Training: Scrum Essentials

Duration and language:

Onsite training - 14h - 2 days each 7 hours (including breaks).

Online training - 15h - 3 days each 5 hours (including breaks). Online training schedule:

• 09:00 - 11:00 CET online session,
• 11:00 - 12:00 CET break,
• 12:00 - 14:00 CET online session,

Training is provided in English. A Polish version is also available.

Target group:

The training is intended for:

• specialists, members of operational teams,
• novice Scrum Masters and Product Owners,
• department/team leaders and managers,
• stakeholders and non-tech people influenced by Scrum Teams,
• representatives of non-IT departments such as sales and marketing.

Those who want to grow the organization in the spirit of Agile and Lean.

Training preconditions:

Minimum knowledge of basic concepts in the field of product/services development and project management. Participation in the development and team engagement activities, in particular in initiatives, in which a team of at least several people cooperates, or many teams at the same time.

For online training, it is required to be computer literate and meet technical requirements: https://valkir.pl/en/online-training/.

Price includes:

• Preparation and training performed by an expert, an experienced Agile and Lean consultant.
• Effective training in a small group - on average 6-12 people.
• Training materials, requisites and a certificate of training completion issued by Valkir Academy.
• Lunch and catering (drinks and snacks). Not applicable to online training.
• Trainer’s travel and expenses (T&E). Not applicable to online training.

Certification:

The price of the authorial training includes certificates of training completion issued by Valkir Academy (in English). If you want to obtain Scrum.org certification, we invite you to our accredited Applying Professional Scrum training, or to purchase a voucher (additional fee) for the Professional Scrum Master I assessment.

Training description:

What is the Scrum Essentials training?

Scrum Essentials is an authorial program dedicated to people who take their first steps in Agile Management. It’s based on a compilation of knowledge from the accredited Scrum.org training and the practical experience of our experts in the role of Scrum Master, Product Owner and Agile Coach. Intended for almost every industry.

Program participants are both specialists working in operational teams as well as leaders and managers who want to introduce the benefits of the Scrum framework holistically throughout the organization, regardless of whether we are talking about an IT department, sales, marketing or e.g. accounting. Scrum Essentials does not contain engineering practices, therefore it is also recommended for non-technical people.

Scrum allows you to increase the predictability of the work and its business value, through transparent prioritization of requirements and quick verification of assumptions. In addition, it enables steering work on delivering business value (defined by the Product Owner), shortening the distance between the team's work and satisfied recipients and by transferring responsibility for effective work to the team thanks to the principles of self-organization/self-management, cross-functionality and empowerment.

You don’t need dry theory on how to complete a project sheet. Do you want to gain practical knowledge, learn a good approach to delivering business value increment that will allow you to respond to dynamic changes and improve the organization’s results? We have something for you!

Who’s behind this?

Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland are considered to be Scrum’s fathers, although the approach itself is based on self-organizing teams, popularized by the famous publication “The New New Product Development Game” written by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, published in the Harvard Business Review in 1986.

Over 300 Scrum.org trainers around the world every day support the development of management by organizing practical training, teaching through games, workshops and effective practices.

Training agenda:

1. Introduction to Scrum: Agile management and Complexity thinking
   • A concise presentation of Agile and Lean foundations, followed by what concepts and values ​​they represent.
   • A brief comparison between a traditional management and the Agile approach with an explanation where the Agile approach fits best (based on a diagram by Ralph D. Stacey).
   • A short presentation of Complexity theory and Complexity Thinking followed by a quick discussion of the practical use of Complex Thinking.
   • A simulation game that enables understanding and experiencing aspects of the empirical development process and its improvement.
    
2. Definition and review of the Scrum framework
   • A brief presentation of the Scrum theory, pillars and values.
   • Roles and accountabilities in Scrum and how they relate to positions in the organization.
   • Events and processes in Scrum, their duration, frequency.
   • Scrum artifacts and fostering their transparency.
   • What is a component of Scrum and what is a common addition from Agile & Lean methods.
    
3. Team and addressing the human factor
   • Differences between a workgroup and a team based on Tuckman’s cycle.
   • What is and how self-organization and self-management work, along with an explanation of what is necessary for them to function properly.
   • Characteristics of a cross-functional team, division of competences and accountability.
   • Work and accountabilities distribution in the case of many teams co-creating a complex product, project or internal initiative.
    
4. Roles and accountabilities in Scrum
   • Scrum Team, members and autonomy of operation.
   • Product Owner as the arbiter of vision and business value maximizer of work delivered.
   • Scrum Master as a true leader and change agent, guarding both the team and organizational effectiveness.
   • Developers who don’t have to be programmers, but have the necessary competences to deliver value Increment.
    
5. Scrum Artifacts
   • Product Backlog as a set of requirements described in the business language, along with who manages it and how.
   • Sprint Backlog as a subset of requirements selected for implementation, along with who manages it and how.
   • Increment as a result of work in Sprint, followed by description of the Definition of Done.
   • Artifacts from the general Agile and Lean family that are not part of Scrum, but increase transparency.
    
6. Events and processes in Scrum
   • Sprint - the heart of Scrum, its content, duration and frequency.
   • Sprint Planning.
   • Daily Scrum.
   • Sprint Review.
   • Sprint Retrospective.
   • Irregular process of Product Backlog Refinement - when and how it can be used.
    
7. (beyond Scrum) Introduction to stakeholder expectations management
   • Common forms of defining requirements (i.a. User Story) and their estimation methods.
   • Methods for estimating the value and profitability of work execution.
   • Monitoring and visualization of work progress through burndown/burnup charts.
   • Planning and budgeting versus Agile methods.
   • Concepts of Agile Contracts - what can be fixed and what should be especially flexible.
   • Discussion of electronic tools supporting Agile/Lean management.
    
8. Scrum in action
   • A simulation game that allows you to experience working in Scrum, practical and inspiring application of acquired knowledge.
   • Open discussion of reported questions, challenges and doubts as well as next steps necessary to introduce Scrum in the organization.
    
9. Training summary

Training goals:

What are the challenges we address?

• How can I explain to others what exactly Scrum is, what it is not, and how it relates to Agile?
• How can I use Scrum values, roles/responsibilities and events in my organization?
• How can I shape teams to maximize engagement and responsibility?
• How can I maximize the value of a team’s work in conditions of extreme uncertainty & change?
• How can I manage the expectations of stakeholders and build transparency of work?
• How can I estimate, plan and budget products, projects or initiatives development in Scrum?
• How can I complement Scrum with additional Agile/Lean practices and tools?
• How can I start using Scrum and what challenges await me?

Jakie korzyści otrzymujesz?

The training allows participants to better understand their organization, the challenges it faces and more effectively steer its growth. It contains theoretical knowledge and practical methods taken from the idea of ​​systems theory, complexity theory, self-organization/self-management, psychology of motivation, product management, change management and many other areas.

As a result of this training, participants from different areas of the organization will:

• know and understand aspects needed to effectively stimulate organization growth,
• acquire skills necessary to apply mentioned methods in practice,
• understand how and why new methods can positively affect their work.

Whenever possible, topics presented during the training are explained through a game/exercise that allows to apply the learned practice or principle in the business context. Exercise or game usually ends with a debrief and discussion on how to adapt the presented practices to the participants’ context.