home Business Preparing for psm scrum org. SCRUM is an effective project management method

Preparing for psm scrum org. SCRUM is an effective project management method

Agile-Scrum Foundation 1

Scrum (Agile) is a popular development project management methodology software. How to organize the interaction of the development team so that the development project is completed successfully. What and how to document, how, with whom and how often to discuss the details of the project, how to set tasks for people and how to control the result. All this is Scrum (Agile).

Unlike overarching project management approaches such as the Project Management Institute (PMI)® PMBOK® Guide, Scrum was originally designed for software development in an environment of frequently changing requirements. At the same time, Scrum (Agile) is more focused on the development process itself than on the management process. This technology well complements any of the classical management processes and can be integrated with it when developing even very large IT projects. Agile practices have now become part of the PMBOK® Guide.

On course "Agile - Scrum Foundation 1. Agile Project Management". You will learn how to organize the software development process and get the finished product in a rigidly fixed, and most importantly, short time frame in a frequently changing environment. During the course, you will develop a new “product” using Scrum (Agile). You, as a Scrum team, will gain live experience and experience the benefits of working in Scrum (Agile). Under the guidance of our trainer, you will go through various situations close to reality, for which you will need to apply new, innovative Scrum (Agile) approaches.

Course Audience:

Software developers - members of development teams, team leads (senior development teams).
Professionals who want to master the role of Product Owner or Scrum Master in Scrum teams.
Scrum team management who wants to get to know the specifics of working within the team.

The course "Agile-Scrum Foundation 1. Project Management using Agile Approaches" gives you to prepare for and PDU to renew your existing certifications:

	Technical	leadership	Strategic	Total
PMI_RMP®	-		-
PMI_SP®	-		-
PMP(r)®			-
PgMP(r)®			-
PMI_ACP®			-
PfMP®	-		-
PMI_PBASM	-		-

PMI is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute.
PMBoK is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute.

The issue of certification of Scrum Masters is the most common subject of all Scrum certifications and trainings. Almost every second visitor to my trainings or long-term Scrum training plans to be certified as a Scrum Master in the future.

If we divide all Scrum certifications by time scale, then they are of several types - short-term (2-3-day courses) or long-term, in which you need to confirm your experience in Scrum, but it is not necessary to undergo long-term training.

I myself have been trained and received certificates from the most famous Scrum schools. Now I want to talk about the most famous certifications for Scrum Masters, including my opinion on them.

We will omit my attitude to short-term certifications in this article, and although I consider long-term training for several weeks or months with homework and further analysis of issues from my work, the most effective way Scrum training, however, the number of fans of short-term certification is huge.
The demand for long-term Scrum certifications is much less, but such certifications are present in all known Scrum certifying schools and do not have the words "Scrum Master" in their name.
Trainings and certifications that have the words Scrum Master in their name are mainly short-term certifications. That is, in order to get a Scrum Master certificate, you either need to attend a 2-day course or pass an online test without going through training.
But not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. You can't do without preparation.

In this article, I will look at the certifications of two schools - Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org. Why only these two? I consider these organizations to be the most valuable, as they were either founded by the co-founders of Scrum, or they are the most famous in the market, or they provide the most reliable confirmation of Scrum knowledge. At the same time, these schools, unlike most online certifications, in terms of their tests do not contradict the official view of Scrum, described in the Scrum Guide - the most important guide to Scrum.

So, let's go through the certifications in order.

1. Certifications from ScrumAlliance

ScrumAlliance is the largest Scrum school and the most widespread school in the world, which is the most famous and recognizable Scrum certification organization.
Of course, this is not a school, but the largest association of Scrum fans, near-Agile managers, Scrum trainers, Scrum coaches and Scrum training organizations.
Among the founders of ScrumAlliance in 2001 were Scrum founders Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who later founded their own certification companies, also involved in Scrum certification, which I will discuss below.

