PM409
Agile Product Development
Faculty
Lisa Cooney
Agile Coach at Edward Jones
Course length
Duration
Total hours
Credits
Language
Course type
Fee for single course
Fee for degree students
Skills you’ll learn
Overview
Everyone in the tech world talks about “being Agile” or “using Agile.” In this class, you will learn what that actually means (maybe not what you think) and how to steer a clear course through the jargon and hype. While there are some foundational concepts to learn, most of this class will explore topics the students themselves are most curious about.
Rather than focus on specific frameworks (e.g. scrum or Kanban), we will explore the deeper philosophical principles behind why these frameworks can be useful, how to modify or recombine them to suit your circumstances, and how to be sensitive to the human psychology that makes it all work. Through a combination of lectures, small-group work, learning games, workshops, and projects (both structured and self-directed) you will learn enough about the world of “Agile” to be able to avoid the pitfalls of “faux agile” and leverage Agile for your business success.
Learning highlights
- Describe an “Agile Mindset” and how it is relevant to product management.
- Define psychological safety, describe the conditions necessary for it, list some key indicators of its presence or absence, and explain why it is essential.
- Describe several agile frameworks, models, and philosophies ( such as scrum, Kanban, SAFe, Disciplined Agile, scrumban etc.), and when each might be useful.
- Describe how a Kanban board and a product backlog function to manage workflow.
- Describe the conditions under which team autonomy makes sense, and when autonomy needs to be balanced with strong leadership.
- Give concrete examples of some cognitive biases and self-limiting beliefsr and explain how to deal with them
- Explain Systems Thinking.
Course outline
15 classes
Session 1
- Agile Mindset - What it is, competing definitions of it, what it is not, what it enables and why it matters.
- Psychological Safety - what it is, how to know when you have it, what it feels like, why it is important.
- Team Agreements - What they are, how to run one (we will create our own).
Session 2
- Backlog - What it is and how to create one (we will co-create a backlog of agile topics to cover in this class).
- Kanban Board - What it is and why it helps. Dot-voting - how to prioritize collaboratively with a group.
- Definition of Done - What this is and why you need it before you start.
Session 3
- Scrum - What it is, how it works, why everyone says they “follow scrum.”
- Kanban methodology - what it is, how it works.
- Scrumban - a flexible blend of Scrum and Kanban that takes a cafeteria approach of using what works for a particular context.
- Scrum Team - What it is, how to adapt it, and how to form them (we will form our own pseudo-scrum teams using a team self-selection exercise).
Session 4
- Self-Organization, Autonomy, and Leadership - Definitions of each, and how they are interrelated, and all are necessary but must be in balance.
- Transparency vs Responsibility - What do these words mean in a work context?
Session 5
- Retrospectives - what they are, and how to run one (we will run one on Week 1).
- Delivering incremental value - Agile is about quickly creating and sharing valuable things with others.
- Running experiments and fast feedback loops - Being open to learning, viewing mistakes at learning opportunities vs failures, getting feedback from users directly and making adjustments for the next iteration.
Session 6
- Developmental Feedback - What it is and when you need to use it. How to give it. How to turn feedback you receive into developmental feedback.
- Cognitive Bias - What it is, and what you can do about it; why it is important to understand it.
- Limiting Beliefs - What they are and how to recognize and deal with them.
Note: All remaining class topics will be tracked using our Kanban board, and may not be taught in the order given here. Not all topics will be covered in class; students will choose which ones they wish to explore.
Session 7
- Systems Thinking - Personal Mastery, Causal Loop Diagrams, Mental Models, creating and sustaining a learning organization, shared vision
Session 8
- Facilitation - Meeting etiquette and good hygiene; Liberating Structures; How to be a decent facilitator and when to call in a pro.
Session 9
- DevOps - What it is, DASA maturity model, Technical vs Philosophical aspects of DevOps; Role of Culture in DevOps.
- Data - Relationship between quality of data and quality of analysis; Business data vs production data for testing; role of internal corporate data in large companies; qualitative vs quantitative data; Agile with data science teams.
