Agile Certified Practitioner

PMI-ACP Course

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar YouTube channel

IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Course Agenda:

1. Introduction
2. Domain I. Agile Principles and Mindset
3. Domain II. Value-driven Delivery
4. Domain III. Stakeholder Engagement
5. Domain IV. Team Performance
6. Domain V. Adaptive Planning
7. Domain VI. Problem Detection and Resolution
8. Domain VII. Continuous Improvement
9. Exam Tips & Tricks
10. Course Closure
PMI-ACP Course
Introduction
Who’s Teaching the Course?

• Graduated from Alexandria University (Faculty of Engineering- Communication)

• Certified IBM Agile Coach

• Certified Kanban Agile Coach

• Holding few other certificate (ex: PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, Project+, …etc.)

• 15 years of Experience in IT, Project Management, People and services management.

• 3 years of Experience as Agile transformation Leader

YouTube channel
Facebook Group
Agile Tips & Tricks
 PMI-ACP Reference Materials
1. Agile Estimating and Planning
2. Agile Practice Guide
3. Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products
4. Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great
5. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game
6. Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition
7. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme
8. Exploring Scrum: The Fundamentals
9. Kanban In Action
10. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business
11. Lean-Agile Software Development
12. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development

https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/agile-acp/references
PMI ACP Exam prerequisites

• 2,000 hours of general project experience working on teams. A current PMP® or PgMP® will
satisfy this requirement but is not required to apply for the PMI-ACP.
• 1,500 hours working on agile project teams or with agile methodologies. This requirement is in
addition to the 2,000 hours of general project experience.
• 21 contact hours of training in agile practices.

PMI ACP Exam Price

Member: US$435.00
Non-member: US$495.00
Agile certified practitioner handbook
PMI-ACP® EXAM CONTENT OUTLINE

• The PMI-ACP® exam consist of 100 scored items and 20 unscored (pre-test) items.
• The unscored items will not be identified and will be randomly distributed throughout the exam.
• Exam is 3 hours duration

The allocation of questions will be as follows:

Percentage of
Domain Tasks
Items on Test

Domain I. Agile Principles and Mindset 16% 9

Domain II. Value-driven Delivery 20% 11

Domain III. Stakeholder Engagement 17% 9

Domain IV. Team Performance 16% 9

Domain V. Adaptive Planning 12% 10

Domain VI. Problem Detection and Resolution 10% 5

Domain VII. Continuous Improvement (Product, Process, People) 9% 6

PMI-ACP® EXAM CONTENT OUTLINE

• Also, questions are distributed as follows:

o 50% Agile Tools and Techniques

o 50% Agile knowledge and skills

Agile Tools & Techniques (50%)

10 knowledge sections

• Communications • Soft skills negotiation

• Planning, monitoring, and adapting • Value-based prioritization
• Agile estimation • Risk management
• Agile analysis and design • Metrics
• Product quality • Value stream analysis
Agile Tools & Techniques (50%)

Tools and Techniques include 10 knowledge sections, as follows:

1. Communications – Information Radiator, Team Space, Agile Tooling, Osmotic Communications

2. Planning, Monitoring, & Adapting – Retrospectives, Time boxing, Iteration, etc.
3. Agile Estimation – Relative Sizing/Story points, Wide Band Delphi/Planning Poker, Estimating

4. Agile Analysis & Design – Product Roadmap, Wireframes, Chartering, Agile Modeling
5. Product Quality – Frequent Verification & Validation, Test Based Development, etc.
6. Soft Skills Negotiation – Emotional Intelligence, Collaboration, Adaptive Leadership, etc.

7. Value Based Prioritization – ROI, Net Present Value, IRR, Compliance, MMF, Prioritization
8. Risk Management – Risk Adjusted Backlog, Risk Burndown Graphs, Risk Based Spike
9. Metrics – Velocity Cycle Time, Earned Value Management, Escaped Defects, Etc.
10.Value Stream Analysis – Value Stream Mapping, Etc.
 Agile knowledge and skills (50%)
Level1 - 65%
1. Active Listening
2. Agile Manifesto Values and Principles
3. Assessing and incorporating community in
stackholder value
4. Brainstorming techniques
5. Building empowered teams
6. Coaching and mentoring within teams
7. Feedback techniques for product
8. Incremental delivery
9. Knowledge sharing
10. Leadership tools and techniques
11. Prioritization
12. Problem-solving strategies, tools and
techniques
13. Project and quality standard for Agile
projects
14. Stackholder management
15. Team motivation
16. Time, budget and cost estimation
17. Value-based decomposition/ Prioritization
Level2 - 25%
1. Agile frameworks and terminology
2. Building high performance teams
3. Business case development
4. Colocation (Geographic proximity)/
distributed teams
5. Continuous improvement processes
6. Elements of a project charter for an
Agile project
7. Facilitation methods
8. Participatory decision models
9. PMI’s Code of Ethics Professional
Conduct
10. Process analysis techniques
11. Self assessment
12. Value-based analysis
Level3 - 10%
1. Agile contracting methods
2. Agile project accounting
principles
3. Applying new Agile practices
4. Compliance (organization)
5. Control limits for Agile projects
6. Failure modes and alternatives
7. Globalization, culture, and team
diversity
8. Agile games
9. Principles of system thinking
10. Regulatory compliance
11. Variance and trend analysis
12. Variations in Agile methods and
approaches
13. Vendor management
 PMI ACP Course
End of Introduction Section