The Scrum Master certificate of this school cannot be obtained without first attending an offline training. Scrumalliance trainings are usually quite expensive (rarely seen for less than $700 per ticket)

ScrumAlliance certifications come in 3 entry-level certifications: Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner and Certified Scrum Developer, and an advanced certification that requires experience in Scrum - Certified Scrum Professional.
For the Scrum Master crust, the first certification is needed.

CSM (Certified Scrum Master)

Despite the fact that there are relatively few active Scrum Masters in our market, this is the most sought-after certification from ScrumAlliance. Many consider it necessary to start their journey with Scrum with this certification. Because of this, course materials often resemble general education Scrum training (see course coverage requirements for trainers). But that doesn't mean the training is bad. In order to be eligible to read ScrumAlliance training followed by certification, one has to go through a rather difficult interview process, which is probably why I haven't heard of bad ScrumAlliance training yet.

CSM trainings take 2 days.
In order to receive a CSM certificate, you need to attend a 2-day training from an official ScrumAlliance trainer and pass the official online test that the trainer sends to the participants, usually immediately after the training. The certification test is quite simple and I have never seen anyone fail it. The test is designed for basic knowledge of Scrum and has several questions related to the role of the Scrum Master.
At the same time, ScrumAlliance argues the simplicity of the test by the fact that they check their trainers very well, and they are confident that knowledge will be conveyed in a quality manner.

After the course, a profile is created for you on the ScrumAlliance website.
Here is an example of a profile that you will have
Those who have taken the course are given (or renewed) membership in the community (and at the same time, access to the profile)

Membership must be renewed every two years for $50. There is no need to take the test.

What you need for CSM certification

Read the Scrum Guide this is a 23 page basic guide to Scrum, updated in 2016. Without understanding the basics of Scrum from the Scrum Handbook, it is impossible to pass even the simplest Scrum exam, as there is a lot of conflicting information in various Scrum sources. The Scrum Guide is the very first place to learn about Scrum as a process framework.
read blog posts from the Scrum Alliance in their community.
ScrumAlliance has the largest community groups where you can chat about Scrum.
Therefore, when preparing for certification, I recommend looking into their community and gaining knowledge from there.
There is quite a lot of information here from beginner Scrum trainers. Therefore, if you learn to separate the wheat from the chaff in this source, I can say that you have more than enough knowledge of Scrum for certification.
read a book from the founder of Scrum in Russian. This book provides an understanding of the philosophy behind the Scrum process framework described in the Scrum Handbook and will provide an understanding of not only "what to do" but also "why". More effort you can not apply if the goal is just to get a certificate.

Exam:

After you receive the profile registered by the trainer via your email, you will have a test attached, which you can start taking according to the instructions sent to you by the trainer. The test has 35 multiple choice questions. To pass, you need to answer 24 correctly.
If you fail the test, you will be shown the wrong questions, but not shown the correct answers to those questions. ScrumAlliance thus gives you the opportunity to find the right answers yourself. After that, the test can be taken again for free. The test is given 1 hour. The test can be interrupted and continued at any time. During the handover, questions can be skipped by bookmarking them to return to them later.

Results:

Issue price - at least $ 700
Is it worth giving up? Yes, if you are willing to shell out money for the course itself famous company Scrum certifier.

2. Certifications from Scrum.org

It is a Scrum school founded by Scrum co-founder Ken Schwaber in 2009. It is not yet as widespread worldwide as the Scrum Alliance, but is constantly gaining momentum, and has already become more popular in some countries due to its approach to certification.
Ken Schwaber founded this school to improve Scrum training, which, in his opinion, at the time of the opening of Scrum.org was based more on earning than on quality training. You can read about the reasons for founding Scrum.org in.
You don't have to go to training to get Scrum.org certification (although it's recommended). And all you need to do is pay $150 for the online certification code.
Conveniently? Yes. But not everything is so simple.

