Agile Planning Advanced Session January 15, 2008

There is a world of difference between studying agile planning and actually doing it. This session is intense, energetic, and highly interactive, focusing primarily on direct experience with minimal traditional presentation. Attendees will collaborate using a Scrum / XP style "planning board" to deliver a fully-developed, usable agile sprint / iteration plan in the context of a realistic software product development domain.

Prior to the session, attendees will receive a detailed background packet on the problem domain used for the session -- just as if they were starting work on an initiative at their own workplace. While the domain will be familiar to all attendees, it does not consist of "toy problems," and participants should be prepared to use the skills they depend on in their professions.

The work product produced by the end of the session will be an actual agile project plan, robust enough to start a sprint / iteration, yet flexible enough to avoid the problems associated with Big Design Up Front. The experience which participants will take away from creating this plan will foster deep skills which they can apply to their unique work situations.

Course Goals:
During the session, participants will be coached in the use of key agile planning concepts to gain practical experience in:

Performing agile analysis in a strategic context
Adding project value early and eliminating waste by deferring complexity
Facilitating a team's ability to work incrementally and in a self-organizing manner
Keeping the focus on deliverable product
Writing work backlog items with clear value and useful time estimates
Techniques to detect and avoid "analysis paralysis"
Pre-planning and re-planning
As a take-away, attendees may access their group plans after the session, both "as delivered" and in an electronic format applicable to virtual / non-collocated team work. This tangible product of the session will continue to serve as a personalized example of good agile planning as participants apply this experience back to their jobs.

Who Should Attend:
Advanced sessions are intended to help agile practitioners focus on the difficult challenges of agile implementations:

Project Managers/ScrumMasters who want to integrate Agile plans with their organization's traditional project management needs
Product Managers/Product Owners seeking better visibility into the strategic view of their product being developed
Scrum course students desiring a "deep dive" into planning
ScrumMasters who wish to improve their team's sprint planning effectiveness
Agile development team members who want to work better as a team

Instructor:
Our instructors are never "slide-turners" or theorists; all have the experiences necessary to enrich each course with real-life examples and proven techniques.
Derek W. Wade is a Partner and Senior Consultant at 3Back LLC, a CSM (Certified ScrumMaster), and Agile team coach. He has over 13 years experience across all roles of the software lifecycle in several industries including Aerospace, Distribution, Internet Commerce, and most recently Digital Mapping. He has led discussions on software testing and transitioning to Agile, and is currently focused on tools and behaviors which improve agile development for non-collocated teams.

With Doug Shimp.

Prerequisites:

Participants should have attended beginner Agile training and gained some practical Agile experience.
Participants should be prepared to review the problem domain background material prior to attending the session.

Course Length:
3 hours

Size:
Class will be strictly limited to a minimum of 4, maximum of 21 participants.

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