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar

 PMI-ACP Course
Domain I. Agile Principles and Mindset
16% of the exam (19 questions)

YouTube channel
Eng. Mahmoud Nassar
IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain I. Outline
1. Domain I. Tasks (9 Tasks)
2. Waterfall vs Agile
3. Agile Manifesto Overview
4. Agile Manifesto values and principles
5. Agile fundamentals
6. Agile methodologies
7. The characteristics of Agile servant leadership
8. Questions
Domain I. Agile Principles and Mindset (9 Tasks)

Explore, embrace, and apply agile principles and mindset within the context of the project team and organization.

1- Promote shared Agile mindset

2- Ensure shared understanding of Agile
3- Influence and support change through education
4- Enhance trust through transparency
5- Establish an environment that encourages learning and continuous improvement
6- Experiment with more effective and efficient ways working
7- Reduce knowledge silos through collaboration
8- Encourage and empower self-organization and leadership
9- Support the team through servant-leadership
Waterfall vs Agile
Definable Work vs. High-Uncertainty Work

Definable work
• Definable work projects are characterized by clear procedures that have
proved successful on similar projects in the past.

• The production of a car, electrical appliance, or home after the design is

complete are examples of definable work.
Definable Work vs. High-Uncertainty Work

High-Uncertainty Work
• High-uncertainty projects have high rates of change, complexity, and risk.
• Agile approaches were created to explore feasibility in short cycles and
quickly adapt based on evaluation and feedback.
 Project Life Cycles

Predictive Life Cycle

Iterative Life Cycle

Incremental Life Cycle

Agile Life Cycle

Predictive Life Cycles
Iterative Life Cycles
Incremental Life Cycles
Agile Life Cycles
Characteristics of Four Categories of Life Cycle
Hybrid Agile
Approach
The Agile Triangle Model
 Agile Manifesto Overview

• Created in Feb 2001 by a group of agile methodology pioneers

• Outlines 4 values and 12 principles, not just software

development

• Everyone is responsible for a portion of the work, but one

member’s work is not deemed more “essential” than another.
Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others to do it.

Through this work we have come to:

Agile Values

Individual and Interactions Over Process and Tools

Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation

Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation

Responding to change Over Following a plan

 Agile Principles

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the

customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software.
 Agile Principles

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in

development. Agile processes harness change
for the customer's competitive advantage.
Agile Principles

3. Deliver working software frequently, from

a couple of weeks to a couple of months,
with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Agile Principles

4. Business people and developers must work

together daily throughout the project.
Agile Principles

5. Build projects around motivated individuals.

Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
 Agile Principles

6. The most efficient and effective method of

conveying information to and within a development
team is face-to-face conversation.
 Agile Principles

7. Working software is the primary

measure of progress.
 Agile Principles

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development.

The sponsors, developers, and users should be able
to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
 Agile Principles

9. Continuous attention to technical

excellence and good design enhances agility.
Agile Principles

10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the

amount of work not done--is essential.
Agile Principles

11. The best architectures, requirements, and

designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
 Agile Principles

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on

how to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior accordingly.
 It’s All
About…

Change! © 2015 IBM Corporation 31

Agile is a way of working based on:

Values Principles Practices

Agile Methodologies
 Scrum

- Most common agile method. Around 60% of companies follow scrum.

- It has three pillars: Transparency (no surprises, done is done), Inspection (How well we are doing), Adoption (Agile).
 Scrum Roles

Product Owner

• Responsible for the product success

• Pickup features
• Guide the project correct “direction”
• Provide the vision & goal
Scrum Roles

Scrum Master

• Remove obstacles in the way of scrum Team

• Enforce scrum ceremonies and processes
• Doesn’t have a project manager rule
Scrum Roles

Delivery / Development Team

• Team (IT, Analyst, testers, SMEs, Rest of team)

• Self organized team and Self-directed
• Is cross-functional
• Providing the user stories estimation
• Responsible for delivering the agreed result on time with great quality
 Are also known as events or
ceremonies. There are five scrum
ceremonies:
Scrum • Product backlog refinement
Activities • Sprint planning
• Daily scrum
• Sprint review
• Sprint retrospective
Backlog Refinement / Grooming the Backlog
 Sprint Planning

