Certified Scrum Master Certification

Get familiar with the 12 principles and 4 values stated in the Agile Manifesto through our popular in-class activity – “Draw and demonstrate”. Herein, you will be asked to form groups and illustrate all 12 principles pictorially.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Explain the 12 principles and 4 values listed in the Agile Manifesto.
• Demonstrate the benefits of “responding to change” in Agile over “following a plan” in traditional project management.
• Describe how the Scrum values (courage, focus, commitment, respect, openness) relate to the Scrum artifacts, events and roles.
• List and explain the three pillars of Scrum ― Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation.
• Explain the differences between framework and methodology and understand why Scrum is called a framework.
• List 5 ways to develop an Agile mindset.
• Illustrate 2 differences between Agile and Scrum and explain why these two terms cannot be used interchangeably.

Topics covered

• Agile Manifesto
• 12 Principles
• 4 values
• Scrum Foundations (5 Scrum Values

Take part in the Scrum Paper Plane game and learn how the 5 Scrum ceremonies work. There will be 3 sprints, each lasting 15 minutes. You need to prepare the user stories that will cover the features and functionalities along with acceptance criteria.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Explain the “why” and “how” of sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and retrospectives.
• Understand why the scope and duration of a sprint are fixed.
• List 3 ways to avoid sprint backlog spillover.
• Define sprint goals and discuss the 5 benefits of having a sprint goal.
• Understand how the Scrum Master and the Product Owner should coordinate with the team and list 5 points to improve such communications.
• Discuss 3 damaging impacts of sprint cancellation and how to avoid it.
• List 10 sprint anti-patterns (E.g. sprint cancellation, variable sprint length) and understand how these impact the delivery and turnaround time.

Topics covered

• Sprint planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

Learn about the Scrum life cycle by taking part in the “coin game”. The participants will be linking ceremonies to create effective sprint goals. This module will focus on the common challenges in sprint execution and enable team members to improvise.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Explain the difference between resolution meetings and daily standups.
• Explain the benefits of collaborations with product owners.
• List 3 demerits of over-collaboration of the product owners.
• Demonstrate 3 ways to break the barriers and collaborate
• Demonstrate creation of sprint burndown chart
• Explain 3 approaches to increase efficiency in the team

Topics covered

• Sprint Execution Planning
• Flow management
• Resolution meetings
• Communication (Taskboard, Sprint burndown chart using story points, hours effort)

Familiarize yourself with the Definition of Done (DoD) and Acceptance Criteria with the “Crazy Juggler” game wherein you need to pass a fixed number of balls to non-adjacent team members within a certain time frame and collect them in a paper bag once marked as “done”.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Explain the Definition of Done at three levels ― user story (e.g. writing code), sprint, and release (e.g. preparing release notes).
• List 3 benefits of the Definition of Done and explain why it can evolve over a certain period.
• Prepare a checklist (with a minimum of 7 entries) of an ideal DoD.
• Mention 3 risks associated with an ill-formed DoD.
• List 5 characteristics of good acceptance criteria.
• Understand who should be involved in drafting the acceptance criteria.
• List 3 negative impacts of not following the acceptance criteria.

Topics covered

• Definition of Done for a feature (user story or product backlog item)
• Definition of Done for a sprint
• Definition of Done for a release
• Definition of Done vs. Acceptance criteria
• Done vs. Done-Done.

Play the self-organization game “Human Knots” by forming teams of 5-6. Groups where team members can untie themselves first win. The time frame for this activity will be decided by your instructor. Each team will have a Scrum Master and Product Owner chosen by group members.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Define and understand the steps involved in release planning.
• List 3 benefits of a well-organized release planning.
• List 3 outputs of release planning.

Topics covered

• Definition of release planning
• Who takes part in release planning
• Steps in Release planning
• The output of Release Planning

Take part in the ballpoint game and understand the in-depth concepts of release burn-up charts and why Scrum teams use them. There will be 5 iterations and once the sprint is completed, the team will put a mark on the release burn-up as to how many points are completed.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Understand the importance of having a release goal (based on historical data and agreement).
• Demonstrate the importance of release burn-up in understanding the current status.
• List 2 differences between burndown and burn-up charts.
• Explain how to adjust release planning (if needed) based on the burndown.
• Tell one primary advantage of a burnup chart over a burndown chart.  

Topics covered

• Definition
• Features
• How to create a release burn-up chart (steps)

Be a part of the Lego Building Blocks game wherein participants will be asked to write user stories for every activity involved. The game will entail 3 iterations and attendees will prepare user stories that will cover the features and functionalities along with acceptance criteria. 

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Define and explain user stories and understand the importance of user stories in real-time projects.
• Explain the 3 Cs in user stories.
• Discuss the importance of acceptance criteria and list 3 scenarios that might arise when the acceptance criteria are not met.

