Intro to Agile (1 day Bootcamp)

In addition to defining Agile principles, we will cover the advantages and disadvantages of Agile development. Understand and learn how to take advantage of the opportunities for Agile. Finally gain an understanding of the collaboration and communication needed between customer and developers for Agile to succeed.

This information packed course will expose you to an array of ideas, techniques, tools and practices that you can incorporate immediately — all offered to help you successfully integrate Agile development techniques into your SDLC.

Appreciate the history of Agile and how the collection of principles and practices came together to enable customer success
Examine Agile methods, including: Scrum, Extreme Programming, Lean Software Development and Kanban
Sample best practices from the various methodologies that will contribute to your team success
Talk the talk: learning the Agile terminology, roles and forums with their context
Walk through the processes that support Agile principles to enable the delivery of great products
Begin to map the transition of your existing team or enterprise-level processes, artifacts and forums to Agile
Discover the power of Agile teams through communication, collaboration and cadence
Lay the foundation upon which you can build a learning team and organization

I.Why Agile – What are the problems that Agile is addressing?

Software Development has historically been plagued by many problems including inadequate requirements that lead to products that customers aren’t happy with and sometimes can’t use. We will start the class by making the case for a shift to an Agile approach to solve the problems inherent in software development.

Exercise: As a class we will discuss the various problems that the class has experienced in their own projects so that we can then understand how Agile will help them address these problems. The class will understand from this exercise that they are not alone with a set of problems that others don’t also experience.

II.The Agile Paradigm Shift – Software Development is Complex

The problems of software development are frequently the result of treating it like it is a manufacturing process designed to replicate the same outcomes on each pass through the process. We will learn how software development is a complex endeavor more like driving on a freeway with high variation of experience each time we do it. We will discuss the importance of building feedback loops into the process to accommodate variation.

III.The Agile Foundation – The Agile Manifesto and Principles

The word Agile was adopted in 2001 to describe approaches that had evolved over the previous decade to address the problems of software development. In 2001 several experienced software development practitioners came together and through collaboration, formalized these practices under the auspices of Agile. We will understand the Agile Manifesto and Principles that resulted from this collaboration.

IV.Agile Methodologies – What’s trending?

In this section we will review the Agile methodologies that are trending. We will visit first Lean which is foundational and influences all other Agile methodologies. Then we will do a overview of Scrum. Scrum is the most popular Agile methodology and is great for projects. Scrum or Scrum variants are being used by about 75% of those doing Agile, but Scrum is not the only Agile approach. We’ll then see how Kanban might be a better answer for operations and sustainment work. We will then review the Extreme Programming practices that can be used mixed into other Agile approaches to help us rapidly accommodate change.

V.Building the Agile Team

Traditional software development focuses on results needed from a project. Agile focuses on creating a team that can deliver results over and over. In this section we will discuss what makes a high-performing team and how to build that team. The section will also cover the team roles associated with an Agile approach.

Exercise: The class will discuss great teams that they have experienced and identify what made those teams great. The class will then discuss how to design a kick-off that will send a team off towards becoming a high-performing team.

VI.Inspect and Adapt – Continuous Improvement

The power of Agile comes from the fact that continuous improvement is built into the Agile system. In this section we will review how People, Product and Process improve themselves through a frequent inspect and adapt process. We will discuss the main Agile ceremonies that help us accomplish this: Iteration Review/Demo and the Retrospective.

VII.Agile Adoption – Insuring the Success of your Adoption Efforts

Agile Adoption can be accomplished with different approaches and at different speeds. In this section we will review the best practices of Organizational Change Management as it applies to an Agile adoption and consider the primary reasons for adoption failure. We will wrap the course up and end with a discussion on where do you go from here.

Intro to Scrum (1 day Bootcamp)

This Introduction to Scrum training course will lay the foundation for understanding and building successful agile teams using the Scrum Framework. In this powerful two-day course, you'll grasp the concepts, principles and methods of the Scrum framework and become empowered to execute on your plans for incorporating Scrum practices and techniques into your organization.

