🖇

Course 5: Agile Project Management

Date @April 25, 2022 → May 26, 2022

Course Link https://www.coursera.org/learn/agile-project-management/home/welcome

Glossary agile, scrum

Fundamentals of Agile
Agile is a respond to the strict waterfall system.

Agile is a way of thinking about the project delivery process through the values and principles of the
manifesto.
VUCA the acronym for the processes that make up agile: vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity

Agile values and principles can be achieved through certain project delivery frameworks and methods.
Types of agile include Scrum, Kanban, XP and Lean.

Kanban

transparent and limit the amount of WIP

employees flow: trying to maximise efficiency as it’s core value.

XP

refers to coding and programming (specific software terms and activities)

aims to improve product quality and the ability to respond to changing customer needs

Course 5: Agile Project Management 1

 takes best practices for the development process to extreme level; testing out parts of the product
before building them in full. even the smaller features to get even more feedback.

XP activities:

designing. xp stresses simplicity, start with a simple design to meet the most basic and
important requirement

coding. clear and concise code so that others can easily read and understand the program.
easier to troubleshoot problems and come up with solutions.

testing. lot is more. the goal is to eliminate any flaws in a feature before building it and
continuing on.

listening: to the customer and ensuring that the requirements are integrated into their product.

XP features:

Pair Programming

continuous integration and continuous refactoring: merging product changes into a shared
version of the product

avoid bid design up front

write test, not requirements

Lean (6 Sigma)

You can still apply agile values and principle while using waterfall. Some reasons to blend them:

stakeholders, cust, sponsor might me more comfortable with traditional approaches and workflows

regulatory requirements

a vendor is already following a traditional approach and the integration between the teams requires
some blending of methods.

team work best when you can build up consistency.

Scrum

Scrum Guide | Scrum Guides

This HTML version of the Scrum Guide is a direct port of the November 2020 version available as a PDF here. We developed Scrum in the
early 1990s. We wrote the first version of the Scrum Guide in 2010 to help people worldwide understand Scrum.
https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html

guides and more...

scrum basically you form a team that will work together to quickly develop and test a deliverables. the work
is completed in short cycles, and the team meets daily to discuss current tasks and clear up anything that’s
blocking their progress.

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 Ideally scrum team should be cross functional with maximum 9 members (pizza-size team). Scrum works
best in the projects where the team and management are open minded, adaptable, and value continuously
learning how to be a better team.
Some terms and stuffs

Product Backlog: the central artefact in scrum, where all possible ideas, deliverables, features, or tasks
are captured for the team to work on

sprint: a time-boxed iteration, 1-4 weeks but usually 2 weeks

daily scrum: a 15m meeting every day of the Sprint

Roles

Scrum Master:

ensuring the team lives agile value and principles

ensuring the team follows the processes and practices that the team agreed to

sharing information to the larger project team

helping the team focus on doing their best work

Product Owner:

maximising the value of the product and the work of the team

owns the inventory of the work and has final say on how to prioritise the work

Dev team:

responsible for how a team will deliver the product

Why is scrum popular?

clear roles and responsibility, but continuously emphasise the power of the team as a whole

regular and predictable meeting and delivery schedule, formats, and outcomes.

supports and reinforces the agile values and principles, and add structure and foundations that help new
agile teams get started and more experienced teams get better.

free! and open for all.

Best Practice from spotify

The Spotify model encourages innovation, collaboration, and productivity while

maintaining autonomy, quality, and necessary communication. It does so by using a
unique organization system that features Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds.

Course 5: Agile Project Management 3

 be inspired but don’t emulate it.

Squads: self organising and collocated. they work together to achieve a long-term mission. they don’t have
formal leader, only product owner.
Tribes: collection of squads that work in a specific area and are meant to have less than 100 people
Chapters: small groups of people across a tribe that have similar skills and work in general
Guilds: largest group, comprised of people across the organisation who want to share knowledge, tools,
code, and practices.

Scrum 101
Agile is the foundational philosophy and mindset, while scrum is a framework that materialises or brings that
philosophy to life.
Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. It enhance the using of
iterative and incremental approach.

they allow us to keep checking in on our progress throughout the life cycle of the project.

helps us become more predictable and manage the uncertainty in our project!