Project team needs to discuss the Team discusses how the work will be
goals of the upcoming sprint accomplished

The development team is self-

organized
 Daily Scrum

• The daily scrum is also known as a stand-up meeting

• ِ15-minute timeboxed meeting
 Sprint Review

• Team demonstrates completed work

• Product Owner accepts or rejects output
• Stakeholders attend
 Sprint Retrospective

• At the end of every sprint

• This is a meeting to inspect an adapt
• Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement
• Look for ways to improve
 • The product increment is the
outcome of an iteration

Product
• The product increment is a chunk of
Increment the project work

• The development team and the

product owner must be an agreement
of what done means for an increment
 • The product backlog is the source for all
product requirements
• The product owner sorts and prioritizes
the backlog items
• The development team always works on
Product the most important items based on the
prioritized items in the product backlog
Backlog • The backlog is always prioritized before the
current sprint
• Backlog refinement is done by both the
product owner and the
• development team working in harmony
• The team estimates their capacity to attack
the items in the product backlog
 • Like the product backlog the sprint
backlog is a prioritization of the
product
• The sprint backlog is a subset of the
product backlog
Sprint Backlog • The sprint backlog serves as the goal
for the current iteration
• The sprint backlog is a view into the
work to be accomplished in the current
sprint
• The sprint backlog is updated and
refined by the development team
 Extreme
programming (XP)

- (XP) is a software development

methodology which is intended to
improve software quality.

- Extreme Programming stresses on

customer satisfaction.
 1. Simplicity

2. Communication

3. Feedback
XP Core Values
4. Courage

5. Respect
 1- Coach

2- Customer
XP Team Roles
3- Programmer

4- Testers
 Fine scale feedback

• Planning Game
• Pair Programming
• Test Driven Development
• Whole Team

Continuous process

Extreme • Continuous Integration

Programming
• Design Improvement
• Small Releases

Practices Shared understanding

• Coding Standards
• Collective Code Ownership
• Simple Design
• System Metaphor

Programmer welfare

• Sustainable Pace
 Similar to release plans &
Iteration plans

1- Planning
Games
Restricted to 1 to 2 weeks
 Small releases to a test
environment are part of the XP
practices
2- Small
Releases
MMF -> minimum market
functional (get something in
front of biz asap)
 Eliminate technical speak

3- Metaphor
SME should speak using
metaphor not technical
shortcuts
 Just enough design

4- Simple Incremental design

Design

Minimal design
 5- Test Driven
Development -- TDD

• Develop test cases first

• Then (write only) code to

test cases

• Then automate test cases

 6- Pair Programming

• Two developers

• One story

• One Drive , One Navigates

(Often switch)
 Fixing code smells ( code is getting week, Expand minimum design
hard to understand, poor structure, less
than perfect, too complex, ..etc.)

7- Refactoring

Decompose complex code

 Encourages everyone to
contribute new ideas to all
8- Collective segments of the project.

Code
Ownership Any developer can change any line
of code to add functionality, fix
bugs, improve designs or refactor.
 Automated Builds

9- Continuous Automated tests

Integration

Code Refactor with courage

 Long term productivity

10-
Sustainable No overtime

Pace

Predictable Results
 Dedicated / Available product
owner

11- On-site
customer / Self org / Self managing

whole Team

”Col-located” team
 Strict adherence to standards

12- Coding
Standards
Ex ( Coding standards, docs,
naming convention, ..etc.)
Lean
Lean
 Eliminate waste

Empower the team

Deliver fast
Seven Lean
Core Concepts Optimize the whole

/ Values: Build quality in

Defer decisions (do just enough & no more)

Amplify learning (conduct feedback & implement best solution)

Kanban

• Developed by Taichi Ohno at Toyota

• Used to manage cost and flow and to identify impediments
• Kanban Boards are pull systems
• Kanban does not use timeboxed iterations
• Only few items can be in each stage of the project (WIP – Work in Progress)
Kanban
 • Visualize (the work, workflow and business risks).
• Limit WIP.
Kanban • Manage Flow.
Practices •
•
Make Process Explicit.
Implement Feedback Loops.
• Improve Collaboratively, Evolve Experimentally

22
 Other Agile
Methodologies
 Crystal Methods

• Crystal methods are a family of methodologies (Clear,

Yellow, Red, ..etc.) that were developed in the mid-1990s.

• Crystal methods are designed for projects ranging from

small teams developing low critical solutions to large
team developing critical solutions.

