Audience

Developers, software architects, technical project managers, system administrators

Prior knowledge

the course is directed at participants with at least one  year real life experience working with Agile methods

Language

The course is taught in English (Contact us if you prefer Swedish).

Bring your own device

Bring your own laptop/tablet, you can borrow if you don´t have one. Please contact us beforehand.

Course Information

This course will start you on the path towards achieving the results that agile software development can help guide you towards: finding the 70% of the work that we shouldn’t try to do at all — because it doesn’t generate enough value — and not doing it. In this course, the goal of agile software development is Cash In My Pocket Sooner, not A New Defined Process To Control You With.

Special Offer

Since we can’t do everything in two days, course participants will be invited to join J. B.’s online course The World’s Best Introduction to Test-Driven Development: Level 1 at no extra cost in order to dive much more deeply into how they can use TDD to create resilient, agile designs. They will also receive a one-month free membership in J. B.’s learning community, The jbrains Experience. This gives the chance to expand on the content of this course (and much more!) at your own pace and from the comfort of your own home.

This offer is valued at over 1500 SEK (180 USD).

Goals and Objectives

• Focus on the concerns of programmers, as opposed to testers or managers.
• Describe what programmers really should do on Agile projects from day to day.
• Warn programmers about typical pitfalls, particularly associated with superficial adoption.
• Help programmers learn not only the key technical practices, but also the key non-technical practices.
• Prepare programmers for the sometimes-frustrating difference between what Agile practices recommend and what companies do.

Agenda

This agenda reflects my initial plan for the sequence of topics in the course. The participants will influence not only which topics we discuss, but how long we spend on each one. You will have every opportunity to learn what you need to learn to excel in your project.

Day 1

• Agile Software Development: a no-nonsense introduction
  • Agile is not merely open workspaces and sticky notes and the daily Scrum
  • From Waterfall to Agile in a few easy steps
  • One key thing that most companies miss when they try to “go Agile”
  • All you need to know about managing risks
• Using Theory of Constraints and Value-Stream Mapping to adopt Agile practices without becoming “process zombies”
  • Using Agile techniques as a bag of tricks
  • A practical approach to choosing which techniques to adopt next
  • Dealing with both cheerleaders and naysayers
• The World’s Best Introduction to Test-Driven Development (highlights)
  • The practical value of programmer testing
  • The practical value of “good” design
  • TDD as the mechanism for learning the principles of “good” design

Day 2

• Practical tools for playing well with others
  • A method for debugging interactions that have gone wrong
  • Avoid the frustration of “they just don’t get it”
  • A few simple tricks for retrospectives that work
• Value-Driven Product Development, a practical approach to BDD (highlights)
  • Explore a nebulous product idea
  • Figure out just what in the world the customer (or Product Owner or business analyst) has in mind
  • User stories and velocity are overrated (but you might not be able to avoid them)
• Other Low-Hanging Fruit and Quick Wins
  • Running effective meetings, including retrospectives
  • Tracking work and stopping things from falling through the cracks