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There are 4 modules in this course
While agile has become the de facto standard for managing digital innovation teams, many wonder if they’re doing it ‘right’. Twitter is full of jokes about how teams say they do agile but don’t ‘really’ do it. The reality is that getting the most out of agile is less about observing specific procedures and more about how a team focuses and measures their progress.
Rather than just boring you with an accounting of agile methodologies, this course focuses on helping you better charter your team’s focus, definition of success, and practice of agile. While learning about agile mainstays like Scrum, XP, and kanban, you’ll also learn to help your team ask the right questions about how they’re working and facilitate good answers on how agile can help.
This course is supported by the Batten Institute at UVA’s Darden School of Business. The Batten Institute’s mission is to improve the world through entrepreneurship and innovation: www.batteninstitute.org.
This week we’ll introduce the four fundamental jobs of software development to help you define what’s important to your team and, hence, which of the many agile practices might make the most sense for you to try out. Then we’ll talk about achieving alignment with your company while maintaining autonomy through an agile team charter. We’ll close by stepping through the leading agile methodologies--Scrum, XP, and kanban. You’ll finish the week with an understanding of how to pair what’s important to your team with the best of what agile has to offer.
Unpacking the Jobs of Software Development •7 minutes
David Bland on Agile & Lean Startup•5 minutes
Agile at Spotify: Part 1•6 minutes
Agile at Spotify: Part 2•5 minutes
Facilitating Alignment•6 minutes
The Business Model Canvas - Proposition Design & Revenue Drivers•4 minutes
The Business Model Canvas - Customer Experience•6 minutes
The Business Model Canvas - Business Model Type & Cost Drivers•6 minutes
Achieving Alignment•1 minute
Introducing the Corporate Innovation Canvas•2 minutes
Using the Google Slides Templates•2 minutes
Your Agile Team Charter•3 minutes
Scrum Fundamentals: Roles•4 minutes
Scrum Fundamentals: Phases•8 minutes
Scrum Fundamentals: Burndown•4 minutes
XP Fundamentals: Learning and Deciding•4 minutes
XP Fundamentals: Building and Managing•8 minutes
Kanban Fundamentals•8 minutes
2 readings•Total 20 minutes
Course Overview & Requirements•10 minutes
Make Discussion Forums Work for You•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 15 minutes
Week 1 Quiz: The Agile Team•15 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Meet and Greet•10 minutes
Learning and Deciding
Module 2•3 hours to complete
Module details
One of the most critical focal points for any team is facilitating a focus on outcomes over output. Without this, you’ll never graduate from responding to requests about your to-do list of output to driving better user outcomes that move the needle for your company. This week, you’ll learn how to define and prioritize what’s important to your team in the areas of learning and deciding, and to pair those with relevant agile practices from Scrum, XP, and kanban.
What's included
22 videos1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Show info about module content
22 videos•Total 125 minutes
Your ATM: The Learning Machine•3 minutes
Learning Antipatterns•5 minutes
Good Inputs•6 minutes
Good Collaboration•5 minutes
David Chait on Learning What’s Valuable•6 minutes
Agile Methodologies and the Job of Learning•4 minutes
Skit: Grooming the Story Map•4 minutes
The Limits of Good Inputs•5 minutes
Bill Wake on Acceptance Testing•11 minutes
Valuable Decisions•6 minutes
Slicing the Lasagna•6 minutes
Managing Work in Progress: Part 1•5 minutes
Managing Work in Progress: Part 2•8 minutes
The Quagmire of Estimation, the Power of Flow•8 minutes
Prioritization & the PM•5 minutes
Demo: Using Trello for Agile•3 minutes
Bill Wake on Estimates and Prioritization•3 minutes
Greg Cohen on User Stories•11 minutes
Bill Wake on Burndown•2 minutes
Greg Cohen on Prioritization•4 minutes
Agile Methodologies and the Job of Deciding•6 minutes
Skit: Iteration Planning•5 minutes
1 assignment•Total 15 minutes
Week 2 Quiz: Learning and Deciding•15 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Slicing the lasagna?•10 minutes
Building and Managing
Module 3•3 hours to complete
Module details
This week we’ll dive into the jobs of building software and the core management jobs in running an agile team. Agile--and XP in particular--offers a rich body of work on specific coding practices. We’ll step through a few of the most prominent and discuss key linkages with the other concepts and practices you’ve learned. On the job of managing, we’ll dive deeper into what that means and what works in an agile context.
What's included
23 videos1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Show info about module content
23 videos•Total 129 minutes
Building Software with Agile•4 minutes
DevOps, AI, and the Jobs of Testing & Releasing•6 minutes
XP on Writing Software: Part 1•9 minutes
XP on Writing Software: Part 2•4 minutes
Bill Wake on YAGNI•7 minutes
Bill Wake on Integrated QA•4 minutes
Generative AI and the Job of Building•2 minutes
The Agile Manager•6 minutes
Creating an Agile-Friendly Environment•7 minutes
Skit: A Developer at Work•3 minutes
Bill Wake on Self-Organization•3 minutes
Bill Wake on Support Escalations•5 minutes
International and Distributed Teams•9 minutes
Skit: Retrospective #6•4 minutes
Agile Teams Meet Waterfall Processes•10 minutes
Greg Cohen on Software Development•10 minutes
Agile Product Teams Meet Big Customer•5 minutes
Working with Big Customers: Keeping the Initiative•5 minutes
Working with Big Customers: Accommodating Customer Variations•6 minutes
Roadmaps & Stakeholder Management•5 minutes
Managing to Outcomes•4 minutes
Skit: Big Meeting with Marla•3 minutes
David Chait on Using Data with Clients•8 minutes
1 assignment•Total 15 minutes
Week 3 Quiz: Building and Managing•15 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Siloed vs. interdisciplinary teams?•10 minutes
Practicing Agile
Module 4•4 hours to complete
Module details
Now that you’ve learned about the four jobs of software development, you’ll have a chance to think through how they relate to your work in this week’s peer-reviewed assignment. You’ll finish the course with a clear plan to accomplish the jobs of learning, deciding, building, and managing for your project.
What's included
6 videos1 peer review
Show info about module content
6 videos•Total 37 minutes
Getting Started•7 minutes
Yael Grushka-Cockayne on Transitioning from Traditional Project Management•8 minutes
Spotify: Scaling Agile•4 minutes
Salesforce: The Big Plunge•9 minutes
Yael Grushka-Cockayne on Project Managers and Agile•6 minutes
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Learner reviews
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4·
Reviewed on Aug 8, 2023
Greetings, I have enjoyed this course so much. it was easy to follow and full of rich information that was light to digest.Extremely grateful for the opportunity, Thank you.
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SF
5·
Reviewed on Sep 22, 2019
Excellent material & experiences shared throughout the course. highly recommended for people planning to transition from traditional methodologies to agile methodologies.
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VF
5·
Reviewed on Jan 17, 2021
Lots of good content and balance of expert interviews and examples from Spotify and Salesforce. One of my favorite courses in the Digital Product Management Specialization.
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