Upon completion of this course, participants will be be able to:

• Explain the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto.
• Differentiate between Scrum, Kanban, and other Agile approaches.
• Identify and define the responsibilities of the three Scrum roles.
• Create and maintain a healthy, prioritized Product Backlog with user stories.
• Facilitate or participate in all five Scrum events (ceremonies) effectively.
• Use velocity, burndown charts, and other metrics to track team progress.
• Foster a culture of self-organization, continuous improvement, and transparency.
• Scale basic Scrum principles to larger, multi-team IT initiatives.

• Project Managers transitioning to Agile methodologies
• Scrum Masters and Aspiring Scrum Masters
• Product Owners and Business Analysts
• Software Developers and QA Professionals
• IT Managers overseeing Agile transformation
• Any team member of an Agile IT project

• Simulated Scrum Sprints with role-playing (Scrum Master, Product Owner).
• Group activities to create and estimate a Product Backlog using Planning Poker.
• Interactive workshops on facilitating Sprint Retrospectives.
• Case studies of successful Agile transformations in IT departments.
• Individual exercises in writing effective user stories and acceptance criteria.

Unit 1: The Agile Mindset and Principles

• The four values of Agile and their application in IT.
• The twelve principles supporting the Agile approach.
• The shift from traditional Waterfall to iterative and incremental delivery.
• Benefits of Agile in responding to high-change environments.

• Overview of Scrum, Kanban, XP (Extreme Programming), and Lean.
• Selecting the right framework based on project context.
• Misconceptions and anti-patterns of Agile adoption.
• The concept of "Agile at Scale" (e.g., SAFe, LeSS).

Unit 2: The Scrum Framework and Roles

• Responsibilities and accountabilities of the Scrum Master.
• The critical role of the Product Owner in maximizing value.
• Characteristics of a successful Development Team (self-organizing, cross-functional).
• Interactions and boundaries between the three roles.

• The purpose and characteristics of the Product Backlog.
• Defining and estimating User Stories (e.g., Story Points, Planning Poker).
• The Sprint Backlog and the definition of 'Done'.
• The Product Increment and its importance to stakeholders.

Unit 3: Scrum Ceremonies (Events)

• The objectives and time-box for Sprint Planning.
• Selecting and forecasting the work for the Sprint.
• The purpose and structure of the Daily Scrum (stand-up).
• Techniques for effective facilitation of the Daily Scrum.

• Conducting the Sprint Review and gathering stakeholder feedback.
• The objective and format of the Sprint Retrospective.
• Identifying and implementing improvements from the Retrospective.
• The concept of continuous improvement in action.

Unit 4: Product Backlog Management and Estimation

• Writing high-quality user stories (As a [User], I want [Goal], so that [Reason]).
• Defining clear Acceptance Criteria for user stories.
• Techniques for Product Backlog refinement and grooming.
• The concept of a 'Minimal Viable Product' (MVP).

• Relative sizing and the use of Story Points.
• Introduction to Planning Poker and other estimation games.
• Calculating team Velocity and using it for forecasting.
• Tracking progress with Burndown and Burnup charts.

Unit 5: Scaling Agile and Organizational Impact

• Defining and managing technical debt in an Agile context.
• The role of automated testing and continuous integration.
• The importance of code refactoring and clean architecture.
• Integrating security into the Agile development process.

• Challenges in adopting Agile in large organizations.
• Strategies for integrating Agile with traditional governance structures.
• The role of IT leadership in championing the change.
• Measuring the success of Agile adoption beyond simple output.