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. As a Project Management Institute (PMI®) Registered Education Provider, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business has been approved by PMI to issue 20 professional development units (PDUs) for this course, which focuses on core competencies recognized by PMI. (Provider #2122) 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 course is part of the Agile Development Specialization
Managing an Agile Team
Offered By
- Program Managers
- Project Managers
- Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)
- Product Managers
- Business Analysts
What you will learn
Diagnose what’s important to your team, and pair it with relevant agile practices
Create an agile team charter that helps your team define its focus and success criteria
Facilitate retrospectives with your team to iteratively, collaboratively improve your practice of agile
Support your team’s transition to agile
Skills you will gain
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
The Agile Team
This week we’ll introduce the four major jobs of software development and help you think through where to focus on each of them for successful outcomes. Then we’ll step through the leading agile methodologies--Scrum, XP, and kanban. You’ll finish the week with a deeper understanding of how to pair your project’s most important facets with the best of what agile has to offer.
Learning and Deciding
One of the major promises of agile is to manage the complexities of software development for the best possible outcomes and working environments. Part and parcel of that is strong interdisciplinary collaboration paired with lightweight self-organizing management practices. This week, you’ll learn practical tactics from scrum and XP to promote faster learning and smarter decisions, and how you can use kanban to improve your workflow.
Building, Managing, and Introducing
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. We’ll close with ideas and case studies for introducing (or reintroducing) agile to your organization.
Planning an Iteration
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.
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Top reviews from Managing an Agile Team
I have learned new things about agile practices and it worth the time to take the course. Sometimes I had the impression that some subject are vague, but overall the course rised to the expectations
The course was challenging for me since I lacked the experience of working in an IT/Software Development, but I thought all the practical exercises forced me to develop some practical skills.
Instructor
Alex Cowan
Faculty & Batten FellowAbout University of Virginia
About the Agile Development Specialization
Frequently Asked Questions
When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Once you enroll for a Certificate, you’ll have access to all videos, quizzes, and programming assignments (if applicable). Peer review assignments can only be submitted and reviewed once your session has begun. If you choose to explore the course without purchasing, you may not be able to access certain assignments.
What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
What is the refund policy?
Is financial aid available?
How do I get PMI PDUs for this course?
To get Project Management Institute (PMI) professional development units (PDUs), log in to PMI to access your account and submit a report.
-- Check out the general tips in this article: http://www.pmi.org/help/ccrs_user/default.htm
-- Follow the steps in this article: http://www.pmi.org/help/ccrs_user/default.htm
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