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 Empiricism: the true knowledge comes from actual lived experience.

Pillars and value of Scrum

In order for a team to bring the three pillars of scrum to life, they must act in accordance with the five scrum
values.

3 Pillars of scrum (and empiricism)

transparency: visible to those who responsible for the outcome. it encourages more collaboration
and less mistakes.

inspection: always checking in on our progress and deliverables so that we can detect any
undesirable changes. the more inspection that take place, the more improvement a team
experiences in their work.

adaptation: adjusting project, product, or processes to minimise any further deviation or issues.
embrace change, so you can always improving.

5 Values

1. Commitment
→ commit to achieving the goals of the scrum team

2. Courage
→ courage to do the right thing and work on tough problem. courage to tell you are having hard time
and you need help. courage to tell when something wrong happen.

3. Focus
→ focus on the work of the sprint and the overall goals of the scrum team

4. Openness
→ agreed to be open about all of the work and challenges with performing the work.

5. Respect
→ should respect each other about the opinion, skills, and independence of their teammates

Scrum Roles
A mission tells why we’re doing the work. A product vision helps us imagine what work will be like when
we’re done.

Virtual Verde (study case)

Mission: improves users’ health and happiness by bringing their at-home workspace to life.
Product Vision: virtual verde is a living marketplace that transforms the home office.
these 2 statements are meant to inspire the team to deliver a delightful experience for virtual verde’s
users.

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 Product Owner
product owner is tasked with ensuring that the team is building the right product or service.
responsibilities:

continuously maximises the value of the product delivered by scrum team

helps the scrum team understand why their work matters within the overall goal and mission.

prioritise the product backlog to optimise delivery and value to customers

ensure the product backlog is visible and transparent to all

makes sure the product or service fulfils the customers’ needs.

key traits:

customer-focused

decisive, great communicators

flexible

optimistic and positive

available

collaborative

contribute to discussion on the how of the project

Scrum Master

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 scrum master promotes and supports the scrum process by helping everyone understand and
implement scrum; helping unblock the team from getting things done, such as finding out why a vendor
was late or helping the team prioritise issues from users or organising the demo for the CEO. in a
nutshell: they help the team be their very best.
responsibilities: coachers, facilitators, communicators

coaching team members on agile and scrum practices, rules, and values

helping to find ways to manage the product backlog effectively

facilitating scrum event

helping the team remove blockers

preventing unhelpful interactions from outside of the team

traits:

organisational skills

supportive leader

facilitate productivity and collaboration

coach team members

great communicators esp with stakeholders (stakholder management)

Development team
3-9 people.

traits:

cross functional

self organising

supportive

customer-oriented

Scrum teams are cross-functional, which means when a scrum team delivers something, it’s the
accomplishment of the entire team. self-organising bcs it relies on its value.

Implementing Scrum
The Product Backlog
An ordered list of what needs to be done to improve a product. It is the single authoritative source for things
that a team works on that contains all of the features, requirements, and activities associated with
deliverables to achieve the goal of the project.
The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team, and it is included in the Product Backlog.
The rest of the Product Backlog defines what tasks will fulfill the Product Goal.

The trait of Product Backlog: Best Practices of Product Backlog:

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 1. living artefact → it evolves with the project 1. the description

2. owned and adjusted by the PO 2. the value (diss)

3. prioritised list of features (descending) 3. the order

4. the estimate

example of product backlog. Tip: include as much as you know and not stressing on things that you don’t know yet.

Element of Product Backlog includes description or user stories, value which decided together with the
team, the order, and the estimate.

User stories is a short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the user → user-
centered.

user as a <user role> I want this I.N.V.E.S.T → independent,

<action> so that I can get this negotiable, valuable, estimable, small,
action
<value> testable
benefit

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 when writing user stories, the team must have a user in mind, imagine the user will interact with the product in order to achieve
a specific outcome, therefore create personas

🗒
User stories → persona, acceptance criteria
(definition of done), tasks, and any feedback As a virtual verde client, I would like to
already provided. acquire a bonsai tree so that i can have a
User persona → the detailed descriptions of our beautiful plant and I can meditate as I
different users trim the branches.