There are 3 types of certifications from Scrum.org for Scrum Masters: Professional Scrum Master I, Professional Scrum Master II and III.
These are different degrees of certification that require different levels of knowledge.
All base certifications from Scrum.org are shown in the picture

Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)

The very first Scrum Master certification from Scrum.org. And, perhaps, the most difficult of the known certifications, when compared with other schools.
I know few people who passed this exam the first time. Even with preparation. Therefore, as an option, you can attend the official Scrum.org training before certification. But attending a training does not guarantee you a certificate either. Certification will have to be taken on an equal footing with those who have not been trained. You will take the same test. The pre-training gives you a good solid knowledge of Scrum, but is not required to introduce you to the tricks of passing the exam itself.

Moreover, even official coaches are prohibited from publishing answers to questions from the exam. Questions from the exam that appear online are ruthlessly deleted in short time.
The exam itself is pretty balanced. It contains questions of both a basic level and questions that can be quickly answered only with experience in Scrum or experience in setting up processes in the role of a Scrum Master. The exam also contains "tricky" questions, the answers to which you can know by memorizing Scrum terminology well, by practically memorizing the Scrum Guide. The exam, by the way, is taken in English, so it is best to read English-language literature. The ideal option, of course, is to have 3-5 years of experience in Scrum. This will help to better understand the essence of some issues, but not the fact that it will be sufficient for delivery. On Sctum.org you will see a lot of posts where people with more than 5 years of experience fail the exam and complain ;)

Preparing for the PSM I

It is good to read the Scrum Guide in English. Read it again, and again, it's very good to read it 10-15 times. If your English is not perfect, then I recommend studying the basic wording, as the exam contains tricky questions.
Read the book Gunther Verheyen "Scrum - A Pocket guide".
Most of the questions for the exam were written or reviewed by Gunther, so his books are the best way to reveal Scrum.org's view of questions in certification.
Here is a short list of Gunther's sources that I also recommend reading in preparation:
Read posts in . This blog does not have direct answers to the questions in the exam, but there are very similar ones. Here you can get good explanations from the Scrum.org officials on the questions about Scrum that are covered in the certification test. I enjoy reading this blog as there are a lot of savvy trainers on the Scrum.org forum.
Read from Scrum.org
In fact, with enough experience, point 1 may be enough, but, upon surrender, some questions may scare you.
Take a free test from Scrum.org
At successful delivery don't get too excited - this test does not guarantee passing the certification. The exam will have questions that are much more difficult than the open test.
I would consider this test as a litmus test for unpreparedness. If you scored less than 100%, then most likely you will not be able to pass the certification exam. But in this test, unlike the exam for a certificate, wrong answers to questions are sorted out.

How is the certification itself

Summary:

PSMI is the hardest certification for Scrum Masters out there. Requires thorough preparation. But the result is worth it. I can call everyone who passed the PSM I test experts who understand Scrum and are confident in the Scrum base. Certification does not require training. The issue price is $150. Is it worth renting? Of course it's worth it! It will be an unforgettable experience that you will not regret.

PSM II and PSM III

These are even more advanced certifications from Scrum.org. They are included in the mandatory training program for trainers from Scrum.org, so the level of trainers in this organization is quite high. Ordinary Scrum Masters can take these certificates, rather, for their own satisfaction, since they are not required anywhere. PSM II also consists of questions with single and multiple choice, and when passing PSM III you need to write short essays when answering questions that are checked by hand. Considering high price and the complexity of these exams, I have yet to meet someone who passed these exams just for themselves, without participating in the training of trainers.

Findings:

There are many certifications for Scrum. All schools have their pros and cons. Given the conditionally equal level of significance of the considered schools, when choosing a certifying organization, I would recommend looking at such main points

	ScrumAlliance	Scrum.org
Certification price:	0USD only during training	150USD with training free of charge
The need for training	yes, definitely	not necessary
Training price	from 700 USD	from 650 USD
Membership cost	50USD	0USD
Membership duration	2 years	no concept of membership
Exam Difficulty	Easy to medium questions, 60 minutes, 35 questions, 27 answers to surrender	Easy, medium, difficult and confusing questions, 60 minutes, 80 questions, 68 answers to turn in
The amount of effort in preparing for the exam	Take the training and read the Scrum Guide	It takes time and effort to prepare
Number of surrender attempts	2	1

If certification is not so significant for you, then in my Scrum trainings I give knowledge that will be useful to you in the experience of implementing Scrum in practice in your company.
Stay with us. Scrum must go on!

