Learn the essentials of working as a ScrumMaster or Scrum team member in this course. While the Scrum Alliance provides a list of core concepts that must be covered in the class, each instructor creates his or her own material, allowing courses to differ based on the strengths, interests, and experiences of the instructor.

Course Description

Visibility. Inspect and Adapt. Iterative, incremental development. Teamwork.

This course will be taught by Stacia Broderick, CST, of AgileEvolution and Maria Thelin, Scrum Practitioner and Agile Coach Mentor for Jaybis Consulting. 

Come to our class to learn how Scrum helps teams and organizations do all of the above, and more. Even projects that have solid, well-defined project plans encounter some degree of change and waste. Shifting market conditions, budget cuts, staff restructuring, or any number of influences will disrupt the best plan while contributing to customer dissatisfaction and staff discouragement. Moreover, projects that begin with changing or unclear requirements make it difficult to even establish project expectations. Scrum provides an agile development framework that allows teams to deliver usable software periodically throughout the life of the project, absorbing change and new requirements as the project proceeds.

Beginning with the history of agile development and moving through the disciplines promoted by Scrum, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Scrum methodology while specifically reviewing the behaviors expected of a ScrumMaster.

After successfully completing this class participants will be registered with the Scrum Alliance as Certified Scrum Masters, and can claim 14 PDUs with the PMI.

Materials

Attendees will receive a copy of the presentation materials and a copy of Ken Schwaber's book "Agile Project Management With Scrum."

About the instructors

Stacia Broderick has worked as a project manager for 14 years, the last seven of which in software development. Realizing that the traditional approach was missing something, Broderick was fortunate enough to be cast in the role of ScrumMaster in 2003, and ever since has helped teams all over the world embrace the principles of and transition to agile. Stacia founded her company, AgileEvolution, Inc., based on the belief that agile practices present a humane, logical way for teams and companies to deliver products. She is a Certified ScrumTrainer and Practitioner, as well as a PMP, a mix that proves helpful when assisting organizations transitioning from traditonal to modern practices. Stacia co-authored "The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility" with Michele Sliger; it is available from Addison Wesley. 

Maria Thelin, of Jaybis Consulting, has been involved in software development for the past 11 years. Maria has been a developer, a systems architect, a project manager and even a CTO and brings a wealth of information and experiences from her many different perspectives. She has been influenced by agile practices since 2002, and enjoys mentoring organizations in the transition to value-driven project methods, including Lean, Scrum and XP. She is quite the athlete and participates in dozens of events every year including orienteering and cross-country skiing and also enjoys cooking and interior design.  

Exercises and case studies will be scattered throughout the two-day session. Time spent on each topic will vary depending on the composition of the class and their interest in particular areas.

• What is Scrum and Why Does it Work?

  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. We also will review the foundational concepts of Scrum.

  • How manufacturing has influenced software development
  • The origins of agile thinking
  • The Agile Manifesto
  • The complexity of projects
  • Theoretical vs. Empirical processes overview

  Implementing Scrum: The Basics.

  • Why change our current development methods?
  • Traditional Defined methods explored
  • Empirical Methods explored
  • The Agile Skeleton
  • Scrum roles explored
  • Defining "done"

Scrum Master: Role and Responsibilities

• Who is the ScrumMaster?
• Characteristics of a ScrumMaster candidate
• The ScrumMaster as a change agent
• Effective listening
• Scrum's success depends on common sense

 The Delivery Teams

Since the ScrumMaster is looking to protect the productivity of the team, we must investigate team behaviors so we can be prepared for the various behaviors exhibited by teams of different compositions. We'll also include small exercises to help participants understand how to handle difficult situations.

•  
  • Bruce Tuckman's team life cycle
  • Team ground rules
  • The impact of project switching
  • The Scrum of Scrums

• Scrum: Advanced topics and application

   

  • Scrum meetings
  • Planning in Scrum
  • Velocity
  • Agile estimating and Planning
  • Dispersed teams
  • Large projects under Scrum
  • Developing architecture under Scrum
  • Inter- and Intra-project dependencies
  • Scrum and XP

• Managing the Product Backlog.

   

  • The Product Backlog
  • Managing priorities
  • Fixed-date projects
  • Contracts

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This 2-day class is suitable for those practicing or looking to practice the art of the ScrumMaster, but is highly valuable for anyone involved in Scrum (Managers, Team Members, Product Managers, etc.).