Certified ScrumMaster Workshop

Even projects that have solid, well-defined project plans encounter some degree of change and waste. Shifting market conditions, budget cuts, staff restructuring, or any number of influences will disrupt the best plan while contributing to customer dissatisfaction and staff discouragement. Moreover, projects that begin with changing or unclear requirements make it difficult to even establish project expectations.

Scrum is the agile development process that allows teams to deliver usable software periodically throughout the life of the project, absorbing change and new requirements as the project proceeds.

Beginning with the history of agile development and moving through the disciplines promoted by Scrum, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Scrum methodology while specifically reviewing the behaviors expected of a ScrumMaster.

Certification:

Upon completion of the class, you will be registered with the Scrum Alliance and become eligible to take the Certified Scrum Master online exam. To be eligible for the exam you must be present for the full duration of the two Days of training and participate during the training session. Passing this exam will earn you the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) designation.

What You Will Learn

• Details on Scrum roles: Team Member, Product Owner, ScrumMaster
• Foundational/critical concepts of Scrum with our Certified Scrum Trainer® instructional program
• How to apply empirical thinking to your project work
• How a team's productivity can be adjusted to account for its composition
• Importance of organizational agreement on software readiness
• Why the ScrumMaster role can be the most satisfying as well as the most difficult job on a project
• Conflict resolution's critical role in Scrum
• Work on a real-world Scrum project live in the classroom
• Learn, practice, and utilize the Scrum Framework
• Knowing when software is "Done" under Scrum
• Critical characteristics a ScrumMaster must have to succeed
• Get to the heart of the matter with Scrum, coaching, and team productivity
• Compare traditional and Agile project estimating and planning
• Conduct decomposition to estimate a Scrum project
• Practice Scrum meetings including: Sprint planning, Daily Scrum, Burndowns, Sprint review, and Sprint retrospective
• Achieve the first step in Scrum Alliance®-recognized certifications, enabling you to advance to higher levels of recognition
• A framework to operate large projects using Scrum
• How to maximize your returns using Scrum

Audience

• Those practicing or looking to practice the art of the ScrumMaster or anyone involved in Scrum (managers, team members, product managers, etc.)
• Team members not certified, including business customers, users, or partners, product owners, team members, acting ScrumMasters who are not certified
• Those interested in becoming Scrum certified, including project managers, leads, or sponsors, IT managers/directors, business analysts, developers/programmers

Prerequistes

Course Outline

1. Agile Thinking

• How Manufacturing has influenced Software Development
• The Origins of Agile thinking
• The Agile Manifesto
• The Complexity of Projects
• Theoretical vs. Empirical Processes Overview
• The "Iron Triangle" of Project Management

2. The Scrum Framework

• The Different Scrum Roles
• Chickens and Pigs
• Iterative Development vs. Waterfall
• Self-Management Concepts
• Full Disclosure and Visibility
• The Scrum Framework Overview

3. Implementation Considerations

• Traditional vs. Agile Methods Overview
• Scrum: The Silver Bullet
• The Agile Skeleton
• A Scrum Launch Checklist

4. Scrum Roles

• The Team Member
• The Product Owner
• The Scrum Master

5. The Scrum Team Explored

• The Agile Heart
• Bruce Tuckman's Team Life Cycle
• Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• Team Ground Rules
• Getting Human Resources Involved
• The Impact of Project Switching
• The MetaScrum
• The Scrum of Scrums
• The Importance of knowing When Software Is "Done"
• Internal Outsourcing

6. Agile Estimating and Planning

• Product Backlog Features
• Relative Weighted Prioritization
• Prioritizing Our Time
• User Stories
• Relative Effort
• Velocity
• Planning Poker and Story Points
• Ideal Team Days
• Team Capacity
• Projecting a Schedule
• Why Plan in an Agile Environment?

7. The Product Owner: Extracting Value

• The Priority Guide
• Product Backlog Refactoring
• Productivity Drag Factors
• Fixed Price/Date Contracts
• Release Management
• Earned Value Management

8. The ScrumMaster Explored

• The ScrumMaster Aura
• Characteristics of a ScrumMaster Candidate
• The Difficulties of Being a ScrumMaster
• A Day in the Life of a ScrumMaster
• The Importance of Listening
• Common Sense

9. Meetings and Artifacts Reference Material

• A Chart of Scrum Meetings
• The Product Backlog
• Sprint Planning
• The Sprint Backlog
• The Sprint
• The Daily Scrum
• The Sprint Demo/Review
• Why Plan?
• The Ideal Team Day
• Scrum Tools

10. Advanced Considerations and Reference Material

• Conflict Management
• Different Types of Sprints
• The ScrumMaster of the Scrum-of-Scrums
• Metrics
• Dispersed Teams
• Scaling
• Developing Architecture
• Stage Gate/Milestone Driven Development
• Inter- and Intra-Project Dependencies
• Task Boards, Project Boards
• Scrum and CMM, "Traditional" XP

Exercises:

Exercise 1: The "Art of the Possible"

Learn how small changes in behavior can have a large impact on productivity. Turn your thinking towards new ideas and a willingness to change for the better.

Exercise 2: Integrity at a Fast-Food Restaurant

During this exercise you'll review various options regarding an employee faced with a difficult situation. The importance of providing high-quality products to your customers will be explored.

Exercise 3: Understanding Customer Expectations

This exercise is the beginning of an extended exercise involving agile estimating and planning. During this first portion of the exercise, you'll work with a fictional customer who has a very demanding schedule and understand how your assessment of project work plays a significant role in customer satisfaction.

Exercise 4: The 59-Minute Scrum Simulation

This popular exposure to Scrum asks us to work on a short project that lasts for just 59 minutes! Walk through all of the key steps under the Scrum framework as you work in project teams to deliver a new product.

Course Labs