This class is taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer but is not a certification course.

Agile Estimating and Planning

Planning is important for all projects, even agile ones. Unfortunately, we've all seen so many worthless plans that we'd like to throw planning out altogether. But let's not give up yet. It is possible to create a project plan that looks forward six to nine months yet is accurate and useful. This one-day course will give you insight as to some common reasons traditional planning methodologies fail and introduce you to some practices that really do work.

Too many teams view planning as something to be avoided and too many organizations view plans as something to hold against their development teams. In this workshop, you will learn how to break that cycle by acquiring new skills that will help you to create reliable plans for improved decision-making. You will leave with a solid understanding of and experience in agile release planning and iteration planning. We will learn various approaches to estimating, including unit-less points and ideal time. You'll discover four techniques for deriving estimates, including the popular Planning Poker technique. Together, we'll explore planning techniques that dramatically increase a project's chances of on-time completion.

Particpants Will Learn:

• The importance of estimating size and deriving duration
• The differences between story points and ideal time
• The advantages of an abstract measure of size
• Techniques for estimating
• When and how to re-estimate
• How and when to perform release and iteration planning
• Tips for communicating about estimates and plans

Course Materials

Participants will receive printed and bound materials at the start of class.

Guarantee

We are so confident that you will benefit from our training that we offer a 100% money back guarantee. If you aren’t satisfied with the training you received, contact us within thirty days to receive a full refund of the registration fee, no questions asked.

Combine This Class with Other Training

This class will be preceded by a Certified ScrumMaster class and an Effective User Stories class in the same location. You can attend these classes separately or together.

What You Get

• High quality training from an industry expert
• A continental breakfast buffet, a hot lunch buffet, an afternoon snack, and continuously replenished drinks
• A printed and bound copy of the course materials
• Planning Poker® cards for use in estimating with your team

Onsite

Don’t see a date and location you like? Want to train a team or department without the hassle of travel? This agile course is available for onsite delivery. Contact Mike Cohn at (720) 890-6110 or by e-mail at mike@mountaingoatsoftware.com.

Brochure

Download a PDF brochure with additional information.

Refund Policy

A full refund will be provided if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different event no later than five business days prior to the start of the class. If you cancel or transfer within five business days you will be charged $150 per class.

Professional Development Units (PDUs)

PMPs: You can receive 7.5 PDUs for this course. 

• The Purpose of Planning
• Estimation Units
  • Desirable attributes
    
  • Estimate size, derive duration
  • Estimating in story points
  • Estimating in ideal time
  • Debating the merits
• Techniques for Estimating
  • Triangulation
  • Effort vs. accuracy
  • Planning poker
• Re-estimating
  • Three re-estimation scenarios
• Sprint Planning
  • Velocity-driven
  • Commitment-driven
• Release Planning
  • How to estimate velocity
  • Velocity as a range
  • Predicting project completion
  • Rolling lookahead planning
  • Fixed-date projects
  • Fixed-scope projects
  • Fixed-everything projects
• Twelve Final Guidelines

Whatever your role, if you are involved in estimating or planning a project, you will find this course beneficial. Participants will return to their jobs with specific recommendations and actions they can perform to improve their current plans and projects.