⬇
Acceptance criteria → the checklist you will use
to decide whether the user story is done. The acceptance criteria will be

Task → the key activities needed to complete browse for 3 different types of bonsai trees to
the user story purchase

Feedback → If you are adding features to an compare the 3 trees to know which is easiest
existing product and you have already received and hardest to grow in their home
feedback from customers on a past iteration, purchase specific bonsai tree packages, like
make sure to consider this feedback. fertiliser, trimming shears, etc

access online to a bonsai booklet sheet as well

as having a care booklet packaged with the tree

find a troubleshooting bonsai tree issues page

on virtual verde’s FAQ page

Epic → collection of user stories, example: live plant delivery, office plant advice service, vendor
management, etc.

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 Epics allow you to keep track of large, loosely-defined ideas, while user stories are a much smaller unit of work, inspired directly
from the end user or customer. Both user stories and epics help teams ensure they are delivering value to the cust uomer.

(Activity) Create a Product Backlog

survey:

70% cust can’t take care of their plant

plant wilted and died within a month

criteria:

Find out which plants are easiest to care for

🗒 as an amateur gardener I want to find out which plants that are easiest to take care
for so that I can purchase low maintenance options.

criteria:

customer can choose what type of plant owner they are: beginner, intermediate, expert.

ability to see or the sort feature the recommendation plant by difficulty

Access care instructions easily

🗒 “As a plant owner, I want to access care instructions easily so that I can keep my
plant alive longer.”

criteria:

ability to see the care instruction for each plant

the instruction plan booklet is given each time a customer purchase a plant

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 option to sign-up for monthly emails with seasonal tips

Have the right tools to care for their plants

🗒 “as a plant parent, I want to know the best tool to care my plan so they can keep
flourished.”

criteria:

option to buy starter-up kit bundled with each plant purchase

option to buy partial kits or single tool, sorted by its value; basic, premium.

Remember when to water their plants

🗒 “as a busy plant owner, I want to know how often to water my plant so it will live as long as
possible.”

criteria:

option to sign-up for watering reminder

the reminder connected with google calendar or calendar

Get expert help and advice quickly

🗒 “as an amateur gardener, I want a quick access to the experts advice so when
unfavourable thing occurs, I can seek for their advice.”

criteria:

access to live chat support

longer phone support hours

Have a hassle-free way to return their orders

🗒 as a plant enthusiast, I want a simple and quick way to return my order if undesirable thing
occur when delivery or when I get a wrong order so that I can be happy with my order.

criteria:

credit and FAQ linked on homepage

on the checkout page, there’s an option for refund with some criteria

During product backlog refinement, items are broken down and further defined by adding details;
attributes (desc, value, order, estimate, and size).

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 It is need to ensure:

It contains the appropriate items, and that nothing new is needed or nothing needs to be removed;

That the items are prioritised by the PO, this is also called setting the order field;

That the items at the top of the Backlog are ready for delivery with clear acceptance criteria;

and that the Backlog items include estimates or an informed assessment about how much work a
particular backlog item will be.

Relative estimate → effort oriented.

T-shirt sized: pick one as a base (the medium one) and compare the rest to it, and assign a value.

Story points → pick one as an anchor and use fibonacci sequence to sort the effort and estimation.

Another way to estimate

playing poker

bucket system:

dot voting: color-coded by the estimated effort required (e.g., S=green, M=blue, L=orange, XL=red).

large/uncertain/small: starting with simpler catagories

ordering method: smaller team & large backlogs. using scale as an anchor (in random way)

affinity mapping: for >20 backlogs → use sticky notes → group by similar theme and pattern (3-10
group) → prioritised

Scrum Event
Scrum defines 5 events: Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and the Sprint
Retrospective.
Sprint provide the whole rhythm for the team → quicker feedback and encourage collaboration therefore
provide more focus to the team.
Sprint → bite sized version of planning, execution, delivery, closing and a retrospective.

During the sprint:

No changes are made that would endanger the Sprint Goal;

Quality does not decrease;

The Product Backlog is refined as needed; and

Scope may be clarified and renegotiated with the PO as more is learned.

