Bite-Sized Agile Workshops

Our bite-sized agile workshops offer an alternative training format allowing your people to learn a key skill in one hour, and then immediately apply it. This works well as a regular session every 1-4 weeks, allowing staff to take a short amount of time out of a normal working day, and then have time to apply it before the next topic is introduced. It also works well in the scenario where 4-5 topics may be selected in a single day, with delegates able to select only the topics that are relevant to them.

Clients opting for this format have reported the following benefits:

• Staff are not taken our of work for a whole day / multiple days
• One-hour practical workshops are enough to focus in detail on a single topic
• A gap of 1-4 weeks between workshops allows time to try out the practices learned
• Staff are able to attend workshops relevant to them and skip topics that they don’t need

Each workshop focuses on a specific product delivery technique or idea, and we can develop new bespoke workshops to meet the specific challenges your team are facing. Our current library of workshops available is as follows:

Introduction to Agile

Introduce the intentions behind agile ways of working through practical experiences.

• Run a process simulation in a non-technical environment.
• Explore how continuous improvement can result in substantial performance gains.
• Use this practical experience to explore the benefit of fast feedback and small batch sizes in agile software
  delivery.

Scrum Delivery Framework

A demonstration of Scrum as a means of achieving an agile capability.

• Define the Scrum framework according to the intended delivery practice.
• Explore how these tools are the implementation of agile practices.
• How to use these frameworks to deliver tangible business benefit.

Kanban Process Improvement Methodology

A demonstration of Kanban as a means of measuring and improving an agile process.

• Define the Scrum framework according to the intended delivery practice.
• Explore how these tools are the implementation of agile practices.
• How to use these frameworks to deliver tangible business benefit.

Roles and high-performing teams

Explore the key accountabilities and working patterns typical in high-performing agile teams.

• Define the roles of the product owner, agile coach (or scrum master), and development team.
• Explore the activities undertaken and where they collaborate.
• Map the differences between traditional project management roles and these new roles.

Product Inception Workshop

Take a vision for a new product and turn it into a backlog of features.

• Use user story mapping to generate specific feature ideas.
• Explore options for breaking down products by user journey, functional area, business outcome or user type.
• Use the story map to create a visual release plan, manage scope, and control the initial budget.

Estimating Major Software Releases

Explore what can be predicted at the start of a big piece of work such as bringing a minimum viable product to market, or planning a release over multiple iterations.

• Understand the sources of uncertainty in software development.
• Size items using relative sizing and compare this technique to other available options.
• Gain confidence in knowing how to communicate forecasts and budgets to the business based on the data available.

Effective Sprint Planning

Tips for improving the accuracy of short-term planning and forecasting.

• How to prepare: establish a definition of done, and ensure items are well refined.
• Effective task breakdown estimates, matched to team capacity.
• Avoid carrying over backlog items every time by establishing feedback loops.