24 PDUs are credited for completing the course.

Description of the educational program

Project management as a field of knowledge is firmly established in the practice of many commercial and government companies and organizations. However, during the implementation of a number of projects, primarily in the highly intellectual sphere, it turned out that the “classical” approaches to project management either work only partially or do not work at all.
If the projects involve a high volume solution analytical tasks if the situation in the project changes daily or even hourly, if the project involves a compact team of professionals of 5/9 people, if the project often changes the content and functionality of the future system, and it is necessary to complete the work on time and with the required level quality, it may be necessary to use flexible (Agile) approaches in project management. The Scrum method, which is successfully used in various sectors of the economy, has gained the most popularity: information technology, finance, education, scientific research etc.
Agile Project Management Course Scrum method» is designed to give the project team the tools to more effectively plan, execute and control high-tech projects using the most advanced agile methods.
After completing the course the student will:
Know:

the main processes and events of flexible project management (AP) in the implementation of Scrum;
ways to search for basic information on flexible methods in UE;
differences between classical approaches in PM and those offered by Scrum;
features of the organization of project management according to the Scrum method;
Scrum project life cycle.

Be able to:

identify project stakeholders;
define the goals and expectations of stakeholders from the final result;
form requirements and define user stories;
plan tasks for the Sprint;
control the course of the Sprint;
manage changes in the course of projects;
identify, analyze and respond to risks during the Scrum project;
manage risks.

Own:

skills in compiling a Product Backlog;
skills in compiling the Sprint Backlog;
meeting skills in Scrum projects;
demonstration skills.

Successful completion of the program this course will allow specialists:
Manage the overall progress of the Scrum project.

Purpose of the course

Formation and improvement professional competencies in the field of project implementation according to the Scrum method

The target audience

Specialists whose activities are related to development and/or implementation projects information systems(IP):

managers and analysts
project team members

Required preparation

Experience in participation in projects for the development and / or implementation of IS.
It is desirable to have knowledge and skills in the scope of the course UP130 "Fundamentals of project management" or take this course

Introduction to flexible (Agile) project management.
Fundamentals of project management according to the Scrum method.
General description of the Scrum method.
The life cycle of a Scrum project.
Sprint definition.
The main artifacts of the Scrum project.
Organization of the project according to the Scrum method
Roles external to the project. Stakeholders. Project customer (Customer), Sponsor (Sponsor), Consumers end products(Users)
The roles of the project team (Scrum team, Scrum Team). Product Owner. Scrum Master. Development Team.
The life cycle of a Scrum project
Initiation. Creation of a prioritized Product Backlog.
Planning and evaluation. Development and evaluation of User Stories. Formation and evaluation of Tasks (Tasks). Sprint planning. planning poker.
Execution. Create project deliverables. Sprint Structure, Focus Factor. Conducting Daily Scrum Meetings - Teams (Daily Scrum Meeting).
The control. Sprint Review. Sprint Retrospective. Cancel Sprint.
Completion. Acceptance of project results. Project Retrospective.
Additional aspects of project management according to the Scrum method
Change management. Making changes to Scrum - projects. Changes during the Sprint.
Quality control. Grooming (Product Backlog Care). Spike (Enabler - history).
Management of risks. Risk management during the project according to the Scrum method.
Documents in project activities

Workshops

Elements life cycle Scrum - project.
Compiling a Product Backlog. Decomposition and prioritization of User Stories.
Planning the stage of work (Sprint), compiling the Sprint Backlog. Evaluation of User Stories and Tasks.
Execution of the stage of work. Daily Team Meetings (Daily Scrum Meeting).
Demonstration of the obtained results to the Customer (Sprint Review Meeting).
Meeting on the results of the stage of work (Sprint Retrospective Meeting).
Scrum management - project and work stages. Working with visualization tools: Tasks Board and Burndown Chart. Performance evaluation.
Risk management in Scrum - project.

