- Notifications
- Versions/Releases
- Components
- Configurable
- Plug-In Overview
- Portfolio Plug-Ins
- Tempo Plug-Ins
Day Two
- Jira End User Overview
- Introduction to Issues and Issue Tracking
- Descriptive Information
- Dates
- Priority
- Status
- Ownership
- Lab
- Working with Issues
- Creating Issues
- Logging Work
- Changing Status
- Closing Issues
- Notifications
- History/Audit trail
- Lab
- JIRA Agile Add-On
- Kanban Boards
- Creating
- Configuring
- Kanban Related Reporting
- Scrum Boards
- Creating
- Configuring
- Scrum Related Reporting
- Simplified Agile Workflows versus Standard Workflows
- Kanban Boards
- JIRA Labs
- Admin Lab
- Lab Employing Administrator Skills Outlined Earlier in Course
- Kanban Lab
- End User Lab Highlighting Kanban Features and Workflows
- Agile Lab
- End User Lab Highlighting Agile Features and Workflows
- Admin Lab
- Searching and Reporting
- Filters
- Basic and JQL Based
- Standard Reports
- Customizable Reports
- Dashboards
- Optional Add-On: All-In-One JIRA Reports
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Agile Engineering Boot Camp
Course Number:
N/A
This intensive, hands-on boot camp teaches teams how to integrate agile development, test-driven development (TDD), object-oriented (OO) design principles and practices, design patterns and UML into the development process in order to fully harness the power of modern best practices to create the most valuable software possible.
If your organization wants to learn Agile by doing Agile, this is the course! It can be customized to any Agile implementation you choose (SAFE, SCRUM, XP, Lean, etc.). As a boot camp, at least 70 percent of class time is spent in hands on programming.
Note: The course length can be customized to fit your team’s availability.
Course Duration:
2 weeks
Prerequisites:
We recommend six months of programming experience with an Object Oriented language (Java, C#, VB.net, C++).
Course Objectives:
- Teach your team to produce a higher return on investment (ROI)
- Get hands-on, intensive practice using OO principles
- Build an iterative development habit
- Learn to apply design patterns in the real world
- Understand why the best Agile is the one you customize
- Learn to integrate UML, Agile, TDD and OOAD
Course Outline:
- Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Definitions and Uses of TDD
- Principles and Techniques of TDD
- Benefits of TDD
- Best Practices in TDD
- TDD Anti-Patterns
- Applied Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- Definition and Motivation for OOP
- Ensure Understanding of OOP Fundamentals
- OOP “First Principles”
- UML Essentials
- Use Cases
- Class Diagrams
- Sequence Diagrams
- “Turning Straw into Gold” with UML
- Agile Software Development
- What it Means for Information Technology
- Implementing Iterative Coding
- Commonality and Variance
- Translating Requirements or Use Cases to a Class Diagram
- Fundamentals of Commonality/Variability Analysis (CVA)
- CRC Cards
- How to Handle Variations from New Requirements
- Understanding and Using Factories
- Delegation
- Why It’s So Powerful
- How Various Design Patterns Leverage Delegation
- Adapter Pattern
- Strategy Pattern
- Refactoring
- What is Refactoring?
- Why Refactor?
- Handling API Changes
- Identifying Code Smells
- Refactoring and Testing
- Using your IDE
- Using Abstraction
- Understanding the Template Method Pattern
- Importance of Depending on Abstraction
- Serializing Objects to XML Files
- Model-View-Controller
- MCV Principles and the Motivation for MVC
- Model 1 and Model 2 Architectures
- Benefits of the Front Controller Pattern
- Managing Access
- The Proxy Pattern and Its Motivation
- How a Dynamic Proxy Works
- The Dynamic Proxy as a Flexible Proxy Solution
- Dynamic Responsibilities
- Using the Decorator Pattern to Bring Flexibility to Designs
- Adding Functionality Flexibility
- Decorator Pattern and Illustration
- Decorator Pattern – Class Diagram
- Decorators in the Java/IO Pattern
- Writing a Custom I/O Decorator
- Optional Appendixes
- JUNIT
- Javadocs
- Java Server Faces (JSF)
- The Spring Framework
- Struts
- Hibernate
- SCRUM
- SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)
- Open UP
- The Rational Unified Process
- Extreme Programming (XP)
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Understanding and Managing Technical Debt
Course Number:
N/A
Audience:
The Agile team – including developers, analysts, testers, Project/Product Managers, Scrum Masters and Product Owners – and anyone else in your organization that cares about improving performance and lowering cost.