Topics covered

• What are user stories?
• Structure/format of user stories
• INVEST criteria

Know everything about planning poker from our popular poker card estimation game. Team members/estimators have to privately select one card and the value on each card would represent the story point. Once all cards are revealed, the values need to be discussed.

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• List 5 benefits of planning poker estimation technique.
• Decide the best sequence for the values (story points) on cards for your real-time projects.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 
• List 3 points to heed for employing planning poker for distributed teams.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Benefits
• Participants
• How to play planning poker
• Planning Poker rules

Learn more about the three roles in Scrum with role-based activities. Each group will play a simulation game called “candy catch” that will have three iterations. The Scrum Master and Product Owner (chosen by group members) will coordinate and help the team achieve the highest target within the shortest time.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Conduct a retrospective to list 3 techniques to improve performance and turnaround time.
• Explain the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master and a Product Owner.
• List 3 differences between a Scrum Master and a Product Owner and understand why these two roles should not overlap.
• Discuss how a product owner acts as a bridge between the development team and the stakeholders.
• Understand why a Scrum Master is not an active participant but a facilitator in the Scrum events and ceremonies.
• List 3 demerits of having a development team of fewer than 3 members or greater than 10 members.

Topics covered

• Scrum Master roles and challenges
• Product Owner roles and responsibilities
• Development team roles and responsibilities

Experience how scrum works in real projects with our simulation game “Crime Teller”. The activity will be divided into 3 sprints, wherein the participants will actively employ Product backlog refinement among other scrum artifacts to solve a given “crime” story.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to: 

• List and demonstrate 5 salient features of a well-formed product backlog (E.g. estimated, prioritized).
• Discuss 2 responsibilities of the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development team in creating and maintaining a product backlog.
• The objective of having a product backlog and best approaches to product backlog refinement.
• Analyze and discuss the ideal time and capacity to be dedicated to product backlog refinement.
• Demonstrate 3 activities (E.g. budget and timeline, release schedule) that take place during a sprint review.
• List 5 sprint review anti-patterns (E.g. delayed   acceptance) and their negative impacts

Topics covered

• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Product Increment

Play the “Marshmallow Tower” game and learn more about daily scrum and sprint retrospectives in real scrum projects. The tallest tower built with the minimum raw materials and in the shortest time frame will win. Acceptance criteria will be defined by the instructor.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Explain the importance of a 15-minute timebox for daily scrum meetings.
• List 3 differences between traditional meetings and daily stand-ups.
• Describe 2 roles played by the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team in daily scrum.
• List the 3 critical questions about the daily scrum agenda.
• List 2 responsibilities of the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development team during the sprint retrospective.

Topics covered

• Activities in daily scrum
• Activities in the sprint retrospective

Acquaint yourself with the Definition of Ready with our Lego blocks game wherein the attendees will be asked to build a city out of Lego building blocks. The “definition of ready” checklist for the final deliverable will be determined by the instructor.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Create an ultimate checklist of the Definition of Done.
• List 3 negative impacts of an ill-formed Definition of Done.
• Identify at least 3 benefits of a shared Definition of Done for multiple teams working on the same product backlog.
• List 2 ways to improve the Definition of Done.
• Clearly understand the differences between “done” and “done done”.

Topics covered

• Definition of Ready for user story
• Definition of Ready for sprint

Acquaint yourself with the Sprint Burndown Chart concepts by taking part in the ballpoint game. There will be 5 iterations and the number of points being expected at the end of the release will be communicated to the team.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• Define and understand the sprint burndown chart.
• List 3 primary reasons to use a burndown chart.
• Learn how to create and calculate a burndown chart.
• Explain how to adjust upcoming sprints based on the burndown.
• List 3 critical information obtained from a burndown chart.
• List 5 merits and 2 demerits of using a burndown chart.
• Understand 5 common errors that lead to misleading information in burndown charts.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Why and when to use a sprint burndown chart
• Information obtained from sprint burndown chart

Topics covered

• What is product planning
• What is product vision
• How to create a product backlog
• Product Roadmap 
• Minimum Releasable features (or) Minimum Marketable Features 
• Minimum Viable Products

Learn more about the “what” and “how” of Agile estimation with our in-class Agile board game “Scrumble”. In an interactive setting, this game will let you analyze the common challenges faced by Scrum team members during implementing different estimation techniques in Agile.

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to:

• List and demonstrate 5 benefits of Agile estimation.
• Understand the 7 popular Agile estimation techniques and decide which one is the best for your project.
• Discuss 3 benefits of Relative Estimation and Planning Poker.
• List and explain 3 common mistakes made while using Relative Estimation and their negative impacts.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker.

Topics covered

• Definition
• Benefits of Agile Estimation
• Agile estimation techniques