Agile-Scrum Professional PSM Boot Camp

Short review sessions, quizzes, and case studies will be scattered throughout the three-day session. The class will participate in a mock Scrum process for a new & emerging (fictitious) product. Time spent on each topic will vary depending on the composition of the class and the interest in particular areas.

Lesson 1: Agile & Scrum Introduction

In order for us to understand the benefits of Scrum and the nuances behind its framework, we begin with the history of agile methods and how relatively new thoughts in software development have brought us to Scrum. Lessons

• 1.1. Introductions
• 1.2. PSM-1 Certification
• 1.3. What is Agility?
• 1.4. Waterfall vs Agile
• 1.5. What is Scrum?

Exercise: Take the PSM-1 Open Assessment on Srum.org

The free Open Assessment will give us a baseline concerning our understanding of Scrum as a class. 

Lesson 2: The Scrum Framework

We will thoroughly cover the foundational concepts that make up the Scrum Framework. Lessons

• 2.1. Scrum Roles
  • 2.1.1. Product Owner
  • 2.1.2. Scrum Master
  • 2.1.3. Developers
  • 2.1.4. Non-Core Roles
• 2.2. Scrum Events (Ceremonies)
  • 2.2.1. Timeboxing
  • 2.2.2. Sprints (“container”)
    • 2.2.2.1. Sprint Planning
    • 2.2.2.2. Sprint Execution
    • 2.2.2.3. Daily Scrum
    • 2.2.2.4. Sprint Review
    • 2.2.2.5. Sprint Retrospective
• 2.3. Scrum Artifacts
  • 2.3.1. Product Backlog / Product Goal
  • 2.3.2. Sprint Backlog / Sprint Goal
  • 2.3.3. Product Increment / Definition of Done
  • 2.3.4. Others.

Exercise: Complete a quiz as a class on the Scrum concepts.

This more in-depth set of questions will begin to help us understand the concepts of Scrum in greater detail.

Lesson 3: Agile Principles

Scrum is one of many frameworks for “doing Agile”, and is the most popular. In this lesson, we will expand into the broader concepts of Agile including Prioritization, Estimating, Decomposition, Velocity & Capacity, Technical Debt & Risk. Lessons

• 3.1. Basic Concepts
• 3.2. Prioritization & Voting
• 3.3. Communications
• 3.4. User Stories & Points
  • 3.4.1. I-N-V-E-S-T in Stories
  • 3.4.2. Epics
  • 3.4.3. Personas
• 3.5. Velocity & Capacity
  • 3.5.1. Estimating
  • 3.5.2. Velocity
  • 3.5.3. Capacity
• 3.6. Technical Debt
• 3.7. Managing Risk

Exercise: Complete a quiz as a class on the Agile concepts. This in-depth set of questions will begin to help us understand the concepts of Agile in greater detail.

Exercise: Select a “Mock Project”, and review the Project Vision, Project Planning Process, and Product Backlog Items. Select the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Dev. Team members. This will be a fast-paced simulation of kicking off a new product within a Scrum framework.

Lesson 4: Planning & Scaling

Scrum exists within a larger context of Portfolio, Product & Release planning. In this lesson, we cover how these concepts are layered around the core concepts of Scrum.

Basic Scrum imposes a limit of 9 Developers on the Scrum Team. How are we to manage Scrum if we have 20, 30, 50 or more team members? This lesson will cover how to “scale” (expand) Scrum using techniques such as the Scrum-of-Scrums, and the Scrum Nexus (Schwaber, 2018). Lessons

• 4.1. Levels of Planning
  • 4.1.1. Multilevel Planning
  • 4.1.2. Portfolio Planning
  • 4.1.3. Product Planning
  • 4.1.4. Release Planning
  • 4.1.5. Sprint Planning
  • 4.1.6. Daily Planning
• 4.2. Scaling Scrum
  • 4.2.1. Multiple-Team Coordination
  • 4.2.2. Scrum of Scrums
  • 4.2.3. Scaling with Nexus

Exercise: Understand Customer Expectations, & Iterative Sprinting

This exercise will expose the class to what it’s like to truly understand our customers’ expectations, and to deliver value & functional product in a fast-paced, time-boxed Scrum environment.

During this first portion of the exercise, we’ll work with a fictional customer and product, to understand their needs, and continually adapt to what constitutes “value” for them. The class will do multiple simulations of Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.

Lesson 5: Review

We will review all the concepts covered in the course, with the time allotted for trying our hand at more review questions. Finally, we will take the Scrum.org Open Assessment (the same quiz we did on day 1) to benchmark our enhanced knowledge of the Scrum framework.

Lessons

• 5.1. Concepts
• 5.2. Open Assessment