Certified Scrum Master (Scrum Alliance - CSM)

What you will learn:

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the 12 principles and 4 values listed in the Agile Manifesto.
• Demonstrate the benefits of “responding to change” in Agile over “following a plan” in traditional project management.
• Describe how the Scrum values (courage, focus, commitment, respect, openness) relate to the Scrum artifacts, events, and roles.
• List and explain the three pillars in Scrum ― Transparency, Inspection, Adaptation.
• Explain the differences between framework and methodology and understand why Scrum is called a framework.
• List 5 ways to develop an Agile mindset.
• Illustrate 2 differences between Agile and Scrum and explain why these two terms cannot be used interchangeably.

Topics: 

• Agile Manifesto
• 12 Principles
• 4 values
• Scrum Foundations (5 Scrum Values)

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Conduct a retrospective to list 3 techniques to improve the performance and turnaround time.
• Explain the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master and a Product Owner.
• List 3 differences between a Scrum Master and a Product Owner and understand why these two roles should not overlap.
• Discuss how a product owner acts as a bridge between the development team and the stakeholders.
• Understand why a Scrum Master is not an active participant but a facilitator in the Scrum events and ceremonies.
• List 3 demerits of having a development team of less than 3 members or greater than 10 members.

Topics covered

• Scrum Master roles and challenges
• Product Owner roles and responsibilities
• Development team roles and responsibilities

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the “why” and “how” of sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and retrospective.
• Understand why the scope and duration of a sprint are fixed.
• List 3 ways to avoid sprint backlog spillover.
• Define sprint goals and discuss 5 benefits of having a sprint goal.
• Understand how the Scrum Master and the Product Owner should coordinate with the team and list 5 points to improve such communications.
• Discuss 3 damaging impacts of sprint cancellation and how to avoid it.
• List 10 sprint anti-patterns (E.g. sprint cancellation, variable sprint length) and understand how these impact the delivery and turnaround time.

Topics covered

• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List and demonstrate 5 salient features of a well-formed product backlog (E.g. estimated, prioritized).
• Discuss 2 responsibilities of the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development team in creating and maintaining a product backlog.
• The objective of having a product backlog and best approaches to product backlog refinement.
• Analyze and discuss the ideal time and capacity to be dedicated to product backlog refinement.
• Demonstrate 3 activities (E.g. budget and timeline, release schedule) that take place during a sprint review.
• List 5 sprint review anti-patterns (E.g. delayed   acceptance) and their negative impacts

Topics covered

• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Product Increment

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the difference between resolution meetings and daily standups.
• Explain the benefits of collaborations with product owners.
• List 3 demerits of over collaboration of the product owners.
• Demonstrate 3 ways to break the barriers and collaborate
• Demonstrate creation of sprint burndown chart
• Explain 3 approaches to increase efficiency in the team

Topics covered

• Sprint Execution Planning
• Flow management
• Resolution meetings
• Communication (Taskboard, Sprint burndown chart using story points, hours effort)

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the importance of 15-minute timebox for daily scrum meetings.
• List 3 differences between traditional meetings and daily stand-ups.
• Describe 2 roles played by the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team in daily scrum.
• List the 3 critical questions pertaining to the daily scrum agenda.
• List 2 responsibilities of the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team during the sprint retrospective.

Topics covered

• Activities in daily scrum
• Activities in sprint retrospective

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain Definition of Done at three levels ― user story (e.g. writing code), sprint, and release (e.g. preparing release notes).
• List 3 benefits of Definition of Done and explain why it can evolve over a certain period of time.
• Prepare a checklist (with a minimum of 7 entries) of an ideal DoD.
• Mention 3 risks associated with an ill-formed DoD.
• List 5 characteristics of good acceptance criteria.
• Understand who all should be involved in drafting the acceptance criteria.
• List 3 negative impacts of not following the acceptance criteria.

Topics covered

• Definition of Done for a feature (user story or product backlog item)
• Definition of Done for a sprint
• Definition of Done for a release
• Definition of Done vs. Acceptance criteria
• Done vs. Done-Done.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Create an ultimate checklist of Definition of Done.
• List 3 negative impacts of an ill-formed Definition of Done.
• Identify at least 3 benefits of a shared Definition of Done for multiple teams working on the same product backlog.
• List 2 ways to improve Definition of Done.
• Clearly understand the differences between “done” and “done done”.

Topics covered

• Definition of Ready for user story
• Definition of Ready for sprint

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and understand the steps involved in release planning.
• List 3 benefits of a well-organized release planning.
• List 3 outputs of release planning.

Topics covered

• Definition of release planning
• Who takes part in release planning
• Steps in Release planning
• Output of Release Planning

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and understand sprint burndown chart.
• List 3 primary reasons to use a burndown chart.
• Learn how to create and calculate a burndown chart.
• Explain how to adjust upcoming sprints based on the burndown.
• List 3 critical information obtained from a burndown chart.
• List 5 merits and 2 demerits of using a burndown chart.
• Understand 5 common errors that lead to misleading information in burndown charts.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Why and when to use a sprint burndown chart
• Information obtained from sprint burndown chart

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Understand the importance of having a release goal (based on historical data and agreement).
• Demonstrate the importance of release burn-up in understanding the current status.
• List 2 differences between burndown and burn-up charts.
• Explain how to adjust release planning (if needed) based on the burn down.
• Tell one primary advantage of a burnup chart over a burndown chart.  

Topics covered

• Definition
• Features
• How to create a release burn-up chart (steps)

Topics:

• What is product planning
• What is product vision
• How to create a product backlog
• Product Roadmap
• Minimum Releasable features (or) Minimum Marketable Features
• Minimum Viable Products

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and explain user stories and understand the importance of user stories in real-time projects.
• Explain the 3 Cs in user stories.
• Discuss the importance of acceptance criteria and list 3 scenarios that might arise when the acceptance criteria are not met.

Topics covered

• What are user stories?
• Structure/format of user stories
• INVEST criteria

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List and demonstrate 5 benefits of Agile estimation.
• Understand the 7 popular Agile estimation techniques and decide which one is the best for your project.
• Discuss 3 benefits of Relative Estimation and Planning Poker.
• List and explain 3 common mistakes made while using Relative Estimation and their negative impacts.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 

Topics covered

• Definition
• Benefits of Agile Estimation
• Agile estimation techniques

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List 5 benefits of planning poker estimation technique.
• Decide the best sequence for the values (story points) on cards for your real-time projects.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 
• List 3 points to heed for employing planning poker for distributed teams.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Benefits
• Participants
• How to play planning poker
• Planning Poker rules