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University System of Maryland

Applied Scrum for Agile Project Management

University System of Maryland and University of Maryland, College Park via edX

Overview

Scrum and Agile are often considered synonymous, and there is a good reason. Scrum embodies the simplest and most pure approach to managing project work at the team level. Scrum is employed by over half of all Agile practitioners across all industries. While agile may have started in software development, many industries now use an agile methodology to deliver their work. The basis for agile, the agile manifesto, extends well beyond its origins in extreme programming and agile software development. Development teams around the world are now using kanban boards and assigning strong product owners to direct self-organizing teams to deliver on prioritized product backlogs. And nearly every new product has some sort of IT component and goes through an agile development lifecycle.

  • Today nearly 100% of IT organizations use Agile and many other industries are quickly following;

  • The likelihood of being on a Scrum or Scrum-like project is quickly approaching 50/50 or better over time.

While the Mastering Agile Professional Certificate program emphasizes principles at the heart of all Agile frameworks, in this course we start by learning the key project management processes, roles, mechanics, and philosophies behind Scrum. This will provide the basis for all understanding Agile in its purest form over four weeks exploring Why, Who, How, and finally What Scrum looks like applied in the real world. From understanding the agile team members, like scrum master and product owner, to the important differences in lean and agile processes.

While this course will not make you an agile certified practitioner (PMI-ACP), or certified scrum master (CSM), it offers a more fundamental agile certification based on agile principles and how scaled agile is applied in industry today. You'll finish this course more than ready to begin your agile journey, which we hope takes you to the next course in the series on “Sprint Planning for Faster Agile Team Delivery.”

Upon successful completion of this course, learners can earn 10 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credits, which are recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PDU credits are essential to those looking to maintain certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Syllabus

  • Week 1: The first week starts with Why agile methods are used - based on case studies that prove its effectiveness and the history of getting to Scrum.
  • Week 2: The second week explores Who uses agile across industries, exploring the types of work management and how Scrum Agile fits into the world of work.
  • Week 3: The third week gets into the mechanics of Scrum and How Scrum is performed and executed. Here you'll learn team formation, planning and retro games, and how to effectively manage work to meet Sprint objectives.
  • Week 4: The last week pivots to look at what Scrum looks like at Scale, and how it differs from other Agile frameworksin terms ofscale, program and portfolio management, risk management, and pitfalls of Agile

Taught by

John Johnson

Reviews

4.4 rating, based on 876 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Applied Scrum for Agile Project Management

  • This is a great course to learn the technical aspects of Agile project management and John Johnson is a coherent and concise lecturer delivering high quality lessons. I took the verified track as I will be handling more projects in my role as a university...
  • Anonymous
    Thank you, Mr. John Johnson, for well prepared course on Applied Scrum for Agile Project Management. I particularly like the clarity of your lessons and videos. The Summary Points for every lesson were particularly helpful in reinforcing new learning. Although...
  • So far I have learned a lot from this course, I found that during all my projects I was using Scrum Frameworks even without knowing that ( due to different tailored titles based on my experience industries ).

    however, I was expecting a full case study from A to Z covers the Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team roles through Agile Project, as by doing that we can get the theoretical and practical experience.
  • best course i applied for i hope it will sommeday help me to get a great job pls tell me about the tag i need to answer the feedback quiz question

  • Mohamed-Seif Awadallah

    Mohamed-Seif Awadallah completed this course.

    The course videos and slides were explained in an easy way. The instructor did a really good job. Also the course requires no knowledge about agile. Homework was easy and the final exam also is moderate but not difficult. However, i found the course...
  • I enjoyed the course and learned a lot. The only thing that I might suggest is highlighting new terminology in a separate "dictionary" as some terms were new or maybe industry-specific and I sometimes lost my concentration when trying to figure them out. I like that the class used real-world examples and suggested further reading and videos.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    The materials for this course are mediocre -- there are simple type-os in each week. It's clear that the instructor did not invest a sufficient amount of time in ensuring the quality of these materials. I would also say that the lectures use a lot of jargon that is difficult to navigate if you aren't at least somewhat familiar with Agile.