Things that put into consideration when deciding a timeboxed:

how often do you think your requirements expect the frequency of changes to be?

focus time the solution developers might need to build a backlog item.

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 think about how much overhead goes into a delivery of your product.

Various practices exist to forecast progress, like burn-downs, burn-ups, or cumulative flows. While proven
useful, these do not replace the importance of empiricism. In complex environments, what will happen is
unknown. Only what has already happened may be used for forward-looking decision making.

Sprint Planning → the entire scrum team comes together and meets tot confirm how much capacity,
meaning time and people, are available during this sprint.

Sprint Planning answers these following question

who is available during this sprint?

are there any vacations or conflicts that we should know about?

what has been our average velocity → how many backlog have we been complete in a single sprint in a
past?

what can and should be accomplished by the team in this upcoming sprint?

what is the ultimate sprint goal?

how will the work get done?

who is responsible for each task?

Definition of done refers to an agreed upon set of items that must be completed before a user story or
backlog item can be considered done.

Example of Dod:

the code or solution itself is reviewed by an independent peer group

the product or unit passes all testing requirements, which could include security or performance
testing

documentation is completed

all user story acceptance criteria specified by the PO is met

the PO accept the user story

To determine dod, you may consider a few things:

1. Is the increment complete?

2. Will it bring value and does it meet quality measures? Has it been well-tested?

3. Is it usable by the end user? Can we use their direct or indirect feedback to improve future versions of
the product?

A key deliverable of the Sprint Planning event is the Sprint Backlog → the set of Product Backlog items that
are identified for completion during the upcoming sprint.
Sprint planning will result in a well-defined and estimated sprint backlog as well as sprint goal to keep the
team motivated towards that final achievement.
Daily Scrum → time for the scrum team to synchronise and prioritise activities for the the day, 15mins and
the same time & place, every day.

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 Each team member answers: Daily stand-ups should provide the scrum master
with the opportunity to quickly unblock the team
what did I do yesterday?
with little delay. It’s the opportunity to reinforce
what will I do today? focus on the sprint backlog and sprint goal.
do I notice any impediment?

Sprint Review → a meeting with the entire scrum team where the product is demonstrated in order to
determine which aspects are finished and which aren’t → product gala in less than 4 hours.
It covers:

Exploration of which items should be considered done in the product backlog

Demonstrate and inspect the product

Team unveil the product increment → what is produced after a given sprint

“An Increment is a concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal. Each
Increment is additive to all prior Increments and thoroughly verified, ensuring that
all Increments work together. In order to provide value, the Increment must be
usable.”

At the end of each Sprint, only items that have met the definition of done are considered part of the Product
Increment. Anything that is not done goes back to the Product Backlog.
Releasable Increment vs MVP

Releasable Increment MVP

a handy way for teams to think a version of a product with just

about the desired result of a enough features to satisfy early
Sprint. customers
We noted that each of these
features on their own wasn’t a
useful release of the solution.
example: building an app for However, the Product Owner
finding and adopting pets. 3 may decide that the MVP for
features on the product backlog this user experience is to
could be: 1. Presenting implement these three
information about available pets 2. requirements for cats only. By
Rating potential matches based reducing the scope of the MVP,
on adopters Allowing user to the Product Owner is able to
contact the adoption center release the solution into the
marketplace and collect
feedback from the users who
wish to adopt cats.

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 Releasable Increment MVP

a potentially releasable Product

Increment, you will create a A minimum viable product is a
complete, working, tested package of features that may
implementation of one feature in a take several sprints to develop
single sprint.

So can a releasable increment be an MVP? Yes!  Does it always have to be an MVP? Not necessarily. A
Scrum Master or Product Owner is always making sure that the team is building potentially releasable
increments of the solution or product. Then, the Product Owner uses those product increments and business
insights to determine what will make up a valuable and viable release of the product to their customers. This
is based on both user value delivered and the ability to gather feedback that will continuously improve the
product.
Scrum Retrospective → an essential meeting of up to 3 hours for the scrum team to take a step back,
reflect, and identify improvements about how to work together as a team.

Reflect on:

what’s working or not working for the team regarding the people, processes, and the tools?

what improvements are worth exploring in the next sprint?

what improvements were put in place for the last sprint? were they helpful or not? why?