• Uses different colors to denote the “weight” of which

methodology to use.
 • Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) was developed in the
1994.
• Currently Called Atern
• It uses MoSCoW prioritization technique (Must, Should, Could, and
Won’t) to determine the requirements to be included in a release or
Dynamic iteration.
Systems
Development
Method (DSDM)
 Dynamic
Systems
Development
Method
Principles
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
 - Shield the Team From Interruptions
- Isolate and protect the team
- Keep business partners from interrupting
the team design

Servant
Leadership
- Ensuring people communicate to the designated
channels
- Protect the team from the diversions
 Communicate The Project Vision

Ensures that stakeholders have a clear

image of what the team is creating
Servant
Leadership Ensures that all stakeholders have a
common vision of what done means

Communicate and recommunicate the

project Vision to reinforce the vision
 Carry Food and Water

Servant
- Ensuring that the team has the
resources they need to be productive
- This includes items like proper tools

Leadership compensation encouragement and other

resources
- Training and professional development
may be included as well
Scaling Agile

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

• Scrum of Scrums (SOS)
• Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)
• Enterprise Scrum
• Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)
 PMI-ACP Course
Domain II. Value-Driven Delivery
20% of the exam (24 questions)

YouTube channel
Eng. Mahmoud Nassar
IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain II. Outline
1. Domain II. Tasks (14 Tasks)
2. Value-driven Delivery Definition
3. Value Terminologies
4. Assessing Value In Agile Projects
5. Managing Risk
6. Prioritization
7. Cumulative Flow Diagrams
8. Others
9. Questions
Domain II. Value-Driven Delivery (14 Tasks)

Deliver valuable results by producing high-value increments for review, early and often, based on stakeholder priorities. Have the
stakeholders provide feedback on these increments, and use this feedback to prioritize and improve future increments.

1. Plan work incrementally

2. Gain consensus on just in time acceptance criteria
3. Tune process to organization team and project
4. Release minimal viable product
5. Work in small batches
6. Review often
7. Prioritize work
8. Refactor code often
9. Optimize environmental operational it infrastructure factors
10. Review and checkpoint often
11. Balance value and risk
12. Reprioritize to maximize value
13. Prioritize nonfunctional requirements
14. Review and improve the overall process and product
 Value is a measure of benefit
created through delivery of
goods or services.

Value-driven
Projects exist to create business
Delivery value
Definition
The project manager’s goal is to
increase value and reduce risk
as early as possible
Forecasting Value
Deliver Value Early in the Project
 Return of Investment (ROI)

Assessing Net Present Value (NPV)

Value In Agile
Projects Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

Payback Period
 Return on investment is the profitability in a
project

ROI = [Net Profit / (Total Investment)] * 100.

Return On
Investment (ROI)
A higher return a better return

Many organizations have a required rate of

return or minimum acceptable rate of ROI
for projects.
 NPV is a measure of the amount
of money the project is expected
to earn in today’s value
Net Present
Value
The Higher net present value
The better project to select
 Shows the interest rate at
which the NPV becomes zero.

Internal Rate
Of Return (IRR)
Projects with higher IRR are
better projects
 Payback Period

Payback period is the

The length of time required amount of time taken to
for an investment to regain the net amount
recover and make profit. invested in a project, in the
form of net cash inflows.
 Earned Value
Management For
Agile Projects

• EVM is a suite of formulas

to show performance
• Earned value compared to
actual performance to
planned performance
Earned Value
Managemen
t - Variance
Formulas
Managing Risk in Agile Projects

• Risk is anything that could prevent the

project’s success
• A risk-adjusted backlog brings risk features
into an early portion of the project
• Ensure response strategy for risks with higher
EMV are prioritized in early iterations.
• Risk identification is an iterative activity
• Risk Severity = Risk Probability x Risk Impact
 Agile teams work on items with
the highest value to the
customer first

Customer PO is responsible for keeping

Value the backlog prioritized by
business value
Prioritization
Incase of changes to the
backlog, it must be prioritized
for value
 How the work is prioritized

Items in the product backlog are

ranked:
• Priority one (high)
• Priority two (medium)
• Priority three (low)

17
 MoSCoW

Monopoly Money

100 point method

Prioritization
Techniques: Dot Voting Or Multi Voting

Kano Model

Relative Weighting
MoSCoW
Monopoly
Money
100 Point
Method
Dot Voting Or
Multi Voting
Kano Analysis
 Relative
Weighting
Minimum Viable Product
 Incremental Delivery

Refers to the process of building

products that could be deployed at
the end of one or more iterations.