Appreciate the history of Agile and how the collection of principles and practices came together to enable customer success.
Gain an understanding of the Agile framework and the methodologies under the Agile "umbrella" including: Scrum, Extreme Programming, AgileUP, Feature Driven Development, Lean Development and DSDM.
Understand the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum team.
Talk the talk: learning the Scrum terminology, ceremonies, and cadences.
Walk through the processes that support the Scrum principles to enable the delivery of great products.
Begin to map the transition of your existing team or enterprise-level processes, artifacts and forums to Agile.
Discover the power of Scrum through communication, collaboration and cadence.
Uncover the pitfalls that teams will encounter in an Agile transition and understand how to overcome those challenges.
Lay the foundation upon which you can build an agile environment and organization.
Understand Agile planning at all levels of execution from product vision down to daily development of features.

1. Introduction

2. The Case for Change

What is Agile
Why Agile?

3. Agile Framework

Agile Manifesto
Agile Principles
Common Agile Methodologies

4. Scrum Teams

What is a Scrum Team
Characteristics of a Scrum Team
Supporting a Scrum Team

Exercise: Teams will go through an interactive simulation where they iterate through working in team silos to create a product and then working as a cross-functional self-organizing team. Teams will conduct a retrospective after each iteration.

5. Scrum Practices Put to Work

What is Scrum?
Product Backlog
Sprint Planning
Running the Sprint
Sprint Review
Retrospective

Exercise: Participants will retrospect on Scrum Practices reviewed and recap what was learned as a group to ensure a solid understanding of the ceremonies, artifacts and roles

6. Implementing Best Practices

5 Levels of Planning
Writing User Stories
Relative Estimation and Story Points
Prioritization
Backlog Grooming

Exercise: Participants will run through an exercise as a team to gain a better understanding the concept of relative estimation, planning poker, and using the Fibonacci sequence for sizing everyday tasks as a team.

7. Agile Leadership

Learning Shu Ha Ri
Mental Model Adjustments for Agile

Intro to DevOps (1 day Bootcamp)

We’ll take a look at establishing a common definition of DevOps and understand why DevOps is so important. Through case studies, we’ll see that high performing organizations are using DevOps as a competitive advantage. Don’t be left behind! In addition, this class will teach the keys to fostering a culture for successful DevOps implementations, and give you a roadmap to get started. Finally, this class will help you understand the tools necessary to automate your processes for maximum efficiency. We’ll put all the pieces of the puzzle together for you.

Discover what DevOps is and is not
Learn how other organizations are using DevOps concepts to gain competitive advantage
Understand the tools that can help you automate processes
Learn tips and techniques for changing your culture to support DevOps
Understand why DevOps is important and why high-performing IT organizations are rushing to implement DevOps concepts
Review case studies to understand exactly how companies are achieving DevOps success
Learn how to optimize, rethink, and re-engineer your IT processes to deliver value to your customers faster than ever!
Take Agile to the next Level – end to end processes with all IT groups
Understand the metrics you should be focusing on
Get real-world examples that work

Introduction
1. The Goal of DevOps
Establish Goals and Current State
What Is DevOps?
1. Background and History
2. Symptoms and Problems in Today’s Environment
3. The IT Core Chronic Conflict
4. DevOps Roles
5. DevOps Defined
6. Core Concepts
Ball Point Game
Why Do DevOps?
1. Driving Factors
2. Amazon’s Process: A Case Study
3. State of DevOps Report
4. Manufacturing and DevOps
DevOps at Microsoft – a Case Study
1. Dark Launches
2. Feature Flags
3. Agile to DevOps
4. Branching
5. Teams
6. Live Site Culture
How Does DevOps Work
1. Continuous Integration
2. Continuous Deployment
3. Continuous Delivery
4. Continuous Testing
5. Continuous Monitoring
6. Automation
7. Kanban End-to-End
Penny Game
Culture and DevOps
1. People and Trust
2. Resilience
3. Engagement is Key
4. Change the Metrics!
5. Law of Motivation
6. Keys to Successful DevOps Culture
DISC Assessment
Tool Time
1. Build Automation
2. Test Automation
3. Deployment Automation
4. Environment Provisioning
5. Automated Feedback and Monitoring
DevOps Assessment
Summary and Next Steps