PROTRAINING offers interactive Agile training, including a simulation for experiencing and thoroughly understanding the Scrum framework

Welcome to the world of Agile – where you will hear of Scrum, Sprints, Burn Down’s, Standup’s, Kanban and Iterations … to mention just a few of the terms that can make it all sound like either a complex art or a new sport.

The ‘Agile Movement’ relates to product development and projects in many areas of business, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of Agile practitioners all around the world.

Whilst traditionally associated with the Software industry, Agile is now being implemented in all sorts industries from Finance to Fashion and is as much part of the conversations happening in boardrooms as IT rooms.

It is now seen as the essential weapon for digital transformation projects, rapid product development and responding to the ever-changing volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business landscape. With its emphasis on customer value, flexibility, collaboration and speed, Agile projects enjoy a high success rate.

Agile project management started back in 2001 in the IT space as a rescue remedy for software projects that had traditionally been using Waterfall techniques – which were heavy on documentation, processes, planning and long and late on delivery. Agile projects by contrast worked on shorter spans of planning, smaller teams, faster adaptation and ultimately the delivery of more working products, often ahead of time.

What became obvious was the success rate of Agile was far higher than the Waterfall approach ….

So Agile per se, is not new – what is new is that it has been adopted in all sorts of industries and applied to different business models.

“In some ways, Agile may be the best-kept management secret on the planet” Many managers know little about it”   Steve Denning.

What is Agile?

The experts at Agile Alliance define it as;

“Rapidly, deliberately and collaboratively responding to changing demands while controlling risks”

When we ask this question to our participants – someone immediately shouts out “Fast”.

… true, that is a component. But anyone can be fast, or faster, it’s more about directing that speed intelligently and towards adding real value to customers and being nimble in making iterative improvements and changes.

In a nutshell?

Agile is about being Fast(er), Focused (on delivering value to the customer) and Flexible to make changes and results happen.

So how do we become Agile?

Well that’s like saying how do we become “sporty”? It’s a general wish until something tangible is done like adopting a sport, learning the rules, practicing hard and getting good at it. There are many, many sports to choose from, just like there are many Agile practices to choose from.

So in order for Agile to produce real benefits for the initiatives happening in your organisation, consider choosing and implementing a solid framework. One of the more universal and recommended one is Scrum, which is a lightweight yet highly effective framework for implementing Agile. The term Scrum was inspired by the game of rugby of course – itself a model of speed, focus and flexibility.

Work is completed in a series of Sprints of 1 to 4 weeks and according to a defined set of Roles, Artefacts and Events that must be followed. The Official Scrum Guide by its creators Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland lays out all the requirements and is readily available on line.

In our Fundamentals of Agile training conducted by a certified Scrum Master, we aim to make Agile Scrum accessible and understood at all levels whether management or non-management employees. By using a highly gamified design – we allow teams to really get a hands on experience of managing a projects using the Scrum framework. In a highly engaging fashion, our programme design enables teams to experience the Roles, Events and Artefacts of Scrum repeatedly throughout this one day workshop. They leave with immediately transferrable skills and knowledge.

Patricia O’Sullivan

Managing Partner and Scrum Master