Fundamentals of Agile Project Management

for Non-technical Projects and Teams

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most
responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

Course Overview

Agile, when you look it up, shows two definitions, one “able to move quickly and easily’ and the other
“relating to or denoting a method of project management, used especially for software development, that
is characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and
adaptation of plans.”

It is a time boxed, iterative approach to software delivery that builds software incrementally from the
start of the project instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end.

Agile has been a buzzword in today’s faced paced, uncertain and complex environment and although
Agile was created with software development in mind, its success has stirred a lot of interest in
employing agile in different fields. Hence, more non-technical and non-IT practitioners have started
adopting the Agile framework in the execution of their projects.

Course Description

This 2-day course will provide guidance on how Agile can be used by non-technical teams, including how
it differs from traditional project management. There will be a discussion of the Agile Manifesto as well
as an overview of the Scrum management framework. Through practical learning activities, demo
workshop and case studies, the learners will be provided with skills, principles, concept and tools that
they can use to implement applicable Agile practices in their current or future projects.

Learning Objective:

a. Learn and experience the Agile project management methodology and practices to improve the
execution of your projects.
b. Learn and understand Scrum and how Scrum applies to Agile practices
c. Learn some tools used in the Agile project management approach and apply those that are
relevant to your work.
d. Identify scenarios where Agile project management approach is suitable to be applied within your
teams and projects.

Target Audience:

This course is for non-technical, non-IT practitioners who are responsible for managing, leading,
coordinating, and working on projects and have limited experience or knowledge of practical and formal
Agile project management methods such as:

 Non-technical, non-IT Project Managers

 General managers responsible for projects
 Managers responsible for coordinating, facilitating or managing Agile projects
 Business planning coordinators or Business analysts
 Technical service and support staff
Learning Benefits:
By the end of the training, learners will be able to:
a. break tasks into manageable size and focus on outcome instead of output
b. make work visible and be able to track progress
c. understand how to implement and manage change
d. work in a self-organizing team that can manage daily meetings to identify accomplishments,
plans and obstacles
e. eliminate waste and come up with continuous improvement plans

Course Outline:
Module 1: What is Agile and Agile Project Module 4: Planning the adoption of Agile
Management? Practices
Agile History When to adopt Agile Practices
Agile Project Management Transitioning to Agile
Agile Methodologies for non-IT teams Sharing the Vision
and projects Organizational Management
Agile Manifesto for non-IT teams and Change and Transition Management
projects Implementing the Change
Mapping Agile Roles to Traditional Roles Activity 3: Drafting a high-level
Agile Stages: roadmap for your Team/Organization
Product Vision
Road Map Module 5: Agile Tools and Retrospective
Release Plan Exercises for the team
Sprint Planning Effective Team Retrospectives
Daily Meetings Using Meister Task and Mind Meister
Sprint Review tools
Sprint Retrospective
What should Retrospectives Consider? DEMO: Meister Task and Mind Meister
Activity 1: Identifying Organizational online tools
Challenges Activity 4: Sensei Retrospective online
tool
Module 2: Plan-Do-Act-Check (PDCA) Process
Types of Waste at work Module 6: Agile Monitoring and Controlling
What is PDCA? Using DMAIC
PLAN: Develop an Action Plan Tracking Quality and Efficiency
DO: Implementing Solutions Tools and Techniques in staying Agile
CHECK: Validation of Results
ADJUST/ACT: Make necessary DEMO: Burndown and Burnup charts
Adjustments Activity 5: Plotting a team Burndown
When to use PDCA? chart
Activity 2: Identifying and
categorizing the types of wastes in Module 7: Agile Best Practices
the workplace
Module 8: Training Summary
Module 3: Developing an Agile Mindset for Non- What have you learned?
technical teams
Definition of an Agile Mindset
Positive Attitude
Thirst for knowledge
Goal of team success
Pragmatism
Willingness to fail