Course Duration:
2 days
Prerequisites:
While previous training or Agile experience is not required, participants will benefit greatly from a solid understanding of Scrum or Lean ceremonies and task boards.
Course Objectives:
- Understand what technical debt is and how to objectively recognize it
- Can minimize technical debt in future iterations and projects
- Know how to pay your technical debt down quickly and iteratively
- Understand the importance of design and how it affects debt
- Reduced escaped bugs
- Improve your team’s velocity
Course Outline:
- Classifying and Identifying Technical Debt
- What is Technical Debt?
- Partially Done Work
- Poorly Written Code
- Defects
- Bad Design
- Task Switching
- Extra Features
- Relearning
- Waiting
- Hand Offs
- Unhealthy teams
- Where Technical Debt Happens in Agile/Scrum
- Early Planning
- The Story Workshop
- Identifying Just Enough Work
- Defining Done
- Recognizing Quality Code
- Using the Task Board to Diagnose Debt
- Variance Is the Enemy
- Tuning the Cross Functional Team
- Automate
- TDD, BDD and More
- Refactoring
- What, How and When
- Identify Causes of Debt: Measuring Done Each Iteration
- How to Verify Design
- The Tasks Tell Stories
- Check Cross Functionality
- Capacity vs Delivered Product
- Code Quality
- Data Driven Retrospectives
- Fix What Matters
- Creating an Action Plan
- Leveraged Debt
- Identifying the Biggest Wastes
- Creating a Repayment Plan
- See the Whole
- Stop and Fix
- Metrics to Watch
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Agile Object-Oriented Design
During this highly-interactive course, participants will spend five days in a single problem domain. They will be given a set of rough, high-level stories and will subsequently learn to deconstruct them and continually groom the product backlog according to the product owner’s (instructor’s) direction. UML diagrams will serve as final deliverables for the class, including conceptual-level class diagrams, sequence diagrams and use cases. Participants are not given complete requirements up front and will be expected to evolve their design as they uncover new requirements with each new lab, all the while working under the assumption that previous lab work has been coded (thus they must make changes to their existing design that result in the least amount of waste).
This class is taught in a Socratic fashion, meaning students will be given requirements BEFORE lecture and will work in teams to do their best design. The instructor will teach to the problem – what forces are at work in the design, what are the key problems that the requirements created for us, what are the consequences we have to deal with when choosing our design, etc. – and will present a solution. Class participants will be encouraged to challenge it and then refactor their own solutions.
Course Duration:
5 days
Prerequisites:
Labs are done in Agile fashion, requiring teams to provide estimates, reprioritize and so on. Therefore, prior training or experience with Agile practices is required for students. Some knowledge of Scrum, OO and UML is also helpful.
Course Objectives:
- Provide a solid foundational understanding of key object-oriented concepts
- Learn to use the Unified Modeling Language (UML) in a minimalistic and efficient manner
- Understand how to blend OO, Agile and UML to write the best software as quickly as possible
- Gain hands-on practice by actually designing, not just theorizing about it
Course Outline:
- Applied OO
- Definition and Motivation for OOP
- Ensure Understanding of OOP Fundamentals
- OOP “First Principles”
- Lab
- UML Essentials
- Use Cases
- Class Diagrams
- “Turning Straw into Gold” with UML
- Lab
- Agile Development
- Overview of Agile Software Development
- Agile Manifesto Values and Principles
- Introduction to Iterative Coding Practices
- Release Planning
- First Time Estimates
- Sizing Your Stories
- Velocity-Driven Release Planning
- Applying Themes
- Leveraging Use Cases for “Check and Balance”
- Lab – Release Planning
- Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities
- Will the Real Product Owner Please Stand Up?
