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Preparation for PMI’s Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP®) exam

25-27 Sept 2017 (€1,095 per seat)

Dublin

Three Days

Purpose:

If your organisation is using agile practices in projects, or is considering adopting agile approaches to project management, the PMI-ACP® certification may be right for you. The PMI-ACP encompasses knowledge of agile principles, practices and tools and techniques across agile methodologies. It is intended for individuals who want to

Demonstrate to employers their level of professionalism in agile practices, tools and techniques
Increase their professional versatility in agile techniques
Hold a certification that is more credible than existing entry-level, training or exam-only based offerings

See http://www.pmi.org/en/Certification/New-PMI-Agile-Certification.aspx for eligibility requirements.

There are 6 ‘domain areas’ used by the PMI to help logically group the above Tools & Techniques and Knowledge & Skills for training purposes. These are

Value-driven delivery
Stakeholder engagement
Boosting team performance practices
Adaptive planning
Problem detection and resolution
Continuous improvement

This course provides an introduction to Agile and then covers, by domain area, all the tools and techniques and all the knowledge and skills required to pass the exam, including extensive sets of sample questions.

The three day course enables participants to apply for 14 PDUs with their PMI chapter.

Exam Information:

Trigraph does not administer the exam.

After this course the delegates register for the exam themselves and do the exam at open testing centres.

We detail the process as part of the course.

The ACP exam covers the following

Content

% of exam

Agile Tools and Techniques

50%

Agile Knowledge and Skills (3 levels)

50% made up from:

Level 1 (18 knowledge/skills) – 33%

Level 2 (12 knowledge/skills) – 12%

Level 3 (13 knowledge/skills) – 5%

Suitable for:

This course is intended for anyone who wishes to undertake the PMI’s exam leading to the ACP certificate. This includes Project Managers, Programme Managers, Senior/Middle Management, Line/functional Managers, Development Managers, Quality Managers and Team Leaders.

The PMI-ACP is not limited to project managers – individuals with experience working on agile project teams can apply as you don’t need experience managing projects.

Topics Covered

(Note: sample exam questions are provided at the end of each module and a full sample paper is provided for participants to practice after the course)

Introduction to Agile

Agile Manifesto, values and principles
Agile Methods: Scrum, XP, FDD, DSDM, Crystal, Kanban
Variations in Agile Methods

The ACP domain areas:

1.1. Value-driven delivery

Topics	Tools/technique	Knowledge/Skill (Level)
Assessing Value	Return on investment (ROI) Net present value (NPV) Internal rate of return (IRR)
Planning Value	Chartering Value stream mapping Customer-valued prioritisation Relative prioritisation/ranking Product roadmap Risk-adjusted backlog	Prioritisation (Level 1) Agile contracting methods (Level 3)
Delivering value	Task/Kanban boards WIP limits	Incremental delivery (Level 1)
Confirming value	Customer-valued prioritisation	Feedback thru prototypes, simulations & demo (level 1)
Tracking and reporting value	Earned value management Cumulative flow diagrams (CFDs) Risk burn down graphs Task/Kanban boards

2. Stakeholder engagement

Topics	Tools/technique	Knowledge/Skill (Level)
Aligning stakeholders’ understanding	Wireframes Personas User stories / backlogs Story maps	Incorporating stakeholder values (Level 1) Stakeholder management (Level 1) Vendor Management (Level 3)
Communicating with stakeholders	Information radiators Burn down / up charts Velocity Agile modelling	Communications management (Level 1)
Using critical soft skills	Negotiation Conflict resolution	Active listening (Level 1) Facilitation methods (Level 2) Distributed teams (Level 2) Participatory decision models (Level 2) Globalisation, culture and team diversity (Level 3)
Leading Effectively	Servant Leadership	Leadership tools and techniques (Level 3)

1. 3. Boosting team performance practices

Topics

Tools/technique

Knowledge/Skill (Level)

Understanding team performance

Adaptive leadership

Emotional intelligence

Building empowered teams (Level 1)

Building high-performance teams (Level 2)

Team Motivation (Level 1)

Team practices to improve performance

Daily stand-ups

Co-located teams

Team Space

Agile tooling

Coaching and mentoring (level 1)

Brainstorming techniques (Level 1)

Distributed teams (Level 2)

1. 4. Adaptive planning

Topics	Tools/technique	Knowledge/Skill (Level)
Planning concepts	Timeboxing Progressive elaboration Process tailoring Minimal marketable feature (MMF)	Value-based analysis (Level 2) Value-based decomposition and prioritisation (Level 1) Agile games (Level 3)
Estimation	Wideband Delphi & planning poker Ideal time Relative sizing/story points Affinity estimating	Time, budget and cost estimation (Level 1) Agile project accounting principles (Level 3)
Agile plans	Iteration and release planning	Agile charters (Level 2) Business case development (Level 2)

1. 5. Problem Detection & Resolution

Topics

Tools/technique

Knowledge/Skill (Level)

Problem detection

Cycle Time

Project and Quality Standards (Level 1)

Failure modes and alternatives (Level 3)

Variance and trend analysis (Level 3)

Control limits (Level 3)

Problem resolution

Continuous Integration

Risk-based spike

Frequent verification and validation

Test-driven development / test-first development

Acceptance test-driven development

Problem solving (level 1)

1. 6. Continuous improvement

Topics

Tools/technique

Knowledge/Skill (Level)

Continuous improvement practices

Process tailoring

Knowledge sharing (Level 1)

Principles of systems thinking (Level 3)

Process analysis (Level 2)

Applying new agile practices (Level 3)

PMI’s code of ethics (Level 2)

Continuous improvement process (Level 2)

Self-assessment (Level 2)

Pitfalls and Lessons Learnt

This module will discuss some of the risks and common pitfalls experienced in practice by Agile teams and how these can be avoided.

