Agile Training in Waterloo

This instructor-led, live training in Waterloo (online or onsite) is aimed at marketing executives who wish to understand how to leverage Agile frameworks to optimize growth marketing strategies, create customer-centric products, and achieve scalable growth. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the key frameworks used in agile product management.
• Analyze the potential demand for new products and services.
• Learn how to price new products and techniques for tuning value.

This 2 day course is suitable for any IT professionals who are interested in using the Waterfall model and how people have traditionally tried to deal with its shortcomings - including, but not limited to, Agile approaches. The aim of the 1st day is to give an overview of these approaches enabling you to decide what might suit them in your environment. The 2nd day looks at project management techniques and good practices that have been identified from Agile, and which can be applied in a Waterfall or Agile context.

This course focuses on the business analyst role to be successful on Agile projects. Course participants will learn how to cooperate with the Team, Product Owner, Scrum Master as well as with the Customer to facilitate the development process. Participants will go through a mock project practising common scenarios.

The iSQI Agile Essentials course is an internationally recognised qualification, Aimed at anyone involved in agile Projects and wants to become familiar with working in an agile environment. This includes Project Managers, Quality Managers, Software Development Managers, Business Analysts, Developers, Testers, IT Directors and Management Consultants. The course is comprised of eight sections and takes participants through the lifecycle of an agile project from the release planning and writing user stories to the iteration review (showcase) and retrospective. The first day focuses on the key principles (55% of the day on theory, 45% exercises), the second is dominated by practical application (40% theory, 60% exercises). Course Objectives

• Value the principles behind agile manifesto and its approach to software development
• Appreciate the roles within an agile team 
• Understand how to contribute as an agile team member to quantifiable requirements
• Apply Whole Team quality methods to ensure acceptance criteria are met
• Appreciate the importance of effective Iteration Reviews and how to contribute to continuous improvement through retrospectives

Target group: IT Director, Project Manager, Technical Team Leader, Analyst, Software Developer, Tester Learning objective: The purpose of this training is to acquire knowledge and practice of the workshops  aspects of Kanban and Agile foundations.

This course is created for people who need to combine Agile (notably SCRUM), with Lean and Kanban togather to manage their projects. It combines the worlds of product design and software design.  

Who should attend? This 2 day course is suitable for any IT professionals who are interested in implementing Iterative Agile and Scrum methodologies to manage software development. This course is particularly suited to project managers, team leaders, developers and customers of software development wishing to have a stake holding in the development process.

This course has been created for test managers, quality assurance staff, testers, software developers, project managers and management in order to explain how the Agile project management frameworks (notably SCRUM) deal with testing. At the end of the course, each of the delegates will design and execute a test plan for a sample application (it can be an actual client application if available)

Agile Software Testing is a series of testing practice that provides feesback to software quality issues in a timely and continuous manner following the principles of agile development.
Continuous Integration (CI) refers to all developers in a team merging their work several times a day.

This course provides a brief introduction to Agile software testing. It deals with foundational test concepts, within the context of Agile (Scrum) development and uses Crispin & Gregory's (More Agile Testing, 2014) Agile Testing Quadrants model as a framework to explore contemporary principles and practices of Agile testing.

TDD, or Test Driven Development, is an approach to developing software where coding, testing, and design occur in tandem throughout the software development cycle. Agile is a broader process and management approach to software development that emphasizes incremental delivery, team collaboration, continual planning, and continual learning. In this instructor-led, live training (onsite or remote), participants will learn how to write high-quality C applications using a TDD and Agile development approach. Participants will put their knowledge into practice by carrying out a series of hands-on exercises to create a well-designed and well-tested C application. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Install and configure development and testing tools needed to carry out TDD
• Design, develop and unit test a C application using a TDD approach
• Apply planning and management practices of Agile development

Audience

• Developers
• Project managers

Format of the Course

• Part lecture, part discussion, exercises and heavy hands-on practice

Notes

• To request a customized training for this course, please contact us to arrange.

This 5 day course is for developers who wish to write high quality iOS applications in Swift. This is a hands on course which involves writing a number of increasingly complex high quality applications. Delegates will need to have an Apple copmputer with the latest version of OS X and Xcode installed. Delegates wishing to run applications on real devices, rather than emulators, will need to be registered with Apple as iOS developers and have their devices registered.

Overview This 2-day course provides a brief introduction to Agile software testing. It deals with foundational test concepts, within the context of Agile (Scrum) development and uses Crispin & Gregory’s (More Agile Testing, 2014) Agile Testing Quadrants model as a framework to explore contemporary principles and practices of Agile testing. Intended Audience This course is intended for development teams who want to improve their testing practices in an Agile context. It is also suitable for those intending to pursue testing as a specific career and is a suitable pre-requisite for the iSQI Certified Agile Tester course.

