Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) ®

Course details

Agile is a general methodology applicable to project management and product development, and is increasingly used today as businesses and industries recognize the inherent value in this approach. The PMI-ACP® is a well respected credential in the agile community, and demonstrates your competence in carrying out project management using agile practices. The certification mandatorily requires a combination of agile training, experience working on agile projects and passing a rigorous examination on agile principles, practices, tools and techniques.

This Certificate will gives you multiple opportunities to learn how best to implement Agile practices appropriate for your teams, through an engaging blend of discussion, group interaction, case studies and real-world focused workshops. It also prepares candidates to sit for the rigorous PMI-ACP® examination. Candidates who have successfully obtained this certification can meet the needs of organizations by applying a diversity of methods to project management.

Target Audience

• Project Managers
• Project Planners
• Quality Assurance Staff
• Developers/Programmers
• Designers
• Testers
• Project Controllers
• Product Owners
• Scrum Masters
• Scrum Team Members

Anyone looking to demonstrate level of experience and knowledge of managing agile projects or wanting to further the understanding of how Agile is applied and practiced.

Program Objective

• Get an introduction to Agile principles and practices
• Learn how to mentor high-performance teams who deliver results
• Understand techniques for actively managing project scope and ensuring delivery of the best products possible
• Get familiar with new ways of managing project scope, schedule, budget and quality that are easily improved through effective Agile controls
• Learn to combine best methods from multiple Agile methodologies
• Use consistent cadence of “common sense” best practices in Agile
• Apply powerful metrics to ensure continuous improvement
• Learn about common pitfalls many teams fall into when adopting Agile practices
• Change “Command and Control” leadership style to the more powerful “Servant Leadership” method of management
• Respond to change quickly to seize competitive advantage
• Benefits of Agile and why Agile teams are significantly happier with their work

Outline

Overview of Agile Project Management:

• Agile Manifesto
• Popular Agile Methodologies
• Agile Principles and Practices
• Quick Overview of the Agile Practices using Scrum

Understanding the Key roles and Artifacts of Scrum:

• Scrum Master (Agile Project Manager)
• Product Owner
• Team Members
• Product Backlog
• Sprint Planning Meeting
• Sprint Backlog
• Tracking Board
• Sprint Demo
• Retrospectives

Understanding User Stories:

• The Anatomy of a User Story
• User Story Development Techniques
• Story Points
• Ideal Time
• Wide Band Delphi

The Sprint Planning Meeting:

• The Sprint Planning Meeting Time Box
• Feature Prioritization
• The Tracking Board
• Definition of Done
• Load Balancing

Sprinting:

• Self Organized teams
• Work Volunteering
• Daily Stand-up Meetings
• Burn Down Chart Updating
• Sprint Demo Meetings (Continuous improvement process)
• Velocity
• Sprint Retrospectives
• Scaling Scrum
• Co-located and Distributed Teams

Best Practices and Concepts:

• Agile Tooling
• Osmotic Communications for Co-Located and Distributed Teams
• WIP Limits
• Cumulative Flow Diagram
• Process Tailoring
• Affinity Estimating
• Product Road Map
• Story Maps
• Wire Frames
• Chartering
• Frequent Verification and Validation
• Test Driven Development / Test First Development
• Continuous Integration
• Project Charter for an Agile Project
• Participatory Decision Models
• Process Analysis Techniques
• Self-Assessment
• Value-based Assessment

Soft Skills:

• Negotiation
• Emotional Intelligence
• Collaboration
• Adaptive Leadership
• Conflict Resolution
• Servant Leadership
• Building High Performance Teams

Value Based Prioritization:

• Return on Investment (ROI)
• Net Present Value (NPV)
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Compliance
• Customer Valued Prioritization
• Minimally Marketable Feature (MMF)
• Relative Prioritization / Ranking
• Business Case Development

Agile Implementation:

• Agile Contracting Methods
• Agile Project Accounting Principles
• Applying New Agile Practices
• Compliance (Organization)
• Control Limits for Agile Projects
• Failure Modes and Alternatives
• Globalization, Culture and Team diversity
• Innovation Games
• Principles of Systems Thinking (Complex Adaptive Chaos)
• Regulatory Compliance
• Variance and Trend Analysis
• Vendor Management