Synopsis

Delve deeper into Agile estimating and planning at the Release and Program Management levels. This course is designed to give students a more complete and in-depth understanding of Agile project planning and estimating topics that are commonly a source of struggle and frustration within project teams.

Specifically, this course addresses what constitutes "just enough" when it comes to upfront requirements, upfront sizing and design, and planning. By incorporating real-world examples and approaches into the curriculum students are able to think practically about these issues.

Participants will learn the six levels of planning which include: Strategic, Portfolio, Roadmap, Release, Iteration, and Daily.

To take this course you should have basic Agile knowledge and experience, this is not a beginner level course.

Learn

• Address challenges with traditional planning and estimating
• Define what Agile is and why it is used
• Implement Agile estimating and planning principles
• Implement the six levels of planning
• Use the Agile Lifecycle Diagram and know what happens when
• Write stories and break down EPICs
• Implement Agile sizing methods and know when to use what
• Implement Affinity Sizing, Poker Planning, Complexity Buckets, and Ideal days
• Explain velocity and capacity and estimate initial velocity
• Implement planning and release
• Plan for fixed date and fixed scope
• Implement multi-team program release planning
• Use EPIC sizing buckets and re-estimation and calibration
• Implement distributed teams release planning
• Describe Agile metrics- what is measured

This course uses digital materials.

Topics

• Agile Estimating and Planning

  Agile Estimating and Planning

  Organizing Tools

  About Me

  About YOU!

  Purpose of This Course

  Agenda

• The Problems with Planning and Estimating

  The Problems with Planning and Estimating

  Top Challenges with Planning & Estimation

  The Problem We’re Trying to Solve

  It’s No Wonder…

  Feature Usage

  Project Failure Rates

  Comparing Success Factors by Method

  Questionable strategies applied by IT project teams to stay “out of trouble”

  Why 37% of Projects Fail?

  Agile Planning

  Agenda

• Agile Planning and Estimating Principles

  Agile Planning and Estimating Principles

  The Agile Manifesto – 2001

  Agile Principles

  Agile Planning is Value Driven

  Agile Planning

  The Cone of Uncertainty

  Agile Estimation vs. Traditional

  Great Plans Should…

  PRECISION vs. ESTIMATE

  Agile Planning & Estimating Principles

  Accuracy Evolves with Data

  Providing a Range Estimate

  Who Should Estimate?

  Value- Based Decomposition

  6 Planning Levels

  The Agile Lifecycle

  Agenda

• Writing User Stories and Breaking Down EPICs

  Writing User Stories

  What is a Story?

  User Stories: Examples

  Example Backlog

  Sample Stories for Process Improvement

  Guidelines for User Stories

  Levels of Agile Requirements

  Sample Requirements Breakdown

  Non-User Stories

  Story Writing Workshops

  Sample Story Map

  Techniques for Slicing Stories

  VIDEO: Story Slicing Techniques

  Agenda

• Estimation and Sizing Methods

  Estimation and Sizing Methods

  Estimating

  The ‘Right Method’ for the ‘Right Time’

  Agile Estimation Techniques

  Affinity Estimating

  Methods for Deriving an Estimate

  Common Sizing Units

  Why Story Points?

  Story Points – Fibonacci Scale

  Planning Poker for Story Sizing

  The Complexity Bucket Method

  VIDEO: Story Sizing

  Workshop – Relative Sizing

  Agenda

• Understanding Velocity and Capacity

  Understanding Velocity

  What is Velocity?

  Velocity and Points

  Measuring Velocity

  Sample Point and Cost Burn Up Chart

  EVM-Value Cost Burn-up

  How Velocity Helps with Planning

  Estimating Initial Velocity

  Capacity Planning

  Iteration Capacity Map

  Comparing Team Velocities

  Factors Affecting Team Velocity

  How You Can Influence Velocity

  Agenda

• Building a Release Plan

  Building a Release Plan

  What is Release Planning?

  Release Planning Session

  Release Planning Sample Agenda

  Sample Iteration and Release Plan

  How Long Should My Iteration Be?

  Fixed Time…Fixed Scope

  Steps for Planning Fixed Scope

  Example – Planning for Fixed Scope

  Steps for Planning Fixed Date

  Planning for Additional Iterations

  Schedule Buffering Methods

  Example: Estimating release with Buffers

  Sample Release Planning Wall

  VIDEO: Release Planning

  Re-Estimation and Calibration

  Course Check-Point – Your Takeaways

  Agenda

• Multi-Team Program Planning

  Multi-team Program planning

  What is an Agile Program?

  Single Team Program

  Multi-team Program

  Top Challenges with Multi-team Planning

  Steps for Multi-Team Planning

  Building a Product Roadmap

  Roadmap Sample

  Multi-team Release Planning Session

  Tips for the Planning Session

  Multi-team Release Planning Sample Agenda