Agile Planning and Estimation

Scrum Overview

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About Scrum Overview

Duration: 1 – 2 day course
Resources: Workbook

An intentionally-minimal project management framework, Scrum works in a diverse set of software development domains and industries, enabling teams to address complex adaptive problems while delivering products of the highest possible value. In this overview course by Jenny Stuart—who has been helping teams transition to Scrum since 2003—you’ll learn about all of the Scrum framework’s elements—its roles, events, and artifacts—as well as their purpose: how they’re all bound together to make Scrum hum.

The course also covers Scrum adoption considerations (including the role of feedback and the types of timelines used in Scrum), techniques for developing requirements in Scrum, Agile estimation techniques, and possible adoption pitfalls. In short, you’ll learn what’s different about Scrum and what makes it so effective.

All Resources

Lessons

Introduction
  • An Introduction by Steve McConnell
  • Course Objectives and Organization
The Scrum Framework
  • What is Scrum? Transparency, Inspection, and Adaption
  • What is the Scrum Framework? Three Roles, Four Events, and Two Artifacts
  • Adoption Considerations: Feedback, Timelines, Definition of Done
  • What’s Different About Scrum?
Scrum Roles
  • Introduction to Scrum’s Roles
  • The Scrum Master
  • The Product Owner
  • The Development Team
  • Beyond the Scrum Team: Other Roles
Requirements in Scrum
  • The Product Backlog
  • Product Backlog Items: User Stories, Epics, and Decomposition
  • Elaboration: Acceptance Criteria and Backlog Refinement
Agile Estimation
  • What and When Do We Estimate?
  • Estimation Techniques: T-Shirt Sizing and Story Points
  • The Sprint Review: Inspecting the Product Increment
  • What is Sprint Velocity?
Plan a Sprint
  • Introduction to Sprint Planning
  • Topic 1: What Can Be Done this Sprint?
  • Topic 2: How Will the Chosen Work Get Done?
  • Finalizing and Committing to the Sprint Goal
Execute a Sprint
  • Introduction to Sprint Execution
  • Who Does What?
  • The Daily Scrum
  • Tracking Progress: Task Boards, Burndown Charts, and Changing Sprint Goals
Wrap Up a Sprint
  • The Sprint Review: Inspecting the Product Increment
  • The Sprint Retrospective: How Do We Continuously Improve?
Adoption Pitfalls
  • What Can Go Wrong? Scrum Smells and “Scrum-But”
Conclusion
  • Quick Review of Scrum Roles and Techniques

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the Scrum framework, its rules and its benefits
  • Describe how work is estimated, planned, and executed in projects using Scrum
  • Apply some best practices to implement Scrum events and artifacts
  • Plan, execute, and track progress of Sprint commitments effectively

This is a good course for those with little or no Scrum experience and those not currently in any of the Scrum roles (Scrum Master, Product Owner, or Development Team member), including individuals who need to support Scrum teams.

“John provided detailed instructions that were tailored (on the fly) to our specific needs. Also, John was able to provide infinite help in giving us direction to help bring agility to our organization.”

Mark Wase, TransUnion

“Excellent and exciting. Helped to renew faith and hope in where our company is going.”

S Svaby, Nextgen

“Simple, pragmatic solutions which we can try to put in place and analysis of our current project issues.”

Neil French, Alstom

“It helped me understand ways to address the many problems we are facing.”

Jason Kidwell, CIC Plus

“Everything was very valuable. Most important was to show how to organize it.”

Sebastian Tomaszewski, SonoSite

“I can’t pick just one part. It was enlightening to learn all the things our team is doing incorrectly, inefficiently, or not at all. I am taking so many nuggets of information back to my team!”

Susan Torgerson, Expeditors

“Describing backlog refinement and its value to the scrum process. This was immensely helpful.”

Dave Heberer, Tableau

“Combination of best practices, practical knowledge, and supporting metrics. One of the best, most informative trainings I’ve taken.”

Adam Jordan, Shell

“I finally understand Story Points!”

Scott Emerson, Roche

“Different ways to do Estimations ranked according to situation. Great negotiation strategies! Great class. Quite informative. Class notes can be used as reference for later review/more info. “

Ruben Pascual, Shell

Customize this course

Your team has unique challenges. Learn about the ways we can customize this course to fit your needs.