Agile Constraints Assessment Workshop

You know something is keeping your agile organization from successfully reaching its maximum potential, but you don’t know how to figure out what that thing is. Treating the symptoms seems to be adding a lot of band-aids to your process and they don’t seem to work anyway. When you try to change many things at once it wastes energy and distracts your people.

Imagine what a difference it would make if you could find the one constraint which is holding your organization back. What if you could focus your energy in the one place which would make the most difference? You can! Our Constraints Assessment Workshop does just that. The workshop is based on The Thinking Process promoted by renowned Theory of Constraints expert Eli Goldratt.

8 Weeks to Agile Success

This program includes an assessment, training and coaching put together in a single package. The basic package consists of a 1-day assessment, 2-day Agile For Teams training course and coaching through a release planning session and three iterations (iteration planning meetings, demos and retrospectives). Coaching generally totals 4-7 days over the course of 6 weeks (3 iterations).

Agile Startup

This 2.5-day course is our most popular. It is designed for complete product creation teams to take the course together. The discussions, small and large group exercises are all designed to foster team collaboration and communication. Attendees leave the course knowing the whys and hows of agile as well as how they are all supposed to work together as a cohesive team. When done as an on-site course it is possible to use actual project requirements during some of the planning exercises.

Agile Project Manager Boot Camp

A 3-day immersion into the world of the Agile Project Manager or Scrum Master. Attendees not only get an in depth understanding of the role, they get practice performing their duties during the course. The course contains many practical exercises that build on the knowledge learned each day. The course is designed for beginning and intermediate level Agile Project Managers. At the conclusion of the course each attendee will understand how agile works and the principles that drive it. In addition, each attendee will know the specific responsibilities of the Agile Project Manager and how to perform them. Specific problem solving skills as well as the most frequently encountered problems are also covered.

Agile Product Management Boot Camp

A 2-day immersion into the world of the Agile Product Manager (sometimes called Product Champion or Product Owner). This course is designed to give participants an in-depth understanding of their role and its responsibilities. The course is designed for the beginning to intermediate level Agile Product Manager. Attendees learn about the importance of prioritization and various methods for prioritizing product backlogs. They also learn the basics of how agile works and the responsibilities of their role through a series of exercises immersing them in a simulated agile project utilizing various skills and techniques they have been taught during the course.

Agile for Testers

A 2-day course specifically for testers and other QA personnel. The course teaches agile from the viewpoint of a tester. Specific course emphasis is placed on how organizations typically handle testing during agile projects. Specific types of testing that work well in agile environments are not only described but used in several exercises.

Agile for Developers

A 1 or 2 day course depending on whether introductory agile training is included. The 1-day version and the 2nd day of the 2-day version are on the topic of agile estimation and planning. Various techniques for sizing work are explored. The course concentrates on an easy to implement work breakdown structure that helps eliminate waste in the process. Attendees use the work breakdown structure as a model while doing various sizing and estimation exercises. At the end of the course participants will understand how to do estimating and planning in an agile environment without generating waste.

Test-Driven Development

A 3-day course for developers, providing hands-on experience with the techniques of Test-Driven Development (TDD), now also known as Behavior-Driven Development (BDD). Attendees learn the techniques of test-first, refactoring, mock objects, and others. They learn how these techniques provide and maintain a very low defect-count, plus why TDD helps developers work fearlessly, swiftly, and comfortably on new features and bug-fixes. They will also learn how to work on legacy code: Building test-coverage for critical areas, and protecting areas of the legacy system that do not yet require any alteration.

Agile Software Development Essentials

Short iterations and ongoing customer involvement in an agile process means software needs to change frequently. This makes architecture and design even more important in agile software development. Without paying attention to how software is constructed, the agile process of iterative development can soon degrade code into a maintenance nightmare. To build software successfully the team must know which decisions have to be made up front and which ones can and should be deferred until later. This unique course covers the critical skills needed to build software that can easily change. The course addresses both architecture and quality software design that emerges over time.

Agile for Enterprises

A 2-day course specifically for managers within software development organizations consisting of multiple teams. This course extends team-based agility across multiple teams, multiple processes and multiple locations. The course covers the entire product development process from concept to deployment, not just the software development and testing phases. This course is only given as an on-site course for clients that have successfully completed an enterprise agile assessment (see the “OUR SERVICES” page).

Agile Business Analysis

A 2-day course designed for business analysts and others that deal with requirements. The course is based on the IIBA™ Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®). Using the generally accepted practices from the BABOK the course shows how each can be used in agile ways. At the conclusion of the course participants know how to do agile business analysis as well as how use of those techniques can also help in non-agile environments.

Agile Testing with Fit and FitNesse

A 2-day course for testers and developers.  The first day focuses on what testers can do to provide up-front, "test-first" acceptance tests, which also serve as readable, executable specifications.  The second day the team will implement and execute the tests using Ward Cunningham’s Framework for Integrated Tests (Fit) as a sample tool.  Developers will learn how to build Fit "fixtures" (in either Java or C#) which connect the tests to the system under test.  Assistance is available to help you choose the particular collaborative tool appropriate for your team (basic FIT, FitNesse, FitLibrary using FolderRunner, or FitLibrary using ZiBreve). Agile teams struggling with automated testing need to attend this course!

Agile Immersion Workshop

A 1-day workshop designed for people that are new to agile. During this workshop participants learn how agile works and put that knowledge to use creating a product using an agile process. Participants take turns playing various roles in the process so that every attendee gets a chance to experience agile from all the different perspectives. Each attendee leaves with not only head knowledge about agile, but a deeper understanding based on having experienced it.

Advanced Agility

A custom course (1-3 days) designed to help organizations in specific areas of improvement. An agile assessment (see the “OUR SERVICES” page) must be completed at least 2 weeks prior to holding this course. For this course, Agile For All works closely with the client to create an outline addressing areas of weakness in order to improve the overall agile process. Organizations should have used an agile process for at least one year prior to considering this course.