We offer training on Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean Startup, User-Centred Design, coaching as well as estimation and forecasting.
2-day ICAgile Fundamentals (ICP) certified course
The starting point for all teams and organisations who want to take an agile approach, is to understand why such an approach is beneficial. This course explains why using an agile mindset is important, then explains how you might apply the mindset in a real-world situation. In effect, it explains why “being agile” is important, but also how to “do agile”.
This 2-day course is accredited by ICAgile. It is the foundation course for all other tracks in the ICAgile Agile Delivery learning roadmap and provides a solid foundation upon which further specialisation can be developed. For more information on the learning outcomes covered by this course, please see the ICAgile website or contact us.
Takeaways
- What the Agile Manifesto is (it’s values and principles) and why it matters
- What the difference is between agile and Scrum
- How iterative and incremental approaches can benefit projects
- How the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team work together in Scrum
- How to plan projects and track their progress (including product backlogs, sprint backlogs, prioritisation, sizing and estimation, and velocity)
- The importance of collaboration
- The review and improvement process (including sprint reviews and retrospectives)
- Simulations of sprints to demonstrate how the roles, events and artefacts of Scrum work in practice.
Target audience
This course is aimed at anyone who wants to know more about agile and Scrum.
Certification
This course requires attendance, knowledge acquisition and a hands-on demonstration from the learner that they can use an agile mindset and approach in practice by the end of the course.
Upon successful completion, learners will receive the ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP) certification.
Scrum Education Units (SEUs)
Learners may be eligible for Scrum Educational Units (SEUs) towards their CSP (Certified Scrum Professional). See Scrum Alliance for more details.
Pre-requisites
This is a bootcamp for beginners and those with some experience of Scrum. No prior knowledge is required.
2-day Agile & Scrum bootcamp
Scrum is used extensively, but not exclusively, in web and software development. Everyone from developers to business execs are now expected to know how to work using Scrum, but few are taught it and many struggle along with misinformed ideas. This bootcamp will cover the main principles and ideas underpinning agile and why using Scrum is the best way to run certain projects. Through games, hands-on practice and project simulations, you’ll be armed with the knowledge of how to use Scrum on a day-to-day basis.
Takeaways
- Why the Agile Manifesto relates to your preferred ways of working
- How iterative and incremental approaches can benefit projects
- The roles in Scrum
- How to plan projects and track their progress (including product backlogs, sprint backlogs, prioritisation, sizing and estimation, and velocity)
- The review and improvement process (including sprint reviews and retrospectives)
- Simulations of sprints to demonstrate how the roles, events and artefacts of Scrum work in practice.
Target audience
This bootcamp is aimed at anyone who wants to know more about agile and Scrum. Knowledge on how to use Scrum is particularly important to those involved in web development, software engineering and product delivery, but it isn’t limited to the tech industry.Testimonials
What people have said about this workshop: “Great instructors friendly and approachable. Loved the simulations and content” “An exceptional course. I’ve been to a few courses while I've been in London, across a wide variety of subjects, but this was by far the strongest. Thank you.” Dave G. “Good price-to-content ratio” “Really informative, easy to understand workshop” “Great course and a great pace with lots of recapping to embed the learning” “Nice and practical” "Very friendly & experienced instructors"Pre-requisites
This is a bootcamp for beginners and those with some experience of Scrum. No prior knowledge is required.1-day Kanban bootcamp
In the 1940s, Toyota developed a scheduling system to improve their manufacturing production. Aligning the supply of materials with the demand of the production line reduced the amount of inventory in the system, and enabled a flexibility never before seen in the automobile industry.
Over the years, teams dealing with knowledge work (e.g. software development) adapted many of these ‘lean’ ideas, such as limiting the amount of work in progress, to improve the flow of work through their system. This is known as the Kanban Method which is the focus of this bootcamp.