Key point:

blamelessness

safe space for candor by acknowledging potential awkwardness, and if needed, create a space for
anonymous feedback

participation is a key → engage your team, ask them what should we do to improve, etc

balance the negative and positive → celebrate your success

act on it!

search for improvements or simply convert the things that worked best into your team’s habits and
norms

Scrum Tool
Burndown chart and velocity

Burndown chart → measures time against the amount of work done and amount of work remaining.

It reflects how the team is doing with completing user stories during the Sprint.

The Scrum Master reviews the charts daily

Velocity → the measure of how many points the team burns down in a given Sprint.

at least 3 sprint to determine the velocity.

in the first sprint usually rough guess being made

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 don’t use velocity as a performance metrics

be careful of sharing your velocity to external

don’t use velocity as a comparison metrics → judging productivity solely on velocity isn’t accurate or fair

proceed with caution when using velocity as a metric for project delivery date.

Kanban Boards

3 main features → visualisation, WIP limits, flow of work.

Transparency and collaboration

Jira or Ms. Project

Trello for personal project

Asana

Google Docs, Spreadsheet, Presentations

Video conference, emails, 1:1 chat.

Week 3 Recaps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE

Applying agile in the organisation

Understanding value driven delivery

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 The end product of a project is what provides value to the user; financial benefits, user growth and
engagement, or compliance adherence.

Agile → customer-oriented → satisfy them by delivering valuable software.

Value-driven delivery → focused on delivering a product of high value.

Agile makes sure the process support the goal of delivering value; the product is important as well as the
process. It can be happen with:

build the right thing → understand your customer and their goals.

build the thing right → only build requested and approved features.

run it right → how do users get support? how the product add value to users long after they initially
received it? how do you make sure that new features and capabilities reach the existing users?

Learning from case studies

Things to point out when you read a case study:

What is the issue?

What is the goal of the analysis?

What is the context of the problem?

What key facts should be considered?

What alternatives are available to the decision-maker?

What would you recommend, and why?

Value-driven delivery at Sephora

How Sephora Teams Came Together to Create an Agile Task Force

At the heart of what we do at Sephora lives a desire to deliver best-in-class
experiences for our client, be it shopping on our app, an enjoyable journey through
one of our stores, or personalized recommendations based on products they love.
https://medium.com/sephoralife/how-sephora-teams-came-together-to-create-an-
agile-task-force-3d937dd590ca

issue: the urge to deliver an organised, efficient process to turn ideas into realities → the Sephora
Stat Sig team.

goal: accelerating the way they deliver messaging and experiences that are responsive to client
needs and behaviours, and maximising our paid media by finding efficiencies that can be redirected
to the most impactful opportunities.

context of the problem: the need to deliver things in more rapid way.

key facts:

employs agile, scrum → embrace the collaboration to ideate, test, analyse, and relentlessly
making what-ifs scenarios → personalisation and media

stand-ups; central of scrum.

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 daily progress on CRM and media initiatives are tracked by a team of racing unicorns.

the communication is being bridged by Agile lead → Director of CRM

members → group of strategists, data scientists, analysts, information technologists,

developers, creatives, marketers, and product managers.

their Scrum Teams are able to work cross-functionally and bring value to their customers
through rapid testing, analysis, and rollout.

alternatives:

recommendation:

Reflection: Delivering Value (activity) answer

1. Think of a product or service you use 1. Did you consider that value means different
regularly. It can be a real or imaginary things to different people? For example, a
device (e.g. smartphone, universal remote) universal remote with lots of high-end
or software (e.g. email, social networking, features, like a voice assistant connection,
video conferencing). Consider two or three might create value for someone who relies
of its most important features: How do on smart home technology. However, for
these features create value for different someone intimidated by technology, who
customers? If your team were to build this doesn’t have a smart home device, a
product or service, what would you do to simpler remote could be a better option.
make sure the team builds the right thing? You can find out what customers would
Write 3-4 sentences summarising your value by creating surveys or running focus
response. groups. Understanding what you can do to
help customers achieve their goals is a
By ensuring that the product meets the
great first step toward building something
need of the customers by conducting
that will be valuable, as opposed to building
product research.
something you think will be valuable.
Validate our ideas and hypotheses
2. Did you think about how to build the thing
through user research
right? Once you understand what your
Business Model Canvas and Product customers would value from the product or
Market Fit. service, you can prioritise which features to
2. Now imagine you are a project manager start building. Be sure to stick to working on
overseeing the development of the latest features that your key stakeholders
version of your selected product or service. approve. Going out of scope can lead to
Write 3-4 sentences about what you can do problems like creating features that don’t
to create value for customers and help deliver value to your users. Building
them achieve their goals—that is, to build features your customers may not want can
the thing right. also affect the project timeline. That can
delay revenue and give competitors an
Only build product based on product,
advantage.
user research, product market fit.

