Becoming an Agile Project Manager Summary This course is designed for program managers and project managers and outlines the roles, responsibilities, activities and accountabilities of both in an Agile project. It addresses both the soft leadership methods and the technical skills that are required to run a successful Agile project. It also teaches how to lead an Agile project, its stakeholders and team members while reporting and communicating in a transparent way to all parties involved. Course Outline Audience: ü Project Managers ü Program Managers ü Others considering a leadership role on an Agile project Duration: Pre-Requisite: Learning Objectives: 3 days Agile Fundamentals ü Be able to discuss the differences between the leadership responsibilities on an Agile Project. (Program Management, Project Management, Iteration Management) ü Understand the leadership responsibilities through the various phases of an Agile project ü Learn the methods for Release planning and Iteration planning as well as the differences and relationships they have to each other ü Gain an understanding of how to structure different types of Agile teams ü Understand what measurements are effective for monitoring an Agile project ü Understand leadership techniques for agile projects and appreciate how they differ from traditional project leadership 2010, ThoughtWorks, Inc. Page 1
Day 1 Introduction Introduction of trainers and participants Instructors hopes Learning objectives Intended audience Course overview Exercise The Nature of the PM Role Project Challenges o Your goals as a project manager o What challenges have you faced as a project manager? o Challenging project scenarios o Agile s goals Project Leadership o Declaration of Interdependence o Leadership roles in Agile projects Project Manager and Iteration Manager roles o Internal vs external focus o Responsibility vs accountability o Vision o Planning o Delivery o Tracking/Transparency o Quality o Risk management o Milestones o Resource management o External group facilitation o Stakeholder management o Administration Exercise 2010, ThoughtWorks, Inc. Page 2
The Inception Phase Traditional approaches vs Agile Characteristics of an Agile inception Typical deliverables Planning for the inception Release planning Estimation risk Staffing models Smells Exercise Day 2 The Initiation Phase Identifying the activities Team charter Team space Other items to address o Narratives o Spikes o Communication plan o Onboarding team members o Environment and tool setup o Duration The Develop and Deploy Phase Context o What is Develop and Deploy? o Sample iteration o Glossary o Key concepts o Iteration and Release planning o Delivery responsibilities Iteration Planning o Capacity planning o Inputs o The basics o Output o Crossing iterations 2010, ThoughtWorks, Inc. Page 3
Story Wall Management o Work assignment using the story wall o Story walls and smells o Story wall patterns o Scenario 1 story wall pattern o Scenario 2 story wall pattern o Non business stories o Story wall beyond the iteration o When is a story done? Big Visible Charts o Information radiators o Burn up chart patterns o Technical debt o Other BVC options Day 3 Leadership & Teams Self organizing teams o The right people o What makes people self disciplined o More on self disciplined individuals o Social contract - what they are, why we need them, sample for a development team Servant Leadership o Situational Leadership o Leadership styles o Carrying water and moving boulders o Servant leadership is, is not o Impediment removal concepts o The 5 dysfunctions of a team compared to the traits of a high performing team o Crossing the improvement ravine o Ways to carry water and move boulders exercise 2010, ThoughtWorks, Inc. Page 4
Collective Wisdom o What is Collective Wisdom o Wise crowds need o Diversity of opinion o Member independence o Decentralization Agile practices o Agile approaches to aggregation o The disappearing cloud technique Structuring Agile Teams A single agile team o Recap of roles & responsibilities o Agile for small projects o When does a team get too large? o Scaling productivity o Resourcing o Co-located teams A program of work o Why multiple project teams? o The balance between structure and adaptability o Structure levels for large or distributed projects o How many teams is too many? o Team structuring o Managing a program o Agile program practices o Managing dependencies o Cross team communication o Tools Distributed agile project management o Team rotation o Team velocity o Dependencies o Co-location for planning 2010, ThoughtWorks, Inc. Page 5
Measuring Agile Teams More big visible charts o Burn ups o Be careful what you measure - some measures may have unintended results o Combining metrics vs. individual metrics o The concept of Cycle time o Measuring the transparent and visible o Effective use of timesheets 2010, ThoughtWorks, Inc. Page 6