Course Description

This one-­day workshop teaches delegates the skills to use in planning and evidence-­based decision making with the aim of improving predictability. Delegates will leave with a solid understanding of, and experience with, Agile release and iteration planning practices, which really do work.

Approaches surrounding estimation, including unit-­less points, ideal time and a planning poker technique; creatively involve delegates, gifting experience and knowledge of each. The application of these techniques can increase estimation accuracy and improve the project's chances of on-­time completion. Delegates will leave this workshop having gained a thorough insight into Agile Estimating & Planning Techniques.

Target Students

Development Team members, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Product Managers, Business Analysts, Managers, Programmers, Development team leads and Testers.

Performance Based Objectives

Through attending this workshop, you will gain insights into:

• What is Agile Planning?
• Why estimation? Why not?
• The precision trap
• The cone of uncertainty
• Reliable decision making
• The advantages of an abstract measure of size
• The importance of estimating size and deriving duration
• The definition of done and estimating
• Improving over time

Course Content

• How and when to perform release and sprint planning
• Velocity-­driven planning
• Techniques of estimating as well as how and when to re-­estimate
• Commitment-­driven planning
• Units for the Product Backlog: Ideal days vs Story points

Interactive sessions and engaging discussions will also take place around:

• When to re-­estimate
• Fixed-­date projects
• Fixed-­scope projects
• Planning with multiple teams
• Communicating estimates and plans
• Managing dependencies
• Pitfalls