Received Document

Certificate of advanced training and International Certificate.

There are three roles in the classic Scrum management model, one of which is called the Scrum Master. This is the role of the main person in the team, which in its work professes a "flexible" managerial approach. But often (especially in business schools and Scrum communities) a Professional Scrum Master (PSM) is called a person who has comprehended the Scrum model at a fundamental level, adopted the Agile “flexible” approach philosophy, and now not only he can lead a project of any complexity but also teaches it to others. Such people receive a certificate (Scrum Master Certification) of different qualification levels (stages).

There are three roles in the Scrum model:

Scrum Master.
Product Owner.
Team (Team).

Each "role character" in this team is responsible for his "site of work".

Functions are not mixed or transferred, although the whole process is carried out in close interaction of all team members.

Role distribution of responsibilities

Team (Team), which, as a rule, consists of 6-8 people, in the Scrum paradigm should be self-organized and self-managed, and its work is considered and evaluated as an action united group. Within the team there is no clear division into roles with limited actions, although the team includes people with different professional skills. The Master, however, stands alone here and is not considered a member of the Team.

Product Owner. AT broad sense is an intermediary between the market and business, which leads the project within the framework of a common understanding of the requirements. He is responsible for ensuring that the result of the work is valuable and useful in the market. Such a person leads the development of the product, and not the activities of the team. But the position of mediator obliges him:

know the current real consumer needs,
be able to convey these needs in the language of business to the team of performers,
see the process of creating a product as a system of activities to add value.

In the case of a Product Owner, we are almost always talking about one person who is personally responsible for creating value and therefore adjusts priorities at each work stage-sprint. However, sometimes it is difficult for one person to fulfill this role. Then the functions of the "Project Owner" are distributed among several people (for example, one formulates the requirements, and the other is responsible for interacting with the market). But in this case, the main manager is still necessarily appointed with the right (and duty) of sole prioritization and authorization of requirements in Bcaklog.

. If the Project Owner in the Scrum model does not lead the team, then it is logical to assume that the work of the Team should be led by the Scrum Master. However, this is not the case either, since the team is self-organizing and does not require leadership. Unlike the classic project management, here such a commander is not provided at all. The master helps to organize the work of the team, but, as a rule, does not interfere with the work itself. He does not set tasks and does not force work.

The difficult role of the Master

An analogue of the activity of the Scrum Master is the function of the administrator. He must provide effective conditions work on a given model. In practice, this means that:

if a team member is late for a meeting, then the organization of the workflow suffers, and the Master must fit in,
if there is a potential danger of conflict within the team, then the Master regulates the relationship,
if the ideological principles of Scrum are violated, then the task of the Master is to correctly interpret, highlight, protect both the values of the ideology and the team itself.

The role of such a coordinator-administrator in the team is not new. Ideologically, it is somewhat similar to the role of a commissar in a military unit. (In this analogy, the functions of the squad leader correspond to the functions of the Product Owner in the Scrum model).

In the well-known book by the Strugatsky brothers, The Doomed City, there is a storyline in which a research detachment is put forward for long-range reconnaissance across desert lands. Several weeks of a grueling journey lead to the fact that the discipline in the detachment begins to suffer greatly and even an exemplary commander who has successfully completed several campaigns cannot organize his subordinates. But together with the military (and among them), the expedition includes a highly adaptable person who knows how to find a common language with everyone, set the mood, find a solution to a critical problem (search for a source of water by archival documents). As a result, in one of the episodes, the commander admits that although he never understood why there were commissars in the army, he would have taken such an organizer.

This is another illustration of the importance of the role of the Master and the fact that the functions distributed in the Scrum model should not be mixed. The Scrum Master has a specific qualification, and to master it, potential candidates for the role are trained.