Provides early feedback to the

project

Provides early ROI

Agile Tooling
 Agile Tooling
Examples Of Low-tech Tools
Work In Progress (WIP)

• limits the maximum amount

of work that can exist in each
status of a workflow
• WIP is limited to prevent
work overloads and improve
workflows.
Contracts in
Agile Projects
Fixed Price Time & Materials
 Fixed Scope, Price & Date

Changes with a fee

Fixed-price /
Fixed Scope Risk to supplier
Contract
If the vendor delivers early they get paid at
a higher hourly rate
If the vendor delivers late they get paid at a
lower hourly rate
 No Complete Specification

Price based on rate

Time &
Material Risk shifted to customer

Ends as specified by customer

 Gulf of
Evaluation
Frequent Verification and Validation

• Verification is a static practice of verifying documents,

design, code and program.
• Validation is a dynamic mechanism of validating and testing
the actual product.
• Frequent verification and validation happened throughout
the project
 The tester aims to discover Testers learn about the system
issues and unexpected behavior

Exploratory
Testing

Focuses on new features which

have been developed.
 Usability Testing

• How will a user respond to

the system under realistic
conditions?
• How easy is it to use the
system?
 Test-driven
Development

• Test are written before the code is

written
• Code is developed and edited until the
code passes all tests
• Refactoring is the final step to clean up
the code
• Follow this sequence:
• Add a test
• Run all tests and see if the new
one fails
• Write some code
• Run tests
• Refactor code
• Repeat

38
 Continuous
Integration

• Involves producing a clean

build of the system several
times per day
• Incorporate new and
changed code into the code
repository
• Identifying and addressing
conflicts early
• Reduce the risk
 PMI-ACP Course

Domain III. Stakeholder Engagement

17% of the exam (20 questions)

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar YouTube channel

IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain III. Outline
1. Domain III. Tasks (9 Tasks)
2. Stakeholders in Agile Projects
3. Identity Stakeholders
4. Agile Charter
5. Definition of done
6. Information Radiator
7. Interpersonal skills
8. Others
9. Questions
Domain III. Stakeholder Engagement (9 Tasks)

Engage current and future interested parties by building a trusting environment that aligns their needs and expectations and balances
their requests with an understanding of the cost/effort involved. Promote participation and collaboration throughout the project life
cycle and provide the tools for effective and informed decision making.

1. Engage and empower business stakeholders

2. Share information frequently with all stakeholders
3. Form working agreements for participation
4. Assess organizational changes to maintain a stakeholder engagement
5. Used collaborative decision-making and conflict resolution
6. Establish a shared vision for project stakeholders
7. Maintain a shared understanding of project success
8. Provide transparency for better decisions
9. Balance certainty and adaptability for better planning
Stakeholders in Agile Projects
Analyze Stakeholders
 Agile Project Charter / Agile Charter

• Project name
• Project Purpose
• Sponsor name or who authorize the project charter
• Authorize the project and the project manager
• High level requirements
• Key stakeholder list
• Preapproved financial resources
• Overall project risk
• Project success criteria

7
 Definition of done

• It defines the conditions that must be met for a potentially shippable product
• An example of a shared vision
• Different from acceptance criteria which is written by PO
• User stories – done means developed documented and tested
• Releases – done means there are no large defects or remaining change requests

8
 Wireframes

• Simple with no colors

• Ensures that everyone has the same understanding of the product
• Quick way to get feedback
• Get you 80% of the information that you need to communicate
• Used as a communication tool
 user story

• A requirement which defines what is required by the user as functionality.

• As a <User Role> I want <Functionality> so that <Business Value>
• Record high-level requirements
• short, usually fitting on a sticky note
• Deliver business value fast with less risk
 user story

• The three components (CCCs) of a user story

are: Card, Conversation, and Confirmation
Agile Communication Management
Formal & Informal / Internal & External
Communication Management (Two-way communication)
Communication methods & effectiveness
 Knowledge Sharing

• Knowledge sharing is critical for projects success

• • Agile practices promote knowledge sharing:
• Kanban boards
• Information radiators
• Wireframes
• Cross Functional team, Pair Programing, Sharing Expertise
 Information Radiators
• Highly visible
• Large graphs or charts that summarize project data
• In open and easily accessible
• Also known as visual controls

Some of the information radiators that are used in Agile projects

are:
• Burnup Charts
• Burndown Charts
• Kanban or Task boards
• Impediment Logs
Burnup Charts
Burndown Charts
Kanban or Task Board
Impediment Logs
 Engaging People in Agile Projects

• Creates better ideas and put some conversations

• Engaging & Collaboration are keys in agile projects
• Bring active problem solving instead of command and control
• Team must work together daily throughout the project
• Motivates and engages the project team
• Engage people with meeting, workshops, Brainstorming, ..etc.
Brainstorming

• Collaborative technique too rapidly generate lots of ideas

• Maximize number of suggestions
• No stupid ideas
• Will sort through the ideas later
 REMEMBER THE PRUNE THE
Collaboration FUTURE PRODUCT TREE
Games