- Product Backlog and Requirements
- Roles and Personas
- Story Workshops
- Spikes and Special Stories
- Lab – User Roles and User Story Writing
- Grooming the Backlog
- Prioritization
- Looking Ahead
- Groom Continually
- Value Assessment
- Risk-Based Prioritization
- Lab – Successful Spring Planning Meeting
- Commonality and Variance
- Translating Stories or Use Cases to a Class Diagram
- Fundamentals of Commonality/Variability Analysis(CVA)
- CRC Cards
- How to Handle Variations with New Requirements
- Understanding and Using Factories
- Lab
- Delegation
- Why It’s So Powerful
- How Various Design Patterns Leverage Delegation
- Adapter Pattern
- Strategy Pattern
- Lab
- Refactoring
- What is Refactoring?
- Why Refactor?
- Identifying Code Smells
- How the IDE Can Assist in Refactoring
- Lab
- Using Abstraction
- Understanding the Template Method Pattern
- Importance of Depending on Abstraction
- Lab
- Model-View-Controller
- MVC Principles and the Motivation for Using MVC
- Model 1 and Model 2 Architectures
- Benefits of the Front Controller Pattern
- Using the Observer Pattern to Reduce Coupling
- Lab
- Managing Access
- The Proxy Pattern and Its Motivation
- How a Dynamic Proxy Works
- The Dynamic Proxy as a Flexible Proxy Solution
- Lab
- Dynamic Responsibilities
- Using the Decorator Pattern to Bring Flexibility to Designs
- Adding Functionality and Flexibility
- Decorator Pattern – Class Diagram
- Decorators in the Java/IO Pattern
- Designing a Custom I/O Decorator
- Lab
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Behavior Driven & Test-Driven Development **NEW**
Course Number:
N/A
This course covers Behavior Driven Development (BDD) concepts of “write your tests first” and “fail first”. This will drive your development process in a “test-implement-test pass-refactor” cycle. Cucumber-JVM together with JUnit provides the basis for the hands-on aspects of the course. Through a series of practical exercises, students will translate scenarios into runnable acceptance tests using Cucumber-JVM. As such various testing patterns and approaches will be explored including the utilization of isolated testing via Stubs, fakes and Mock objects In students will leverage the evolution of User stories into code and the have the ability to test Web Application via the Selenium API. This course is about 50% lecture & 50% discussion / hands-on exercises.
Audience:
This training session is for developers, testers, business analysts and product owners, to enable them to apply BDD principles and practices to steer their projects with acceptance tests at the level of requirements and user stories.
Course Duration:
3 Days
Prerequisites:
It is recommended that participants have experience working in Java.
Course Objectives:
- Capture the core JUnit syntax
- Use BDD and the test-fail-first approach
- Translate business requirements into user stories with acceptance tests
- Learn how to Refactor to clean up your code
- What makes your code testable
- Use Fakes and Mocks for isolated unit tests
- Use Cucumber-JVM to turn User Stores into Code
- Explore the Selenium API
Course Outline:
JUnit Overview
- Unit Testing
- Testing with JUnit, the test lifecycle – @Before, @After, @BeforeClass, @AfterClass, @Test
- Writing assert methods – assertEquals, assertSame, assertTrue, assertFalse, assertNull
- Hamcrest Matchers and using the assertThat
- Using is, or, contains, hasItem, equalTo
- The allOf and anyOf matchers
Test Driven Development (TDD)
- Principals and Techniques
- TDD Metaphors
- Benefits, Challenges and Limitations
- Handling Requirements Change
- Characteristics of good tests
- Revisit Anti Patterns
Testable Designs (Mocks, Fakes and Stubs)
- Creating testable Code, If you cannot test it what use is it?