This instructor-led, live workshop in Waterloo begins with an introduction to BDD, what it is and how it is used by companies to promote good software design, development and testing. We do this from a non-engineering point-of-view, with an eye on the end-users, their requirements, language, and way of thinking. We also address the communication challenges that business stakeholders are likely to encounter as they work closer with their technical-minded peers. By the end of this training, participants will know how to:

• Write succinct user stories that capture the usage patterns of real users of the software.
• Translate their user stories into the behavioral language of BDD (Given, When, Then.)
• Derive test cases from these stories, for use by engineers to implement and test.
• Understand the relationship between product requirements, acceptance criteria, and test cases.
• Demystify the technical jargon that impedes communication and understanding.
• Install and use great tools for writing BDD feature files.
• Understand and appreciate what happens once the work is handed to engineers.
• Play a more active role in the iterative development cycle.

Participant Profiles  CxO, Operation Managers, Enterprise Architects, Business and System Analysts and Designers Objective This introduction seminar provides you with an overview of the digital business models, business and enterprise architecture frameworks as well as methodologies that organizations are trying to focus on to increase their business agility facing disruptions of the digital age. In particular, this seminar aims at helping you to understand frameworks and reference architectures that are used worldwide to align digital business models and IT system architectures with the changing competitive landscape.

Objective: Helping Business Analysts to understand how to efficiently model and validate their business processes and resources in order to increase business agility of their organization on the basis of their target architecture and changing market needs. This 2 day training course aims at helping delegates to learn how to model their business processes and resources in order to adapt them to changes of their goals, strategies and impacted capabilities as part of the target architecture. On the basis of the key elements of business performance (strategies, tactics, KPI, business capabilities, etc...), delegates learn there how to elaborate a vision centric business process and resource cartography. Then, only using the appropriate BPMN and UML notation adapted to their language, they understand how to adapt them to changing strategies, tactics and policies.

This course provides guidance into the process Owner responsibilities so they can describe what they are doing as a process and provides the education needed to oversee the design, re-engineering and improvement of IT Service Management (ITSM) processes; particularly in the context of Agile Service Management. Participants learn how to apply Scrum practices to Process Owner responsibilities and use Agile and Lean principles and practices to put in place ‘just enough’ process and how to continually align process performance with overall business goals. 

Learn how to use Agile Service Management to increase the customer value your processes create and to compete in a fast-paced disruptive world. A Certified Agile Service Manager is the working equivalent of a development Scrum Master. Together, Scrum Masters and Agile Service Managers can instill Agile thinking into the entire IT organization as the basis of a DevOps culture.

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice wherein developers merge changes in their code as often as possible in order to detect and locate errors quickly. Codeship is a platform that provides Continuous Integration services in the cloud. In this instructor-led, live training, participants will learn the fundamentals of Continuous Integration as they step through setting up a simple Continuous Integration process on Codeship. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of Continuous Integration
• Operate the essential functions in Codeship
• Set up a simple CI process using Codeship

Audience

• Developers
• IT Professionals
• DevOps Engineers
• Business Managers

Format of the course

• Part lecture, part discussion, exercises and heavy hands-on practice

The course covers contemporary development principles and practices, including the place of project management, testing and business analysis, within Agile and traditional Waterfall contexts. The course is intended to be workshop-style with opportunities for delegates to ask questions and explore real life application of the content. This course comprises a series of modules with each module designed to take 1.5hrs, ie 1 training day would consist of 4 modules. Intended Audience This course is aimed at those who want to gain a rapid overview of contemporary Waterfall & Agile software development and the impact on project management, testing and business analysis.

Objective: This training course aims at helping product managers, products owners, business analysts, system architects and developers understand how to efficiently Manage Requirements on the basis of the product vision till guiding developers accurately in implementing them. More in detail, this course aims at assisting product managers in better defining the value propositions of their products on the basis of strategies and stakeholder needs. Business Analysts and product owners understand how to describe requirements of the product backlog then discover appropriate epics and user stories of the system while contributing to the required value creation. Along interactive case study exercises, participants learn how to describe in detail such requirements in order to validate correct understanding of needs and prepare system acceptance tests. Thus, only using a very common and productive UML profile, they learn to structure requirements in order to communicate efficiently with architects and developers through an iterative requirement gathering process. Audience:

• Product Managers
• Product Owners
• Business Analysts
• Anyone interetsted in the Requirements Management Process

Continuous Delivery is a development practice wherein developers release new changes to users quickly and sustainably. GoCD is an open source tool used to achieve continuous delivery in software development. In this instructor-led, live training, participants will learn the fundamentals of Continuous Delivery (CD) as they step through setting up and configuring CD pipelines on GoCD. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of Continuous Delivery
• Use GoCD to set up their CD process and pipelines
• Configure GoCD depending on their needs

Audience

• Developers
• IT Professionals
• DevOps Engineers
• Business Managers

Format of the course

• Part lecture, part discussion, exercises and heavy hands-on practice

This instructor-led, live training in Waterloo covers the concepts, tools and techniques needed to carry out continuous integration of your software projects in an Agile environment. Participants carry out a series of hands-on exercises throughout the course to apply their knowledge in real situations. Interaction among instructor and participants is encouraged. Real-world cases are discussed and specific issues and questions are addressed and resolved in class.