SPEED BOAT
 Remember the Future

• Stakeholders look back at the project

• Write down how the project went
• Includes what was created; written on
sticky notes
• It is easier to understand and
describe a future event from the past
tense over a possible future event
 Prune The Product
Tree

• Drawing of a tree
• The trunk is what we already
know or have built
• The branches are new
functionality and what needs
to be designed
• Participants add features on
sticky notes to the tree
• Closer to the trunk represents
higher priority
 Speed Boat Games –
Sailboat

• What winds are pushing the

sailboat
• There is a goal to go for
• What rocks are in the way
 Emotional intelligence

Active listening

Interpersonal
Skills for Agile
Facilitation techniques

Projects Negotiation

Conflict resolution

Participatory decision making

 Running effective meetings and workshops

Goals – ensuring that meetings are not a waste of time

by promoting

participation

Facilitation
Rules – establishing ground rules and holding people
accountable to these rules

Timing – the duration of the meeting is established

ahead of time

Assisting – making the meeting effective and assuring

that everyone may contribute
Voting Techniques

30
Simple Voting
Thumbs Up,
Down, or
Sideways
Fist of Five
Voting
 PMI-ACP Course

Domain IV. Team Performance

16% of the exam (19 questions)

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar YouTube channel

IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain IV. Outline
1. Domain IV. Tasks (9 Tasks)
2. Why People Over Processes
3. Team Formation Stages
4. Buliding Agile Teams
5. Characteristics Of High-performing Teams
6. Shu-Ha-RI Model
7. Agile Team Motivation
8. Co-located Teams & Distributed Teams
9. Others
10. Questions
Domain IV. Team Performance (9 Tasks)

Create an environment of trust, learning, collaboration, and conflict resolution that promotes team self-organization, enhances
relationships among team members, and cultivates a culture of high performance.

1. Develop team rules and processes to foster buy in

2. Help grow team interpersonal and technical skills
3. Use generalizing specialist
4. Empower and encourage emergent leadership
5. Learn team motivators and demotivators
6. Encourage communication via collocation in collaboration tools
7. Shield team from distractions
8. Align team by sharing project vision
9. Anchor team to measure velocity for capacity and forecast
 Why People
Over Processes

• One of the Agile Values - Individual and

Interaction Over process & Tools
• Projects are approved & done by people
Team Formation Stages
 Development Team / Delivery Team

• Coders, Writers, Analyst, Testers, designers, ..etc

• Build the product increments
• Regularly Update information radiators
• Self organize and self direct
• Share progress through daily standup meetings
• Test and revise the product increments
• Demonstrate completed increments

7
 Product owner/ Customer/ Proxy customer/
Value management team

• Maximize the product value by prioritizing product features

• Manages the product backlog
• Provides the acceptance criteria
• Determines whether product complete / request changes
• Facilitate engagement of external project stakeholders
• Provides due date for the project
• Attends planning meetings reviews and retrospectives

8
 ScrumMaster/ Coach/ Team Leader

• Ensuring ground rules are defined early in the project life cycle
• Helps the delivery team self organize
• Facilitate team meetings and communicate project vision
• Coach and mentor to the delivery team
• Makes sure agile practices are applied
• Helps the product owner manage the product backlog
• Set Start and End times of Scrum ceremonies.

9
 Project Sponsor

• Project’s main advocate within the organization

• Provides direction to the product owner about project goals
• Determines value on time and on budget
• May attend iteration review meetings
• Authorizes the project

10
Building Agile
Teams

11
 Agile Team Characteristics

• Small number 12 or less

• Cross Functional and Self organized
• Co-Located (Preferred)
• Focus on value Delivery
• Shared ownership for the project outcome

12
 Benefits of Generalizing Specialist

• Can perform different tasks & roles

• Easily switch between rules
• Helps to remove bottlenecks

13
Characteristics Of High-performing Teams

14
 Empowered Teams

Self-
Self-Directed
Organized
Teams
Teams
15
Shu-Ha-Ri
Dreyfus model of skill acquisition
 • Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs
Agile Team
• Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory
Motivation

18
Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

19
Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

20
Co-located
Teams
 Team Space
or War Room
 Osmotic
Communication
 Caves and Commons

• Caves are private spaces for phone

calls or one-on-one conversations
• Commons is the primary work area
 Distributed Teams or Virtual Teams

• Team members work from different locations.