Scrum Master Qualification

When mastering the Scrum management model, candidates for both the role and the title of Master need to know not only the formal algorithm of the process, but, first of all, profess the philosophy of the approach. That is, in many respects to change their value orientations in business and in relationships with colleagues, to revise the rules of their behavior, and not everyone is ready to do this. According to statistics, up to 30% of staff who previously worked according to classical management models experience almost insurmountable difficulties when faced with the introduction of an agile approach. Adapting to the “flexible” format by yourself and helping other team members in this is taught in special courses that prepare Scrum Masters.

So, for example, in the training school "Unusual Concepts" a two-day course (Certified ScrumMaster) is held, which provides basic knowledge about the model. Trainees receive systematic recommendations on the tactics of implementing the model in the organization and on the content of Scrum processes.

In particular, “students” are introduced to all stages of the system and its advantages:

substantiate the competitiveness of "flexible" methods, in comparison with classical ones,
talk about possible areas of their application,
step by step decompose the development and planning process into elements,
work out role participation in different scenarios,
form an idea of the grading system,
consider the use of information tools (sprint backlog and product backlog),
in the format working group help to master the techniques of "flexible" design and management,
separately work out the practical nuances of implementing Scrum.

In addition, there are 3-day courses for the preparation of project managers - "Product Owners" (Product Owner) and training for Masters, following which a Scrum Master certificate (PSM I) is issued. This is an official course from Scrum.org, whose certificates are recognized all over the world.

In the aforementioned "House of Scrum.org", which unites both software developers and all those who profess the ideas of "agile" management, you can purchase a "pass" to courses of the first, second and third levels.

PSM I. Those trained at this level demonstrate a fundamental understanding of the form and content of Scrum, acquire conceptual knowledge.
PSM II. People at this stage of knowledge demonstrate an advanced level of skill and can effectively apply it in practice even in difficult situations.
PSM III. Those who have mastered this level are distinguished by comprehensive theoretical and practical knowledge of Scrum and the values of ideology.

Project management ,

agile,

Product Management

When I read “Agile is much more than just Scrum” in the description of ScrumTrek’s Certified Agile Professional certification course, the first thing I thought was: why ScrumTrek, then should it be called AgileTrek? After going through this training, I returned to this statement with a more serious mindset. So what did I take away from the training? records, Handout and Certified ICAgile Professional? But what about the understanding of what Agile is? What is the concept of the Agile approach? What is an agile mindset?

In this note, I share my impressions of the training. This is not so much a retelling of the content of the training as a subjective assessment of the benefits of the knowledge gained on it. Hope this helps you determine if you need this training.

History of Agile

I remember well the history of Agile, which the trainer presented in the form of progressive maturation of the entire software development industry.

Code-and-Fix allowed the industry to start writing code relatively cheaply without any plans, documentation and special requirements to the qualifications of the developers.

It was replaced in the 1970s by the Waterfall model, which reduced risks, increased the transparency of software development, and eliminated the problem of high software maintenance costs while maintaining low developer skill requirements. The model began to be used everywhere, which quickly exposed its problems. The waterfall works well only in cases where everything is known in advance: what product needs to be developed, what implementation technologies need to be used - and no changes occur along the way.

The first attempts to correct the situation are associated with the emergence of iterative approaches in the 1990s. On the one hand, this is facilitated by the cheapening of computers, when computer time ceases to be an objective limitation, which makes it possible to carry out repeated experiments to increase the functionality of the product. On the other hand, new IT technologies increase competition more and more, so businesses have to quickly apply them in business. Who implemented new technology before the rest, it won both customers and the market. From this moment begins the active development of flexible development processes, which aim to provide businesses with rapid delivery of functionality. In essence, there is a rollback to the “quick” Code-and-Fix method, but it is supplemented with planning and eliminating risks.

By the way, it seems to me that to this day, most corporate developers do not use Scrum at all, as they think, but iterative waterfall. Look at the diagram below, does it somehow work for you?

