4.7
stars
1,244 ratings

Alex Cowan

57,655 already enrolled

Offered By

University of Virginia

About this Course

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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.

Flexible deadlines

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Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

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Approx. 11 hours to complete

English

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What you will learn

How to select and test agile practices to adaptively improve your team’s practice of agile
How to create an agile team charter that aligns your team’s focus with company strategy while leaving it free to work creatively
How to facilitate retrospectives with your team to iteratively, collaboratively improve your practice of agile
How to support your team’s transition to agile

Skills you will gain

agile product management
Agile Software Development
backlog management
Kanban
XP

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Approx. 11 hours to complete

English

Could your company benefit from training employees on in-demand skills?

Try Coursera for Business

Instructor

Instructor rating

4.67/5 (203 Ratings)

Alex Cowan

Faculty & Batten Fellow

Darden School of Business

419,105 Learners

20 Courses

Offered by

University of Virginia

A premier institution of higher education, The University of Virginia offers outstanding academics, world-class faculty, and an inspiring, supportive environment. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University is guided by his vision of discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of students from all walks of life. Through these courses, global learners have an opportunity to study with renowned scholars and thought leaders.

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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating94%(3,684 ratings)

Week

Week 1

3 hours to complete

The Agile Team

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.

3 hours to complete

22 videos (Total 107 min), 2 readings, 1 quiz

22 videos

About the Agile Specialization4m

Drive to Value with Agile Methods2m

Managing with Agile6m

The Business of Software5m

The Job of Software Development5m

David Bland on Agile & Lean Startup5m

Agile at Spotify: Part 16m

Agile at Spotify: Part 25m

Facilitating Alignment5m

The Business Model Canvas - Proposition Design & Revenue Drivers3m

The Business Model Canvas - Customer Experience6m

The Business Model Canvas - Business Model Type & Cost Drivers6m

Achieving Alignment1m

Introducing the Corporate Innovation Canvas2m

Using the Google Slides Templates1m

Your Agile Team Charter2m

Scrum Fundamentals: Roles3m

Scrum Fundamentals: Phases7m

Scrum Fundamentals: Burndown3m

XP Fundamentals: Learning and Deciding4m

XP Fundamentals: Building and Managing7m

Kanban Fundamentals7m

2 readings

Course Overview & Requirements10m

Make Discussion Forums Work for You10m

1 practice exercise

Week 1 Quiz: The Agile Team15m

Week

Week 2

2 hours to complete

Learning and Deciding

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.

2 hours to complete

20 videos (Total 117 min)

20 videos

Your ATM: The Learning Machine5m

Good Inputs7m

Good Collaboration5m

David Chait on Learning What’s Valuable6m

Agile Methodologies and the Job of Learning4m

Skit: Grooming the Story Map4m

The Limits of Good Inputs5m

Bill Wake on Acceptance Testing11m

Valuable Decisions4m

Slicing the Lasagna6m

Managing Work in Progress: Part 15m

Managing Work in Progress: Part 27m

The Quagmire of Estimation, the Power of Flow8m

Demo: Using Trello for Agile2m

Bill Wake on Estimates and Prioritization3m

Greg Cohen on User Stories10m

Bill Wake on Burndown2m

Greg Cohen on Prioritization4m

Agile Methodologies and the Job of Deciding6m

Skit: Iteration Planning4m

1 practice exercise

Week 2 Quiz: Learning and Deciding15m

Week

Week 3

2 hours to complete

Building and Managing

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.

2 hours to complete

19 videos (Total 113 min)

19 videos

Building Software with Agile4m

XP on Writing Software: Part 19m

XP on Writing Software: Part 23m

Bill Wake on YAGNI6m

Bill Wake on Integrated QA3m

The Agile Manager6m

Creating an Agile-Friendly Environment6m

Skit: A Developer at Work3m

Bill Wake on Self-Organization3m

Bill Wake on Support Escalations4m

International and Distributed Teams9m

Skit: Retrospective #64m

Agile Teams Meet Waterfall Processes10m

Greg Cohen on Software Development10m

Agile Product Teams Meet Big Customer5m

Working with Big Customers: Keeping the Initiative5m

Working with Big Customers: Accommodating Customer Variations6m

Skit: Big Meeting with Marla2m

David Chait on Using Data with Clients7m

1 practice exercise

Week 3 Quiz: Building and Managing15m

Week

Week 4

4 hours to complete

Practicing Agile

4 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 35 min)

Reviews

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TOP REVIEWS FROM MANAGING AN AGILE TEAM

by SFSep 22, 2019

Excellent material & experiences shared throughout the course. highly recommended for people planning to transition from traditional methodologies to agile methodologies.

by DBJul 31, 2017

This is an interesting course that provides critical information regarding collaboration with key stakeholders outside the scrum team. I use lessons learned in the course daily.

by AAMay 3, 2017

I did a couple of other courses on other websites about the same subject and they really pale in comparison. Very Informative and I feel like I am ready for the next step.

by ISOct 4, 2020

It was my first time doing a course on Coursera and I have fully enjoyed it! I really like the structure and the last assignment we had was precious! Thanks a lot!!!

View all reviews

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Managing an Agile Team

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