• Different (Time zone, culture, communication styles, native
languages)
• A face-to-face kickoff is often needed
• Digital Tools For Distributed Teams (Video conferencing ,
Instant messaging, Virtual card wall, etc.)
 Team Velocity

• Velocity is the measure of a team’s capacity for

work per iteration
• The interval is the duration of each iteration.
• Measured in the same unit that the team
estimates the work
• Velocity is one of the key metrics used in Agile
projects for forecasting the delivery timeline
 PMI-ACP Course

Domain V. Adaptive Planning

12% of the exam (14 questions)

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar YouTube channel

IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain V. Outline
1. Domain V. Tasks (10 Tasks)
2. Adaptive Planning
3. Progressive Elaboration
4. Time Boxing
5. Estimation in Agile Projects
6. Relative Sizing
7. Decomposing Project Requirements
8. Others
9. Questions
Domain V. Adaptive Planning (10 Tasks)

Produce and maintain an evolving plan, from initiation to closure, based on goals, values, risks, constraints, stakeholder feedback, and
review findings.

1. Use Progressive elaboration and rolling wave planning to plan at multiple levels
2. Make Transparent planning and key stakeholders
3. Managing expectations by refining plans
4. Adjusting planning cadence based on project factors and results
5. Inspect and adapt the plans to changing events
6. Size items first independently of team velocity
7. Adjust capacity for maintenance and operations demands to update estimates
8. Start planning with high-level scope schedule and cost range estimates
9. Refine ranges as the project progresses
10. Use actuals to refine the estimate to complete
Adaptive Planning
 Progressive Elaboration

• Projects are kicked off with limited

available information
• As more information becomes
available more planning can happen
 Progressive Elaboration vs Rolling Wave
Planning

• Rolling wave planning is the strategy of planning at multiple points

• Progressive elaboration what we do to incorporate new information into the plans
• Progressive elaboration is how we implement of rolling wave planning
Timeboxing

• Fixed duration period of time which

define set of activities
• Allow agile teams to adjust scope to
achieve the highest-priority and best-
quality
• Daily standup meetings - 15 minutes
• Retrospective – 2 hours
• Iterations or sprints – 1 to 4 weeks
Timeboxing—Advantages

• Team focus attention on part of the

project which specified for period of
time.
• Helps the team to be aware of time
dedicated for each activity
• helps to work smarter and harder and
get more work done ”Parkinson’s Law”
 Estimation in Agile Projects

• A consists of a quantified evaluation of the effort necessary to carry out a given

development task
• A forecast of costs, schedule, effort, or skills required to deliver the required product
• Agile teams make the estimation
 Relative Sizing

• Instead of measuring the absolute value,

determine how big or small the requirements
are, compared to a baseline.
• Team order the items of their relative
complexity, effort & time.
Decomposing Project Requirements
INVEST: Characteristics of effective user stories
 Affinity Estimating

• Grouping items into similar

categories or collections
• Quickest way to estimate the
product backlog
• Allows the team to see the
collection of user stories by
points assigned
T-shirt Sizing
 A panel of expert
submit estimates
anonymous
Wideband
Delphi
If the estimates
vary widely,
another iteration
is conducted.
Planning
Poker
Release and
Iteration
Planning
 • Similar to Iteration (Short, Timeboxed)
• Exploring an approach
Spikes • Investigating an issue
• Reducing a project risk
 • Dedicated to Proof of concept
Architectural
Spike • Exploring and testing an approach
Risk-based • Investigating an issue
• Reduce or eliminate an issue
Spike • Good for new technology early in the project
 Slicing Complex
Stories

• Complex to be completed in one iteration

• Team needs to break it into smaller
pieces.
 PMI-ACP Course
Domain VI. Problem Detection and Resolution
10% of the exam (12 questions)

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar YouTube channel

IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain VI. Outline
1. Domain VI. Tasks (5 Tasks)
2. Understanding Problems
3. Creating a Safe and open Environment
4. Detecting Problems
5. Lead time and Cycle Time
6. Trend analysis
7. Control Limits
8. Managing Threats and Issues
9. Others
10. Questions
Domain VI. Problem Detection and Resolution (5 Tasks)

Continuously identify problems, impediments, and risks; prioritize and resolve in a timely manner; monitor and communicate the
problem resolution status; and implement process improvements to prevent them from occurring again.

1. Create a safe and open environment to surface problems

2. Engage team in resolving threats and issues
3. Resolve issues or reset expectations
4. Maintain a visible list of threats and issues
5. Maintain a threat list and add threat remediation efforts to the backlog
Understanding Problems
Understanding Problems
Creating a Safe and open Environment
Detecting
Problems

• Cycle Time and Lead Time

• Trend Analysis
• Control Limits
Lead Time and Cycle Time
Lead Time and Cycle Time on a Kanban Board
Cycle Time, WIP and Throughput
Defect Cycle Time
Escaped Defects
 The difference between planned and
actual values

Cost variance
Variance
Analysis
Schedule variance

Other tracking items

 Lagging metrics provide measurements
of past experiences

Trend Leading metrics provide a view

Analysis into the future

Trend analysis aims to predict

performance or problems
Control Limits
Managing Threats and Issues
 Agile teams seek to balance
delivering the highest-value features
and mitigating the biggest risks.
Stories are ranked based on
Risk-adjusted business value and risk level
Backlog
The PO assign the ROI to the items
in the backlog
 Expected monetary value is the worth of
a risk event