Or is it the same as in Scrum?

In 1992, Crystal appears, which for the first time focuses on the frequent delivery of working code to end users. Then, in 1994, the DSM (Dynamic Systems Development Method) was introduced, which proclaimed a focus on business needs and an irreducible level of software quality (the term Refactoring appeared around the same years). Finally, in 1996, the Scrum Framework was introduced, which became the de facto standard for agile development management. In the same year, pair programming began to be used for the first time. And in 1999 comes XP, which brought the concept of user stories (User Story), release planning and continuous integration (Continuous Integration). The result of all these private initiatives was the Agile Software Development Manifesto, developed in 2001, which enshrined 10-year-old values and principles that allow you to quickly deliver functionality to the business.

Further development of Agile is associated with attempts to eliminate all possible losses (downtime) in the software development process, thereby further increasing the speed of delivery of functionality. In 2003, Lean Software Development appears as an adaptation of Toyota's lean manufacturing concept to the software development industry. In 2006, the movement continues with the advent of Kanban Software Development, which presents a ready-made algorithm for eliminating waste in the value (functionality) delivery stream to the business. Also in 2011, in response to the explosive growth of SAAS (software as a service), the DevOps concept appears, which combines development and maintenance to eliminate waste at their junction.

In total, production (development) has ceased to be a bottleneck, having learned how to quickly meet the needs of the business. However, Agile development continues. First, in the area of Agile scaling on large enterprises(SAFe). Secondly, a huge number of failed investment projects raises a question in the field of product development: how to develop the most demanded product as cheaply as possible? In 2009, Lean Startup became the answer to this limitation.

Agile values and principles

Together with the participants, the trainer consistently and deeply analyzes each value and each principle of the Agile software development manifesto. I confess that before the training, I sincerely believed that I understood the values and principles perfectly. It turned out that this is not entirely true.

For example, the second value of Agile: “A working product is more important than comprehensive documentation.” At one time, this was a declaration of the denial of the waterfall model, in which the understanding of progress is largely based on project documentation. But in version 2 of the Agile Manifesto, the wording changed: “Business value is more important than a working product” (Agile Manifesto 2.1 - “MoreAgile Manifesto”). This is an example of the evolution of Agile values associated with the advent of Lean Startup: too many working products turned out to be useless.

Scrum and Kanban

A significant part of the training is an overview of the Scrum Framework and Kanban. Retelling this part of the training is not included in the purpose of this note. I will only note that the coach helps to feel each non-trivial moment at your own fingertips through team game. But this is worth talking about in more detail.

Games in Agile

All games were easy to learn and fun to play. During one game on the second day of training, one of the participants exclaimed: “What did we do before? Here it is!" Below I will talk about what we have learned in games.

Penny / Multitasking games live (on ourselves) and convincingly (with a regular stopwatch) demonstrated the need to take small portions into work and not perform several tasks at the same time. We saw how this eliminates waste due to downtime in a strictly sequential work process (waterfall), waste due to the accumulation of work in progress (a full mouth chews longer) and context switches (in a waterfall model, an employee is most likely to work on several projects at the same time) .

Planning poker is such a simple technique by the evaluation team that even within the framework of a short game, it allows you to feel your merits. For example, all members of my gaming team agreed in the end that most we spent time not at all on an assessment of the labor costs of a particular work, but on a discussion of works that we understood initially in different ways. In other words, the main benefit lies not in the evaluation figure at all, but in the same understanding of the work. On the other hand, being limited in time, we avoided arguments and discussions if our assessments converged immediately. Simple things, but how difficult it is to follow them in your work! Is not it?

The sabotage game of the Daily Standup Meeting brought us back to discussing the values of Agile. For example, a Scrum Master (process coach) should not be a manager for the development team or behave accordingly, that is, distribute tasks, turn on emotions and oppose the group, thereby turning the meeting into a dull reporting meeting of team members in front of themselves.