Course 5: Agile Project Management 18

 Prioritise thing according to the
customer’s needs and goals.

Only build the things that accepted by

key stakeholder

Product Roadmaps:

various types of roadmap:

project roadmap

product roadmap

value roadmap

lean roadmap

agile roadmap
roadmaps are often represented visually and many try to fit
the roadmap on one page so that reviewers can notice the
big picture of the product timeline.

The benefit of developing and maintaining a product Principles of roadmap:

roadmap:
1. align it with product vision
clarifying the sequences of deliverables
2. don’t make epics and user stories a part of the
showing teams how their efforts relate to the product roadmap
north star vision
3. list of features syndrome → focus on themes, a
showing stakeholders the incremental value promise to solve a customer’s problem
that will be achieved over the course of the
4. don’t confuse it with release plan
project
5. don’t put dates
helping stakeholder roughly understand the
layout of the work behind the deliverable 6. a roadmap requires regular attention

The pitfall around roadmap to avoid: 7. tools are overrated.

letting the stakeholder think roadmap is rigid → Some best practices:

they might impede teams’ ability to adapt in make it highly noticeable to the team and refer
response to new information, as well as put a to it frequently
lot of pressure on teams to achieve deadlines
clearly indicate the highest priority items
no matter what it takes
if possible, clearly indicate the highest value
spending too much time fine tuning delivery
items
dates vs keeping them rough and improving
specificity as the dates get closer make it visible to your wider stakeholder group
so that they can use it for their planning
putting all the work into creating the roadmap
rather than producing the deliverables conduct regular reviews of the roadmap with
sponsors, stakeholders, and the team to ensure

Course 5: Agile Project Management 19

 that it is still providing the blueprint for the
project.

Product Roadmap First Principles - Empower Scrum Teams, Align w/ Stakeholders

The end of 2020 is nearing, and it's product roadmap building time again-at least for those
companies that are still dedicated to the old command-and-control model. In the next few
weeks, executives and (key) stakeholders will come together and define new functionality that
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/product-roadmap-first-principles-empower-scrum-t
eams-align-w-stakeholders

Creating an effective value roadmap

a value roadmap helps you determine specific routes for your team to deliver the most value → it uses the
basic event of scrum to define product goals and requirements

tips:

product roadmap → provides a high level view of the expected product, it’s requirement and an
estimated timeline for reaching milestones → release dates are roughly estimated.

“If the roadmap is too specific, it might set the team up for failure because the dates can't be
guaranteed.”

PO and Project Manager must work together in creating a release plan

release plan need to connect the product roadmap’s with the team’s capacity and velocity

factor any “hard” dates or deadlines.

release plan acts as a living artefact.

common factors resulting in changes to the release plan:

team velocity changes

change to product scope

improved the understanding of how much effort is needed to build certain features

SM or PM should always review the release plan before starting a sprint planning session → to see
where they fall track → communicate and discuss with PO and Business Team

Responding to change over following a plan

the best way to think about changing your plan is to break it down to 3 stages → identify, decide and
implementing.