JIRA Software is a powerful tool for Project Management and people tend to focus more on the tool than the method itself. This instructor-led, live training introduces the participants to the power of Jira and Confluence, working together to serve the only purpose of helping the team to deliver successfully the product / project. The team will learn how to properly use these tools to be more efficient handling User Requirements, Testing, Communication, centralized in one place. Will be studied JIRA projects, Confluence spaces, workflows, boards (Kanban & Scrum), planning and dependencies, Jira/Confluence linkage, reporting, important fields and custom fields, issue types, screen & filtering. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Create a Scrum or Kanban project
• Configure Jira to manage the project properly
• Manage issues effectively
• Build the necessary screen to handle issue types
• Create workflows and boards, and understand their interaction
• Perform basic and advanced searches and analysis
• Generate and review reports necessary for the team and the management

JIRA is a Java based web application that provides project and issue tracking for improving the agility of software development. In this instructor-led, live training, participants will learn how to use Jira to implement a Kanban approach to Agile within their organization. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the principles behind Agile and Kanban
• Use Jira to create and manage a Kanban project
• Customize Jira to fit the needs of their organization
• Perform basic and advanced searches and analysis
• Generate and review reports

Audience

• Product managers
• Software developers
• Test engineers
• Business analysts

Format of the Course

• Part lecture, part discussion, exercises and heavy hands-on practice in a live-lab environment.

Note

• To request a customized training for this course, please contact us to arrange.

OrangeScrum is an open-source, web-based project management and collaboration tool for managing projects, teams and tasks in one place. It includes bug tracking, email integration, and issue management, among other features. In this instructor-led, live training participants will learn how to implement Agile and Scrum methodologies using OrangeScrum. By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Set up and configure OrangeScrum on their own premises (optional)
• Identify and implement key Scrum principles and practices, including the product backlog, sprint burndown chart, task boards, and more.
• Use OrangeScrum to organize tasks, communicate with a team effectively and keep project documents under control

Audience

• IT professionals
• Project managers
• Team leaders
• Developers

Format of the course

• Part lecture, part discussion, exercises and heavy hands-on practice

Notes

• If you are interested in installing and administering an onsite instance of OrangeScrum, contact us to arrange.

PAQ is a 3 day experiential exam preparation training course with a focus on honing practical skills that can be implemented back in the workplace. The exam takes the format of a ‘hands-on’ assessment where candidates are given a product backlog release which includes user stories, associated design documentation plus a ‘multi-drop’ application seeded with defects. Candidates will be given instructions as to what is expected of them during the practical assessment and the opportunity to create the work products required. Each practical assessment will contain 1or 2 additional scenario-based questions requiring written answers (up to 5 questions in total) that cover a selection of competencies. These written answers will be marked along with the answers to the product backlog release by an independent assessor. Assessment duration is 2.5 hours.    

This two-day course teaches the Lean-Agile principles and practices of the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®). You’ll learn how to execute and release value through Agile Release Trains, how to build an Agile Portfolio, and how to lead a Lean-Agile transformation at enterprise scale. You will gain an understanding of the Lean-Agile mindset and how to apply the principles and practices of SAFe to support Agile teams, programs, program portfolio management, and to coordinate large Value Streams. Attending the class prepares you to take the exam and become a certified SAFe® Agilist (SA). Associated Certification: SAFe Agilist (SA)

This two-day course prepares current Scrum Masters for their leadership role in facilitating Agile team, program, and enterprise success in a SAFe® implementation. The course covers facilitation of cross-team interactions in support of the program execution and relentless improvement. It enhances the Scrum paradigm with an introduction to scalable engineering and DevOps practices; the application of Kanban to facilitate the flow of value; and supporting interactions with architects, product management, and other critical stakeholders in the larger program and enterprise contexts. The course offers actionable tools for building high-performing teams and explores practical ways of addressing Agile and Scrum anti-patterns in the enterprise. Attending the class prepares you to take the exam and become a certified SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master (ASM).

This two-day course teaches teams who are part of an Agile Release Train (ART) how to work in an Agile environment using Scrum, Kanban, and XP. The teams will learn how to become Agile Teams, build their backlog, and plan and execute iterations. Agile teams learn about their ART and their role in it, planning, executing, and improving with other teams. This class prepares teams to run a Program Increment (PI), including all meetings at the Team and Program level with a specific focus on the upcoming PI planning. Attending the class prepares participants to take the exam and become a certified SAFe® Practitioner (SP). After this course, you should be able to:

• Apply SAFe to scale Lean and Agile development in your enterprise
• Know your team and its role on the Agile Release Train
• Know all other teams on the train, their roles and the dependencies between the teams
• Plan iterations
• Execute iterations, demo value, and improve your process
• Plan Program Increments
• Integrate and work with other teams on the train