- Strategies for Testable Code
- Test Unfriendly features
- Interfaces are great!
- Stubs, Fakes and Mocks
- Mocks as Collborators
- Mocks and return values, void methods, frequency calls and ordering
Behavior Driven Development (BDD) with Cucumber
- Writing User Stories
- Acceptance criteria
- Bridging the communication gap between business stakeholders
- Introduction to Cucumber
- Writing scenarios with Gherkin
- Gherkin syntax
- Using given, when, then
- Java, Ruby or Groovy Fixtures generated from scenarios
- Using JUnit to run your Cucumber stories and scenarios
- Writing set-up and tear down code using hooks (@Before and @After)
- Automate Cucumber steps to drive your application both through and below the user interface
- Refactor Cucumber step definitions to make them more readable and maintainable
Testing Web sites with Selenium
- Using a WebDriver to test web applications and the Selenium API
- Interrogating a response page
- Simulating links and form submissions
- Simulate multiple page navigation
- Continuous Integration
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Agile Testing
Course Number:
N/A
This unique course includes an overview of Agile fundamentals followed by a deep dive into Agile testing techniques and the role of the Agile tester. The course can be customized to include intensive hands-on sessions in TDD, ATDD and Mocks.
Course Duration:
5 days
Course Objectives:
- Gain a basic understanding of Agile
- Learn the Scrum fundamentals, artifacts and roles
- Understand the role of a tester on an Agile team
- Learn the Agile Testing Pyramid
- Become familiar with Agile testing tools
- Compare Test-Driven Development (TDD), Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
Course Outline:
- Agile Overview
- The Agile Potential
- The Agile Manifesto
- Agile Alone is NOT Enough
- Can Agile Fail?
- THE Best Agile
- Scrum Overview
- Stories – Making It Manageable
- Stories
- Acceptance Criteria
- Object-Oriented Principles and Agile
- Sprint Planning Meeting
- Just Enough and No More
- Controlling Chaos
- Sprint
- Creating a Sense of Urgency
- Driving Your Project
- Conducting the Daily Scrum
- Chickens and Pigs
- Life Is Daily!
- Doing Iterative Development
- Design
- Test
- Code
- Refactor
- Sprint Review Meeting
- Product Owner: Roles and Responsibilities
- Requirements and the Product Backlog
- Building a Product Backlog
- User Roles and Personas
- Acceptance Criteria
- Story Workshops
- Story Aggregation and Decomposition
- Spikes and Special Stories
- Agile Tester Roles and Responsibilities
- Overlapping Roles
- Testers On the Team
- Test Plans
- The End Game
- Whole Team Approach
- Team Commitment to Quality
- Teams Test
- Pairing Testers and Developers
- The Agile Testing Pyramid
- Agile Testing Quadrants
- Unit Test
- Acceptance Test
- GUI Test
- Manual Test
- Overview of Test Automation and Automation Tools
- JUnit and Testing First (TDD)
- Continuous Integration
- Acceptance Testing (ATDD)
- Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
- Brief Overview of Tools
- Cucumber, easyB
- Selenium
- Jenkins/Hudson
- Sonar
- Exploratory Testing
- Exploratory versus Scripting
- Concurrent Design and Execution
- Motivation for Exploratory Testing
- Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Definitions and Uses of TDD
- Principles and Techniques of TDD
- Benefits of TDD
- Best Practices in TDD
- TDD Anti-Patterns
- Mock Objects
- Motivation for Mock Objects
- Test Fakes, Stubs, Doubles
- Collaborating Objects
- Suggested Tools
- Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
- Choose Your Story
- Writing Test(S) for Your Story
- Consider Automating the Tests
- Implementing the Functionality
- The ATTD Micro-Cycle
- To Mock or Not To Mock
- What Can Go Wrong?
- Iteration Planning
- Epic Planning
- Managing Scope
- Knowing When You’re Done
- Requirements and the Product Backlog
- Stories – Making It Manageable