    I wouldn't recommend this course to another person because I feel like the basic approach to teaching could be better (more examples rather than just lectures introducing concepts). And like I said, I was disappointed that the University of Maryland is willing to put its name on something with some many basic mistakes. These basic mistakes lower my general perceptions of the quality of UMD.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    This covers some of the technical or team architecture behind scrum but it is definitely not 'Applied'. It is also effectively presented as a sales pitch for scrum without going into any depth on reasons why it can be successful with little or no mention...
  • Anonymous
    I'm a certified PMP and have come across Agile Development in the last Program I've led. One of the many projects of this Program has been switched during development into an Agile Project. I must admit, that I was a bit skeptical at the beginning but...
  • Anonymous
    Parts of the course are good, specifically, the section of the course on how a Scrum Sprint works, and the section on scaling Scrum to larger organizational structures. Other parts of the course had less content than I wanted. The course would have...
  • This course will definitely give you a real-world approach on using Agile and all the kinds alike, from the comparison between Traditional, Agile, and Lean, the overview of each method. And the dive into the framework Agile uses, such as Scrum, DAD, LeSS, and all the pros and cons each of them has.

    Simply said, highly recommend!
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    I think this is a great course but I could only give three stars due to a lack of the "Tailored Lesson and Information". They just don't exist for most of the course sections. I verified and paid for the whole certification program and I don't see any tailored information even though there are several discussion board requests that are many months old. Don't offer it if you aren't going to do it. The course is well done aside from the several spelling and grammatical errors in addition to the lack of promised "Tailored Learning". I learned a great deal but somehow came away feeling let down. Simply do what you say you are going to do, especially when you push the verification and certificate program benefits in the videos and readings.
  • Anonymous
    This course was a great Intro to get up to speed on AGILE.While the content was well delivered I missed a place to converse with fellow learners which for me is an important aspect of online learning. I found the final quiz for verified learners quite difficult as many questions were formulated in the double negative using very similar key words for correct and incorrect answers and at times just swapping one word out to make a false answer which can be challenging given you have to revise 4 weeks of content.

    Having a practical assignment to implement the Agile theory in own organizations would have been beneficial as the course is very theoretical.

    Overall, I learned a lot and am glad I took the course.
  • Profile image for JUAN EDUARDO FLORES GUZMAN
    JUAN EDUARDO FLORES GUZMAN
    It's a great course, I learnt a lot! but I think that lacked more illustrative forms into Sprint planning, development, review and retro. I mean that the videos could have more images of frameworks, what is it into some process. An example of this is...
  • Anonymous
    Hello, Mr John Johnson. Thank you for a well-prepared course on Applied Scrum for Agile Project Management. I must confess that your lessons and videos' clarity is what I needed to understand Applied Scrum for Agile Project Management. I am entirely new...
  • Anonymous
    I really enjoyed the course. Although I had very thight timebox of studying and finishing the course because of the fact that my studies are co-financed, I will definitely use many of the references and additional materials provided. Slides were fun to look at and the teacher was charismatic. I appreciate that videos were 14 min max, which allowed to stay focused. Lots of very useful information. Definitely would recommend it to those who are into agile and scrum. A little downside was that I was unable to hide the transcript of the videos, it disturbed my focus because I felt the urge to read it. Otherwise transcripts were useful as well.
  • Owais
    I enjoyed the course
    It has provided me the concepts of

    Iron triangle in project
    Budget Scope and schedule

    Lean project
    Where schedule is flexible against fixed budget and scope and employed for backlogs

    Agile project
    Where scope is flexible against fixed schedule and budget where speed is the main thrust and employed for Revenues / Return on investment and iterations through repeated PDCA cycles

    Traditional project
    Flexible budget against fixed schedule and scope
    Waterfall approach , consolidated project plan along with extensive documentation
    Preferred in line hierarchy / Government organisations
  • Anonymous
    Notwithstanding, I did learn the basics of Agile I was looking for that allowed me to revisit how the Waterfall method is currently viewed alongside Agile and all its variations in the project management field today. I was particularly interested in learning more about facilitation skills that I surmised to be a significant skill set in effectively applying the Scrum framework as well as controls and governance in Agile. Further, I was looking for discussion on the type of systems or applications, not just the size of the project, where Agile might be best suited or not likely to work.
  • Anonymous
    This is a great course to learn the technical aspects of Agile project management and Mr. John Johnson is a coherent and concise lecturer delivering high quality lessons. I took the verified track as I will be handling more projects in my role as a industry...
  • Anonymous
    Great presentation, product backlog, sprint backlog, continuous, safe, hybrid, continuous, agile manifesto, product owner, area product owner, matrix projectized, traditional, lean, agile, hybrid, kanban just some of the words and meanings that give a complete foundation to anyone who would be interested in understanding how the methodology has advanced our development. Great course and the references are a big plus. I recommend everyone take this course who may be ready to jump in and learn this great new approach in contrast to traditional management in part.

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