Expected
Monetary EMV =risk impact x risk probability
Value

Done for each risk in a probability

impact matrix
 Risk Burndown Chart

• Visual communication of risk

events
• Severe these for each risk are
plotted on top of one another to
show the cumulative severity of
the project
• Overtime risk should diminish so
the chart diminishes as well
 We make mistakes – mistakes happen

We prefer to fail conservatively

Failure Modes We prefer to invent rather than research

We are creatures of habit

We are inconsistent
 We are good at looking around

We are able to learn

Success Modes
We are malleable

We take pride in our work

 Balance discipline with tolerance

Start with something concrete and tangible

Copy and alter

Watch and listen

Success Support both concentration and communication

Strategies Match work assignments with a person

Retain the best talent

Use rewards that preserve joy

Combine rewards

Get feedback
Problem Solving
 Problem Solving

PROBLEM SOLVING IS PROBLEM SOLVING

CONTINUOUS DISCUSSED IN DAILY
IMPROVEMENT STANDUP, ITERATION
REVIEWS,
RETROSPECTIVES,
..ETC.
 PMI-ACP Course
Domain VII. Continuous Improvement
9% of the exam (11 questions)

Eng. Mahmoud Nassar YouTube channel

IBM Agile Coach, Kanban Agile Coach
PMP®, PMI-ACP®, CSM®, 6Sigma yellow belt
Domain VII. Outline
1. Domain VII. Tasks (6 Tasks)
2. Lesson Learned
3. Kaizen
4. Continuous Process Improvement
5. System Thinking
6. Value Stream Mapping
7. Project Pre-Mortem
8. Continuous Improvement - Product
9. Others
10. Questions
 Domain VII. Continuous Improvement (6 Tasks)

Continuously improve the quality, effectiveness, and value of the product, the process, and the team.

1. Periodically review and tailor the process

2. Improve team processes through retrospectives
3. Seek product feedback via frequent demonstrations
4. Create an environment for continued learning
5. Used values dream analysis to improve processes
6. Spread improvements to other groups in the organization
 Lessons Learned

• Lessons learned are captured in each iteration.

• Allows lessons to be applied in next iterations.
• The purpose of documenting lessons learned is to share
and use knowledge derived from experience.
 Kaizen

• Japanese word stands for ‘continuous improvement’

• Small incremental improvement
Continuous Process
Improvement
 Process Tailoring

• Adapting agile to better fit in project environment

• There is some risk with tailoring

 Hybrid Models

• Combination of two different types of things

• Scrum-XP & Scrumban

 Process Analysis

• Often done after process tailoring

• Reviewing and diagnosing issues with agile methods
 Value Stream Mapping

• Lean manufacturing technique adopted by agile

• A visual map of a process flow to identify delays waste and constraints
• Used to optimize the flow
 Value Stream Mapping Steps

1. Identify the product or service to be analyzed.

2. Create VSM for current process, identify steps, queues, delays and information.
3. Calculate the process cycle efficiency.
4. Review the map to find delays, waste and constraints which can be removed.
5. Create a new VSM and check the new process cycle efficiency.
6. Revisit the process in the future to continually refine and optimize it.
Value Stream Mapping
 Value Stream Mapping

Value Added Time

Process Cycle Efficiency = * 100
Lead Time
 Project Pre-Mortem

- A technique aims to identify possible failures before they happen.

- A product owner participation is a key
- Include four steps
1. Imagine the failure
2. Generate the reasons for the failure
3. Consolidate the list
4. Revisit the plan
 Continuous
Product
Improvement
• Product Reviews
• Product feedback & Retrospective
 Continuous
People
Improvement
• Retrospectives
• Team self-assessments
 Retrospective

• What worked / went well?

• What could be improved? / What caused problems?
• What can be done differently?
 Retrospective Steps

2 hours meeting

6 mins 40 mins 25 mins 20 mins 20 mins

 Set the stage

• Check-in
• Focus on/off
• ESVP (Explorer, Shopper, Vacationer & Prisoner)
• Working Agreement
Gather Data

• Time Line
• Triple nickels
• Mad sad or glad
• Locate Strengths
• Team Radar
• Like to Like
Generate Insights

• Brain Storming
• Prioritize with dots
• Five Whys
• Fishbone Analysis
Five Whys

• Exercise to discover the Cause and effect of a problem

• Ask why five times
• The goal is to find root cause
5 WHys
 Fishbone Analysis

• Also known as a cause and effect diagram

• Also known as an Ishikawa diagram
Retrospective Steps
Team Self Assessments