Agile Training

Exoftware is delighted to announce our series of highly recommended Agile and Lean courses whose content is being created, continously improved, and delivered by experienced, practicing Agile/Lean Coaches. We regularly use the principles and practices described in our courses in order to provide value and effect organisational transformation in numerous large, medium and small organisations (see our list of clients here).

Click here for our Agile Training Course Schedule

Some feedback from past participants:

• "[The instructor is] obviously deeply experienced"
• "Exercises were very powerful at illustrating concepts"
• "[I liked the] examples outside of [just] software development"
• "[The instructor has an] inclusive and curious approach that makes everybody feel like their contributing"

The courses listed below highlight our most popular choices. We regularly create customised content to deliver to individuals and groups (10's), teams (100's), dispersed programmes of teams (1000's), across divisions (10,000's) or across entire organisations (100,000's). To discuss your unique needs, please contact us.

Be Agile

Duration: 2 Days

Pre-Requisites: None

Who should attend?

Everyone - from software development to hardware, from finance to support. Anyone who wants to learn how to "Be Agile" in any kind of working environment

What is it?

A highly interactive introduction to what it means to "Be Agile". You will experience, hands-on, how to reap the benefits of working in an Agile manner including how to deliver work with the highest possible business value, quickly, with high quality, and in a way that re-ignites the enthusiasm and passion of everyone working on it.

Topics covered will be flexible (Agile) based on the needs of the attendees and will address such areas as:

• User stories
• Estimating/sizing
• Prioritization
• Iteration planning
• Retrospectives
• Stand ups/scrums
• Velocity
• Burn charts (burn up and burn down)
• Information radiators
• Backlogs
• Multi-level planning
• Customer involvement
• Show & tells
• The agile culture (manifesto, values, principles)
• The origin and history of agile
• Using agile in different (non software) situations
• Using agile in different timezones/geographic locations (not co-located) helping you to determine your next steps toward being agile

What will I learn?

Successfully completing this course will allow you to answer 'Yes' to these questions:

• Do I understand the differences between a traditional way of approaching work and an Agile way?
• Do I understand what Agile is trying to achieve (the high-level intentions behind Agile) and how to begin making that happen?
• Do I know how to focus on work that provides the highest possible business value and why I'd like to do that?
• Do I know how to create a working deliverable in any context and why I'd like to do that?
• Do I know how to "build quality in rather than test it in later" in any context and why I'd like to do that?
• Do I know how to check for success and fail small in any context and why I'd like to do that?
• Do I know how to use the power of reflection to create an effective working environment and why I'd like to do that?
• Do I know how to implement a number of Agile practices (techniques) as they were intended, even after I leave the course and no longer have an Agile-minded person to coach me?
• Do I know how to create or adapt Agile practices (techniques) if I can not find one that suits my unique context?
• Did I have fun?

Be an Agile Programmer

Duration 2 Days

Pre-Requisites: Be Agile Course

Who should attend?

People with responsibility for creating software applications such as Programmers, Software Developers, Web Developers

What is it?

A hands-on, deep look into the technical practices of Agile development such as

• Paired programming,
• Test driven development/design (tdd),
• Refactoring,
• Automated acceptance testing
• Emergent/incremental design.

What will I learn?

Successfully completing this course will allow you to answer 'Yes' to these questions:

• Have I experienced how to work in an Agile way when I do programming?
• Have I experienced and understand the value of reflection?
• Have I experienced and understand the value of continuous feedback?
• Do I know how to build quality in rather than test it in later in programming?
• Do I know how to stay focused on providing the highest possible business value in all of the work that I do?
• Do I know how to check for success and fail small in a programming environment?

Be an Agile Analyst

Duration 2 Days

Pre-Requisites: Be Agile Course

Who should attend?

People with responsibility for analysing the problem. These include Analysts, Business Analysts, Systems Analysts

What is it?

An engaging course that will prepare you to do analysis in an Agile way including the ability to identify and manage stakeholders, determine the relationship between business processes and Agile requirements (called user stories), prepare valuable user stories for the delivery work, and report against value delivered.

Topics covered will be flexible (Agile) based on the needs of the attendees and will address such areas as:

• User story writing
• Acceptance tests
• Business value
• Currencies
• Invest model
• Agile planning applied to analysis work
• Estimating/sizing techniques such as story points and ideal days
• Planning poker
• Splitting/merging user stories
• Facilitating user story writing workshops
• Release planning, multi-level planning
• Stakeholder list
• Value grid
• Information radiators
• Strategic alignment
• Agile process mapping
• Minimum marketable feature set (mmfs).

What will I learn?

Successfully completing this course will allow you to answer 'Yes' to these questions:

• Have I experienced and understand how to do analysis in an agile environment?
• Do I understand how to align agile deliveries with company strategy?
• Do I understand the role of the stakeholder?
• Have I experienced writing user stories with acceptance criteria?
• Have I experienced defining and prioritising project value?

Be an Agile Project Manager

Duration: 2 Days

Pre-Requisites: Be Agile Course

Who should attend?

People with responsibility for project steering and delivery such as Project Managers, Programme Managers, Development Managers

What is it?

An interactive and explorative course that delves into how to create, facilitate, and support an Agile way of working. You will be introduced to specific practices (techniques) that will ensure that everyone understands the plan; contributes to the highest possible business value work; produces high quality, working deliverables; and maintains their enthusiasm and passion throughout.

Topics covered will be flexible (Agile) based on the needs of the attendees and will address such areas as:

• Release planning
• Multi-level planning
• Holistic teams
• Scrum techniques including working with product backlogs and product owners,
• Project visioning
• Agile project tracking,
• Building information radiators,
• Facilitating retrospectives (heartbeat, release and project retros) facilitating planning sessions
• Stand-ups
• Story writing workshops using open space techniques
• Estimating/sizing techniques such as story points and ideal days
• Planning poker
• Agile project finances
• Agile contracts.

What will I learn?

Successfully completing this course will allow you to answer 'Yes' to these questions:

• Do I understand the difference between traditional project management and Agile project management?
• Do I know how to facilitate a working environment that increases the enthusiasm and passion of everyone involved?
• Do I know how to plan, track and manage my projects in a way that provides quality, working deliverables with the highest possible business value?
• Do I know how to reduce the risk of not delivering?
• Do I know how to organise the finances of a business plan in an Agile way and why I'd like to do that?
• Do I have insight into how I might plan, track and manage work that is being carried out by 10's, 100's or 1000's of people?
• Do I have insight into how to plan, track and manage in a technically complex working environment?

Contact us for more information on any our courses or to discuss your specific Agile training needs.