In this Specialization, you'll gain an understanding and appreciation of the principles and practice of agile management. You'll learn to coordinate all aspects of the agile development process, including running design sprints, managing teams, and fostering a culture of experimentation. In the final Capstone Project, you'll apply what you've learned to guide a real-world software development project to successful completion.
UVA Darden
Agile Development Specialization
Drive to Value with Agile Methods . Master an adaptive approach to product development
Offered By
About this Specialization
What you will learn
How to determine what's valuable to a user early by focusing your team on testable narratives and creating a strong shared perspective
How to plan and run situation-appropriate design sprints to avoid waste and deliver value sooner
The day-to-day jobs of running a software development program and how leading agile methodologies (Scrum, XP, kanban) can help you do them better
How to integrate the practice of experimentation across concept/feature testing, usability testing, and testing the software itself
Skills you will gain
Product DevelopmentPersona (User Experience)Agile ManagementAgile TestingDesign Sprint
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.
Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.
There are 5 Courses in this Specialization
Course1
Agile Meets Design Thinking
4.7
1,011 ratings
Despite everyone's good intentions, hard work and solid ideas, too many projects end up creating unneeded, unusable, and unsellable products. But it doesn't have to be this way. Agile and design thinking offer a different--and effective--approach to product development, one that results in valuable solutions to meaningful problems. In this course, you’ll learn how to determine what's valuable to a user early in the process--to frontload value--by focusing your team on testable narratives about the user and creating a strong shared perspective.
We’ll show you how to:
- Explain key concepts and practices from the agile product development methodology
- Create a strong shared perspective and drive to value using personas and problem scenarios
- Diagnose what software to develop and why using a set of agile user stories and prototypes
- Facilitate narrative collaboration with user stories and prototypes
- Allow for early testing and validation by analyzing and deciding on story backlogs
As a Project Management Institute (PMI®) Registered Education Provider, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business has been approved by PMI to issue 25 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.
Course2
Running Product Design Sprints
4.6
442 ratings
Typically, clients and managers don't want to pay for design (or strategy) -- they want ‘results’! Too often, this leads to solutions that just don’t make sense and aren’t valuable to anyone.
Design sprints allow you to meet client's desire for quick, specific outcomes while making time to do things right. In this course, you’ll learn how to plan and run situation-appropriate sprints to avoid waste and deliver value sooner.
We'll show you how to:
- Plan, sell, and conduct design sprints that deliver valuable, actionable insights
- Go out and learn who your customer really is and what’s important to them
- Test your value propositions before you invest in building solutions
- Test your user interface design to make sure it’s really usable
- Focus and drive to actionable conclusions on questions of approach and architecture
As a Project Management Institute (PMI®) Registered Education Provider, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business has been approved by PMI to issue 25 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.
Course3
Managing an Agile Team
4.7
414 ratings
Traditional development processes often lead to team frustration and poor results. Agile offers a different approach to managing the complexity of software development. This course focuses on the day-to-day jobs of running a software development program and how leading agile methodologies (Scrum, XP, kanban) can help you do them better.
From transitioning a team to agile to running sprints to managing stakeholders, this course gives you the skills you need to manage an agile team in your specific operating environment.
We'll show you how to:
- Think through and focus on the most important aspects of your projects and sprints
- Facilitate your team’s initial and ongoing adoption of the specific agile practices that work for you
- Anchor your outcomes and success criteria in durable ideas about what makes for valuable products
- Support your team's transition from traditional approaches to agile
- Create an agile-friendly environment across functional disciplines
- Identify and manage outside stakeholder needs
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.
Course4
Testing with Agile
4.5
256 ratings
To deliver agile outcomes, you have to do more than implement an agile process; you have to create a culture of experimentation. It's this commitment to experimenting that's at the heart of a high-functioning practice of agile. This course shows you how to integrate the practice of experimentation across concept/feature testing, usability testing, and testing the software itself.
Basically, you’ll learn how to answer these four big questions with experiments:
1. Should we build it?
2. Did it matter?
3. Is it usable?
4. Did it break?
More specifically, after completing this course, you’ll be able to:
- Identify where and how to invest your team’s scarce time and energy into better testing for maximum impact on outcomes
- Coach your team on the relationship between idea, usability, and software testing to get the buy-in you need for strong
interdisciplinary collaboration
- Test ideas before you build them to avoid waste and help your team focus on what will really drive outcomes
- Test alternative interface patterns before you build them to maximize both product usability and purposeful
implementation
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.
Instructor
Alex Cowan
Faculty & Batten FellowDarden School of Business
About 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the refund policy?
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Is financial aid available?
Can I take the course for free?
Is this course really 100% online? Do I need to attend any classes in person?
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
This Specialization doesn't carry university credit, but some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
Time to completion can vary based on your schedule, but most learners are able to complete the Specialization in about 6 months.
How often is each course in the Specialization offered?
Each course in the Specialization is offered on demand, with cohorts opening each month. If you don't complete a course on the first try, you can easily transfer to the next session, and your completed work and grades will carry over. The Capstone is offered a few times per year.
What background knowledge is necessary?
While no specific background knowledge is needed, learners might find it helpful to have a basic understanding of product development practices.
Do I need to take the courses in a specific order?
We suggest you take the courses in the order presented to get maximum benefit from the materials.
What will I be able to do upon completing the Specialization?
At the end of the specialization, you’ll be able to:
-Explain how key agile methods fit into best current practices across software engineering, general business, and product design; and how those matter for your particular project
-Apply product design best practices to your project through user stories, prototypes, and narrative collaboration
-Plan and run a design sprint that avoids waste and defines valuable outcomes
-Introduce agile practices to your team & customers on an incremental, success basis
-Integrate your activities across development, QA, and operations
-Conduct phase-appropriate usability testing
If I finish the Specialization, will it help me gain admission to Darden's MBA programs?
Admission to Darden is highly competitive and based on a number of requirements, including undergraduate record and degree, GMAT scores, and work experience. Successful completion of the Specialization is in no way a guarantee of admission.
Are there required readings?
Our video lectures are designed to be self-contained; therefore, we suggest but do not require readings. The suggested readings have been selected to enhance the course experience; however, not all of the intellectual property owners of these materials make them freely available on the internet. While we strive to find sources of additional materials which are freely available, sometimes the best additional materials we would like to alert students to (books, magazine articles, journal articles or newspaper articles) are only available from their respective copyright owners for compensation. Rather than not alert the students to these materials, we have decided to list them and let students make their own decision on whether they would like to invest the money to view these materials.
Can I download materials to share with my colleagues?
All course materials are for your personal use while participating in this course. You are not allowed to share or distribute them in any form; however, they are available for licensing. If you’re interested, please contact DardenOnline@darden.virginia.edu.
Can I earn Product Management Institute (PMI) professional development units (PDUs)?
You may earn PMI PDUs and Contact Hours for completing each course in the specialization.
To get Project Management Institute (PMI) professional development units (PDUs) and submit Contact Hours, log in to PMI to access your account and submit a report.
-- Follow the tips on this page, clicking through to the "Report PDUs for Courses and Training for specific steps on how to submit to PMI: http://www.pmi.org/help/ccrs_user/default.htm
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.
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