1. Identifying a needed change. How do you know if your plan needs to be changed? usually it’s the triple
constraints that being or will be changed.

scope → the “what” of the project

time → the “when”

costs or resources → the “how”

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 Sources of identified changes could include:

Customer feedback on early prototypes results in new features and some deleted features (scope
change)

Sprint Retrospective identifies an area of understaffing (cost or resource change)

Critical project dependencies or deliverable dates have shifted, resulting in a change to the project
roadmap (schedule or time change)

2. Deciding to make the change. how do you decide to actually make the change?

identify the decider; PO or a senior stakeholder

develop and share what factors are important to the decision → gather supporting data

openly discuss the benefits and costs of the decision → identify areas and captures assumption

document the decision

3. Implementing the change. once the changes are approved

document the change and decision-making process

capture the change in any affected artefacts

share the change with all affected stakeholders

monitor the change for a certain amount of time

Release Plan in the making

activity template activity exemplar

Leading through change and challenge

Change management in agile
To create a sense of ownership

find an executive sponsor who also feels a sense of ownership an acan advocate for the change you’ re
creating

connect the change to the company’s mission

creating a sense of urgency

ask the team, the organisation, and the stakeholders questions about what’s working and what’s not
working → ensure changes relate directly to those and what’s not working right now.

what is preventing us from providing the best possible product to our customers?

what is allowing our competitors to outperform us in this market?

how can we help our teams become more productive and supported in their work?

The influencer change framework

Course 5: Agile Project Management 21

 Influencer → someone ability to lead and influence other to change their behaviours, hearts, and minds to
produce meaningful, sustainable results.
When facilitating organizational change, influence is the difference between temporary changes in behavior
and deep change in culture and values.

In order to have real influence, you need others to trust you, consider you an
authority, and have confidence in your decisions.

3 Keys to Influence → clarify measurable results, find vital behaviours, and use the six sources of
influence.

1. Clarify measurable results

a. entails the why of the project goals

b. use SMART goal method.

2. Find vital behaviours

a. vital behaviour → the action an individual takes at a pivotal moment in the context of the change
they are seeking → tell you exactly what to do and how to do it.

b. it’s important to track your team’s current behaviour patterns and understand the behaviour you
need them to adopt

c. to determine the vital behaviours, consult experts, scan the best and most-citied articles and
research, or perform a culture assessment by identifying norms and customs within the team.

i. evaluate which behaviors are constructive to the change you wish to promote and notice
examples of those who succeed where most others fail.

3. 6 sources of influence (from influencer: the new science of leading change)

a. personal motivations → are the individuals motivated internally to engage in the new behaviour? can
you help them “love what they hate”?

Ex: ensure the PO is timely, appreciative, and effective while giving their feedback

b. personal ability → do they have the ability, knowledge, and skills to “do what they can’t?”

ensure the developers knows how to use the available demo tools and can easily send a quick
video of the new feature in their email to the product owner

c. social motivation → are there social contracts or networks encouraging or discouraging this new
behaviour?

have the Development Team members remind each other in the Daily Scrum to email the
Product Owner before they finalize the work.

d. social ability → does the team have resources within their social network to help them carry out the
new behaviors?

give the Development Team a tool to track all of their demos to the Product Owner during the
Sprint.

Course 5: Agile Project Management 22

 e. structural motivation → are there rewards or incentives that they will receive if they perform the new
behaviours?

provide a coffee gift card Sprint award that the Product Owner gets to award after each Sprint.

f. structural ability → are there environmental factors at play that either deter or support the new
behavior? can you make the incorrect behavior harder to do than the correct behavior?

add a rule to the content management system that pre-populates the name of the Product
Owner in the reviewer list.

read more: https://sourcesofinsight.com/influencer-the-power-to-change-anything/

6 sources of influence.

Coaching an agile team

design the “plays” with the team

how the team run the sprint reviews, how the team works day to day, and how the team publishes
plan to the stakeholders

provide feedback to the team

SM takes the big picture.

celebrate and learn with the team

Coaching vs managing in agile

Managing In Agile project management, however, teams are

Project managers keep team members organized designed to be self-managing. A self-managing

and on track. They streamline communication and team has the autonomy to choose how best to
give directions. This is very indicative of a traditional accomplish their work, rather than being directed by
management approach. At its core, managing others from the top down. Agile team members
requires overseeing the work of others and can should also feel empowered and equipped to
include: problem-solve on their own.