Takeaways
In this bootcamp, we’ll:- look at a brief history of the Toyota Production System (and lean in general) to understand how the Kanban Method came about
- explain the basics of systems thinking through a hands-on exercise, then use it to explain the concept of visualising work to improve communication
- break down the 6 principles of the Kanban Method
- clarify key terms used (e.g. cycle time, delivery rate, work-in-progress limits)
- explain what work-in-progress limits are, then illustrate how and why you should use them to create a pull system
- demonstrate ways of measuring flow to enable improvements in productivity and flow
- play a simple and fun Kanban simulation game to ensure a deep understanding of the above takeaways
- share examples of successful implementations of the approaches
Target audience
This bootcamp is for anyone who wants to improve their ways of working and increase their productivity, but is especially relevant to product owners, business analysts, developers, testers, and any users of Agile/Scrum. It is complementary to our 2-day bootcamp on Agile & Scrum.Pre-requisites
No prior knowledge is required. If you work in a Scrum team, we'd also recommend the Two-day Agile and Scrum Bootcamp.3-day Agile Team Coach (ICP-ACC)
Takeaways
Through this workshop, you will:- What an agile coach is and how this role plays out with your teams
- An introduction to neuroscience and why it’s important as coaches we understand how the brain reacts when we’re stressed
- Gain fundamental professional coaching skills and insights, like what powerful questions are and how to use them effectively and one of the important tools for team and personal growth – giving and receiving feedback
- How to create a psychologically safe environment for your teams by looking at how to set up the team environment and help the team to know themselves and create a shared culture and vision
- How to conduct the coaching conversation including techniques to improve the way you listen, brainstorm and help your client be effective with actions
- Why it’s important to design a coaching contract with your team and stakeholders
- How to coach and mentor through different kinds of change
- How to coach toward high-performance and gain effective skills in encouraging team collaboration and trust and how to resolve conflicts
Target audience
Execs, Managers, Team Leaders, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Iteration Managers, Agile Coaches, aspiring Coaches, Product OwnersPre-requisites
This an intermediate-level course for practitioners with at least 6 months of hands-on agile experience. You will build upon the experience you already have working with agile teams.A 3-day interactive ICAgile Certified Agile coaching course trained through Adventures With Agile (AWA). Comprises professional coaching skills and numerous tools and techniques. Helps you create a safe environment, understand team development and handle change and conflict.
1-day Introduction to User-Centred Design
User-Centred Design (UCD) is an approach that helps organisations succeed by designing and developing products and services that truly meet their users’ needs.
This success is brought about by involving users at every step of the design and development process; Early on, users, be it customers, clients or even internal staff, are involved in helping the organisation understand the opportunity or problem that your product or service aims to address; later, users help come up with solutions that would truly address these opportunities; and finally we involve users in testing and optimising developed solutions in order to ensure that you are truly delivering valuable experiences to your users.
In the process UCD also helps your organisation to understand where to focus your effort, so that you only deliver the things that really matter to users, and at the same time deliver value and savings to your organisation.
A shorter, half-day, version of this workshop is available.
Takeaways
Through this workshop, you will:- understand why being user centred is important for your organisation and how it can contribute to its success
- learn how to learn about your users and their needs
- learn methods and techniques to involving users at different stages of your design process
Target audience
This introductory workshop is aimed at people who want to better understand what UCD is and how it can be used. By the end of the course you’ll have a few tools in your arsenal to start applying user centred design to your product or service.Pre-requisites
No prior knowledge is required. We will work with you to identify your organisation’s maturity in the area and put together a workshop that meets your specific needs.1-day Agile & Lean overview
Scrum, Kanban, Agile and Lean. We’ve all heard these terms but what do they mean and how can some of these approaches help the work that we do? This overview will cover the basics of Agile, Lean, Scrum and the Kanban Method, helping you understand and talk about the basic principles for each of these.
If you are not planning on using agile or Scrum yourself, then an overview will suffice. There are a small number of exercises that are run throughout the day.
Takeaways
In this bootcamp, we’ll:- review the Agile Manifesto and principles
- discuss the basics of the Scrum framework
- look at the basics of The Kanban Method
- investigate the basics of Lean Startup
- use case studies to evaluate the pros and cons of the various approaches
Target audience
This bootcamp is aimed at anyone who wants to know more about agile, lean and scrum. Knowledge on how agile and lean is particularly important to those involved in web development, software engineering and business development, but it isn’t limited to the tech industry. Typical attendees are agency clients, stakeholders, third-party suppliers to teams using agile/Scrum and departmental managers. For anyone who intends to work as part of a team using Scrum, we recommend our 2-day courses or our Certified Scrum Master (CSM) courses.Pre-requisites
This is a bootcamp for beginners. No prior knowledge is required.Estimating and Forecasting workshop
When is it going to be ready? How long will it take? How big is it? How much will it cost? How many people do we need?
We’ve all been asked these questions at work, and many others like them. We’ve all been in a position where we can’t or don’t want to answer, because we simply just don’t know how to begin answering the question when the work is unfamiliar and when things are unknown.
This workshop is the first step to understanding how to deal with such questions by using the techniques in an interactive workshop.
Takeaways
In this workshop you will:- understand why estimation is so hard
- establish what we mean by estimation and forecasting
- understand how risk and uncertainty affect our approach
- gain a practical, working knowledge of a variety of techniques
Target audience
Everybody.Pre-requisites
No prior knowledge is required.We are happy to discuss delivering the above workshops (or something more bespoke) at your organisation. Please contact us for a quote or to discuss availability.
Maybe you’d prefer to join one of our public courses? Click here for further details of upcoming sessions.