Summary and next steps

Exam coaching and tips

Sample exam – provided to participants to practice after the course with 3 hour time limit.

Objectives:

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:

Describe the key agile values and principles
Outline the key elements of the various agile methodologies such as Scrum and XP
Apply all the tools and techniques required for the ACP exam including those associated with
- Communications
- Planning, monitoring and adapting
- Agile estimation
- Agile analysis and design
- Product Quality
- Soft skills negotiation
- Value-based prioritisation
- Risk Management
- Metrics
- Value Stream analysis
Use all the 43 knowledge and skills required for the ACP exam including those associated with the differing levels of importance
- Level 1: e.g. coaching and mentoring within teams, incremental delivery, project and quality standards for agile projects, stakeholder management, value-based decomposition and prioritisation, etc.
- Level 2: e.g. building high performance teams, facilitation methods, process analysis techniques, agile frameworks and terminology, etc.
- Level 3: e.g. agile contracting methods, principles of systems thinking, agile games, etc.

Benefits:

Prepare for an internationally recognised qualification in Agile - PMI’s Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP®) exam

Detailed Content:

Topics Covered

(Note: sample exam questions are provided at the end of each module and a full sample paper is provided for participants to practice after the course)

Introduction to Agile

Agile Manifesto, values and principles
Agile Methods: Scrum, XP, FDD, DSDM, Crystal, Kanban
Variations in Agile Methods

The ACP domain areas:

1.1. Value-driven delivery

Topics	Tools/technique	Knowledge/Skill (Level)
Assessing Value	Return on investment (ROI) Net present value (NPV) Internal rate of return (IRR)
Planning Value	Chartering Value stream mapping Customer-valued prioritisation Relative prioritisation/ranking Product roadmap Risk-adjusted backlog	Prioritisation (Level 1) Agile contracting methods (Level 3)
Delivering value	Task/Kanban boards WIP limits	Incremental delivery (Level 1)
Confirming value	Customer-valued prioritisation	Feedback thru prototypes, simulations & demo (level 1)
Tracking and reporting value	Earned value management Cumulative flow diagrams (CFDs) Risk burn down graphs Task/Kanban boards

2. Stakeholder engagement

Topics	Tools/technique	Knowledge/Skill (Level)
Aligning stakeholders’ understanding	Wireframes Personas User stories / backlogs Story maps	Incorporating stakeholder values (Level 1) Stakeholder management (Level 1) Vendor Management (Level 3)
Communicating with stakeholders	Information radiators Burn down / up charts Velocity Agile modelling	Communications management (Level 1)
Using critical soft skills	Negotiation Conflict resolution	Active listening (Level 1) Facilitation methods (Level 2) Distributed teams (Level 2) Participatory decision models (Level 2) Globalisation, culture and team diversity (Level 3)
Leading Effectively	Servant Leadership	Leadership tools and techniques (Level 3)

1. 3. Boosting team performance practices

Topics

Tools/technique

Knowledge/Skill (Level)

Understanding team performance

Adaptive leadership

Emotional intelligence

Building empowered teams (Level 1)

Building high-performance teams (Level 2)

Team Motivation (Level 1)

Team practices to improve performance

Daily stand-ups

Co-located teams

Team Space

Agile tooling

Coaching and mentoring (level 1)

Brainstorming techniques (Level 1)

Distributed teams (Level 2)

1. 4. Adaptive planning

Topics	Tools/technique	Knowledge/Skill (Level)
Planning concepts	Timeboxing Progressive elaboration Process tailoring Minimal marketable feature (MMF)	Value-based analysis (Level 2) Value-based decomposition and prioritisation (Level 1) Agile games (Level 3)
Estimation	Wideband Delphi & planning poker Ideal time Relative sizing/story points Affinity estimating	Time, budget and cost estimation (Level 1) Agile project accounting principles (Level 3)
Agile plans	Iteration and release planning	Agile charters (Level 2) Business case development (Level 2)

1. 5. Problem Detection & Resolution

Topics

Tools/technique

Knowledge/Skill (Level)

Problem detection

Cycle Time

Project and Quality Standards (Level 1)

Failure modes and alternatives (Level 3)

Variance and trend analysis (Level 3)

Control limits (Level 3)

Problem resolution

Continuous Integration

Risk-based spike

Frequent verification and validation

Test-driven development / test-first development

Acceptance test-driven development

Problem solving (level 1)

1. 6. Continuous improvement

Topics

Tools/technique

Knowledge/Skill (Level)

Continuous improvement practices

Process tailoring

Knowledge sharing (Level 1)

Principles of systems thinking (Level 3)

Process analysis (Level 2)

Applying new agile practices (Level 3)

PMI’s code of ethics (Level 2)

Continuous improvement process (Level 2)

Self-assessment (Level 2)

Pitfalls and Lessons Learnt

This module will discuss some of the risks and common pitfalls experienced in practice by Agile teams and how these can be avoided.

Summary and next steps

Exam coaching and tips

Sample exam – provided to participants to practice after the course with 3 hour time limit.

Preparation for PMI’s Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP®) exam

Objectives:

Benefits:

Detailed Content:

Trainers for this course

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