Courses Coming Up

We have several courses coming up.Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course – This is the basic course, which we recommend for everyone and for teams. We are now almost always including a 1-Day workshop (on Agile Release Planning). Strongly recommended. And, occasionally, a 2-Day workshop.Places: New York, Toronto, Nashville, Montreal, Charlotte, Durham, Charleston, etc.
Intermediate Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) course – In this course we want people who are experienced with Scrum — either notable experience or a CSM plus some experience. And it deals with more advanced topics. And we also include a workshop (on Agile Release Planning).

Places: Charlotte, etc.

Scrum 201 – This is an intermediate course for any team member or manager. We must have a CSM and some good experience with Scrum. With a workshop.  (With the workshop, it gives you 22 SEUs toward the CSP certification.)  The purpose is to help you move to the next level. And to try to answer (or help you answer) all the detailed questions that come up when you implement Scrum.

Places: Atlanta.

For more details (dates, etc.) see: LeanAgileTraining.com

We like to do in-house courses, and we could do any of these courses at your firm.
And we have other courses in the works.

Some of these courses are co-taught with my colleague, David Muldoon. He brings a different viewpoint and a wealth of experience leading an agile transition at a large corporation.

And don’t be shy about asking me or Cassandra Wagner (cassandra.wagner@leanagiletraining.com) questions.

Scaling Workshop

We have added a 1 day workshop to many of our courses.  It includes 1/2 day on Story Splitting and 1/2 Day on Scaling.  Dave Muldoon and I will do the Workshop.  Dave has years of experience scaling in a large multinational corporation.

What: The workshop reviews quickly the several approaches to scaling out in the community now: SAFe, LeSS, DAD, and the ‘scaling’ ideas at ScrumPLOP.org.  And then we lead a workshop to help you devise solutions to your specific problems.  In general, we focus on scaling per se — what to do when multiple teams must work together.  Which patterns to use.

To a lesser degree, we also may address, as the group needs, issues such as agile transformation, extending agile to more teams, distributed scrum, cultural change, etc.

Value: First, we want you to keep the focus on ‘the Team’.  But the realities of many large projects are that multiple teams must often work together.  For these big projects, the messiness of scaling is inevitable.  And so the goal is to get more done in faster time. But still maintain the quality of the end product and have it deliver what the customer really needs when we deliver it.

In other words, despite all the problems of scaling, we want to be more successful than other competition. And more successful than we have ever been before.

Doing this well and professional can bring huge value. To the individuals involved, to the Teams (and the group of teams), to the firm, and to the customers.

For more information, look here.  For where and when we are doing the next workshop, look here.

A song for the season

In the western world, we call this the season of peace.

One of my favorite hymns from this time of year is ‘O come o come Emmanuel’. And Emmanuel of course means ‘God with us.’

Here is a version by Linda Ronstadt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsqk9FOBtuo

And below are two verses from the lyrics:

O come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
and cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death’s dark shadow put to flight. R.

O come, Desire of the nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid every strife and quarrel cease
and fill the world with heaven’s peace. R

***

The world is not yet the peaceful and cheerful place of our dreams. We have much still to yearn for.

But we do not lose hope. There remain men of good will. The good earth abides, and the sun rises on
a new day.
***

If asked how these words relate to Agile & Business, I would say this.

Scrum, in its simple way, wishes to release us from our chains of bondage.

Agile wishes to enable the Team to help satisfy, in their small way, the needs of humanity.

Agile wishes to see us united and cheerful.  Maybe much more than that, but at least united and cheerful.

Agile is about beauty and the soul as much as the works and days of hands. (Cf Hesiod)

We work for high purposes, although we fathom them not in every moment. Perhaps you do not agree with the purposes I suggest, but let us agree that we work for more than today’s mere wage.