Even so, there are some cases where the decisive

Onboarding and orienting new employees
action of a manager is required. Examples include if
Conducting meetings there is an emergency that needs immediate action,

Course 5: Agile Project Management 23

 Delegating tasks and assignments if you are behind on a deadline, or if a client has
very specific needs and you are the most familiar
Monitoring progress and performance against
with them. In a results-driven project with little room
those tasks
for error, someone needs to step in and take the
Making high-level decisions lead. That is where a managing approach comes in.

Coaching
Coaching is a two-way communication style aimed at influencing and developing team members’ skills,
motivation, and judgment. Coaching empowers team members to arrive at solutions on their own by
teaching them critical thinking and decision-making skills. This is achieved through offering feedback and
providing opportunities for professional development. When challenges arise, coaches will offer guidance,
then get out of the way. Coaches don’t jump in during times of crisis in a way that a manager would.
Coaches ask questions to help team members arrive at conclusions on their own.
It is appropriate to use a coaching approach when a team member already has experience working on
similar projects and is working on growing new competencies or is trying a new approach for the first time.
Coaching is about building confidence and capabilities so that individuals can continuously grow and
improve. There are a few principles to keep in mind when coaching:

1. Motivate: Coaches motivate team members to take action. They point out the value in others’ work and
instill within them a sense of pride in what they do.

2. Support: Coaches are an accessible resource for their team to come to when they experience problems
or if they have an idea they want their feedback on.

3. Encourage and appreciate: When someone on their team is struggling with a heavy workload, a coach
will acknowledge and validate the weight of their efforts and assure them that they are capable of
handling the challenges ahead.

Agile Team Challenges

4 themes of agile principles → value delivery, business collaboration, team dynamics and culture,
retrospectives.
Solutions to value delivery issues:

more demos of the solutions

use retrospectives

make sure that everyone understands what “done” means

focus on only a few stories per sprint

sign of business collaboration issues: solution to business collaboration:

the team is overwhelmed with critical feedback addressing critical feedback and change
or change request requests by doing more demos

us vs them mentality conducting a solution design sprint

Course 5: Agile Project Management 24

 ensuring changes to the backlog are introduced
only in between sprints

sign of team dynamics and cultures issues: solution to team dynamics issues:

low team morale run a team brainstorm session

lots of conflict change up the workflows

low conflict take training class together

use retrospective method; six hats thinking

Six Hats Thinking Technique. In this technique, each team member chooses a different hat to explore the subject of the
retrospective.

Challenge in Agile Coach

1. Managing a stable product roadmap

a. product ambition → unstable roadmap

agree up front how to handle new opportunities

set up regular roadmap reviews with the entire team

promote sharing knowledge between PO and dev teams

b. Product assumptions → jeopardise

document assumptions and make them transparent

check assumption against unbiased user research

gathers information about what users really want

allows you to confirm or reject assumptions

helps you move forward with confidence

Course 5: Agile Project Management 25

 2. Incomplete implementation of scrum → when its partially implemented or without coaching

a. loss of clear roles and responsibilities

b. tempted to skip some events or blend them to save time

c. not providing the team with the scrum coaching they need

3. Lack of team stability

a. changes in team composition → could harm the workflow

have a quick onboarding process

use pair programming

have shorter sprint.

Agile opportunities
85% already using agile method.
devops is about growing and managing teams and organisations that can build and evolve large-scale
systems at a rapid pace.

business agility is about incorporating agile principles into the wide sphere of management so it can thrive
in high VUCA environments.
frameworks:

scrum of srum

scaled agile framework (SAFe)

Agile and DevOps

Best of 2021 - How to Combine DevOps and Agile vs DevOps: What's the Difference? The Convergence of Scrum and DevO
By: Slava Vaniukov on As we close out 2021, we at Agile and DevOps are two software Jointly written by Scrum.org and the DevO
DevOps.com wanted to highlight the most popular development methodologies with similar aims; Institute, this paper looks at how modern IT
articles of the year. Following is the thirteenth in ourgetting the end-product out as quickly and operates and how the different parts of the
https://devops.com/how-to-combine-devops-and-agil
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Scrum of scrums

large scale scrum

disciplined agile delivery

the spotify model

best practice for scaling agile

Course 5: Agile Project Management 26

 Uncovering Job Opportunities

Course 5: Agile Project Management 27