Session 10
- Relationship between Lean and Agile - What is Lean; How agile “uses” lean concepts; When to focus on one vs the other.
- Value Stream Mapping - What it is, how to do it, why it helps.
Session 11
- Estimation and Prediction - Time frames and time boxes; Story Point pros and cons; Roadmapping vs Estimation.
- Dependency Management - Identifying dependencies; Removing or adjusting for dependencies.
- Metrics and Measurement - How to choose what to measure; when metrics are useful and when they might be harmful; Dashboards, visibility, consistency.
Session 12
- Tools, tools, tools - What are the main types, when to use which one, pros and cons of some of them, how to know when a tool is controlling you (or your teams); benefits and drawbacks of switching tools.
- Working from anywhere - Remote work; Hybrid models; Value of being in-person vs Value of working where you want to; How to make any arrangement work out OK.
Session 13
- Agile Management - Offering support vs micro-managing; Vital role of good management supporting self-organized, autonomous teams; manager as coach; agile project management.
- Agile Leadership - “Sense and Respond”; Letting go of controlling behavior; Bringing out the best in the people around you.
Session 14
- Related Helpful Paradigms - Positive Intelligence; The Four Agreements; The Core Protocols.
- Risk - How Agile manages risk; risk assessments; project management risk matrix.
Session 15
- Newer trends in Agile - Business Agility; Open Space; Clean Language.
Course materials
Books
Media
Methodology
The pedagogy for this class is drawn from the concepts of agile - MVP, iteration, frequent reprioritization, adaptation to change, self-organization, feedback loops. We’ll have a healthy balance between structure and exploration, guidance and freedom, principles and experimentation, curiosity and necessity.
While there are several core concepts we must cover, students will be able to explore what they are most curious about and choose topics to learn in depth. The sequence is less important than student engagement - several topics are unrelated, and thus, we can tackle them in the order that meets the needs of the students in the class.
The format for this class will include many teaching modalities: lectures, learning games, small-group and large-group discussions, workshops, activities, student presentations, homework (research and reading), and group projects.
Each day following the first class will begin with a formal check-in and mini retrospective on how the class is going. Then, I will be transparent about adjusting based on student feedback. As the class progresses, the retros will gradually open up to include how the students are with one another, their emotions and impact on each other, both as humans and in terms of learning outcomes. Sometimes I will step in and share what I think they need to learn next, but most of the time I will let the students follow their curiosity and passions to explore topics collaboratively together.
For sessions 7-14, I will cover the essential topics, but they may not be in the same order as given in the syllabus.
Grading
Lisa Cooney is a co-author of Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile (2021) and editor of Evolvagility: Growing an Agile Leadership Culture from the Inside Out (2019). As a prominent member of the international Agile community, Lisa has spoken at many conferences and meetups on topics such as Agile 2, Agile and Devops, Cognitive Bias, Power, and Developmental Feedback.
Lisa has served as an Agile coach in a wide variety of organizations including Edward Jones, Spotify, the Agile 2 Academy, Axios, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), and the Department of Homeland Security. She is certified in Agile coaching, culture assessment, facilitation, scrum, and SAFe (SA). Lisa has a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Wellesley College and a Masters Degree in Instructional Technology from the University of Virginia.
See full profileApply for this course
Agile Product Development
by Lisa Cooney
Total hours
45 Hours
Dates
Apr 10 - Apr 28, 2023
Fee for single course
€1500
Fee for degree students
€750
How to secure your spot
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FAQ
Will I receive a certificate after completion?
Yes. Upon completion of the course, you will receive a certificate signed by the director of the program your course belonged to.
Do I need a visa?
This depends on your case. Please check with the Spanish or Thai consulate in your country of residence about visa requirements. We will do our part to provide you with the necessary documents, such as the Certificate of Enrollment.
Can I get a discount?
Yes. The easiest way to enroll in a course at a discounted price is to register for multiple courses. Registering for multiple courses will reduce the cost per individual course. Please ask the Admissions Office for more information about the other kinds of discounts we offer and what you can do to receive one.