Course Notes (2023)

PMP Project Management Fundamentals and

Essentials
Course Link (Allison)
https://alison.com/course/pmp-project-management-fundamental-con
cepts-for-beginners

Project, Project Management & Its Phases

● Project: Having a starting point and an ending point

● Operation work: Endless processes (daily business/org functions) are
going on even when the project is completed
● Process Groups/ Phases of PM: Initiating, Planning, Execution,
Monitoring & Controlling, Closing/ Implementation + Follow-up
● Knowledge Area: Scope, Quality, Cost, Schedule, Resources, Stakeholder,
Communication, Risk, Procurement, Integration
● Portfolio -> Program -> Project
● A Program is a group of numerous projects running according to the
defined aim and objectives.
● A Portfolio is a set of programs and projects. They are managed
under the respective portfolio to achieve the organization’s
strategic goals/ objectives.
● 5 Dimension/ Indicators to measure the success of the project
● Efficiency
● Customer (Satisfaction)
● Team success (Maturity, Skills Improvement, Lessons learned,
Experiences)
● Business - Near: RoI, Profits, NPV (Net Present Value), Internal
rate of return
● Business - Future: Development of New Technology, Market
Positioning, Competitive Advantage
● Goals for success metric
● Intermediate Goals: Completion of a project within the defined
scope, timeline, and budget
● Mid-term Goals: Customer satisfaction, Fulfilling the expected
requirements, goals, and objectives, Efficiency
● Long-term Goals: Team success, Achieving or strengthening in
driving the strategic goals of the business
● Dimension for PM traits
● Leadership qualities
● Soft skills
● EQ (Emotional Intelligence)
● Character traits (Personality)
● Values (Attitudes & Ethics)
 ● Indicators for Teamwork Effectiveness
● Negotiability
● Lack of misinformation and disinformation (Effective sharing of
information)
● Conflict management
● Increase self-esteem and motivation (Satisfaction & Excitement)
● Collaboration
● Stakeholder involvement

Project Management Phases

● Project Initiation: Define the aim and objectives of the project with
the alignment of business/ strategic goals
● Project Charter: A document includes the facts of a brief
description of the project, objectives, and goals, project
constraints, assignment of project owner & project manager
(Funding org), Estimated Budget, and Timeline (Start Date & End
Date), etc.
● Stakeholder Registration: A sheet listing of assigning the key
stakeholders and their information such as role, responsibility,
designation, contact info, communication requirements, and
influence
● Project Planning: Specify the project management plan properly based on
the project charter.
● Detail requirements and functions of the project
● Project Scope & Out of Scope
● Activities & Tasks (WBS- Work Breakdown Structure)
● PM Approach & Methodology
● Timeline & Schedule (Gantt chart)
● Project Team Allocation
● Budget Plan
● Communication Plan
● Risk Management Plan (Risk reduction, Risk Mitigation)
● Change Management Plan (For avoiding scope creep & project delays)
● Implementation Plan
● Goals & Objectives (2 Methods: SMART - Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound & CLEAR - Collaborative,
Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refinable for flexibility and
immediate results)
● Execution: The Production process of the project and it is vital to
track the progress regularly and update the task completion with the key
stakeholders able to ensure the communication and workflows run smoothly
and detect the issues.
● Monitoring & Controlling: The quantitative measurement (Critica Success
Factors & KPI) of efforts, tasks complement, and budget are carried out
to make some adjustments to the plan.
● Implementation: Configuration and handover of the project take place in
this phase and the project is delivered to the clients. The project
completion report comes out with the evaluation of the success and
 failure of the project along with lessons learned and improvements in
the future.
● Follow Up: Review the outcome and results of the project while it is
running. Check the errors and complaints and if necessary, provide
maintenance and training.
● Project management: The process of applying methodologies, tools,
skills, resources, policies, and procedures in order to carry out
planning, monitoring, and controlling by achieving the intended goals
and objectives efficiently and effectively.

11 Considerations/ Steps for Project Success

● Define realistic purpose: With precise goals and purpose, it helps to

figure out clearly the way to get things done.
● Identifying and Discussing with stakeholders: To ensure that all the
stakeholders understand and realize the activities and tasks required to
do, To affirm the requirements and needs of the clients with a “Scope
Statement”, and avoid miscommunication
● Prioritizing goals: Project goals or Business goals (Intermediate,
Mid-term, Long-term) are set according to their prioritized level and
required to be well-documented for sharing with stakeholders.
● Establishment of success milestones: Defining Milestones throughout the
project makes the progress-tracking process easier and reviewing the
success or issues of the tasks much more visible to the project team and
clients.
● Define Milestones and Deliverables: Using the 4 steps of Initiating,
Planning, Execution, and Closure, transparency, and consistency of the
workflows can be obtained as the critical deliverables and milestones
are easily monitored and evaluated.
● Assigning Team Members: Selection or recruitment of team members who
have the skills and expertise compatible with the project requirements
● Select project management framework/ approach: Not only choosing the
right methodology important using the appropriate software or tools
which is robust for information security can make a difference as well.
Software Properties:
● Defining the project templates.
● Providing grounds for establishing effective communication with
all the stakeholders.
● The ability to track whether the projects are on schedule or not.
● Planning of project by classifying it into phases and tasks.
● Budgeting of projects and milestones.
● Cost and revenue against the project.
● Management of any scope changes.
● Project milestones that are invoice-based.
● Profit and Loss statement.
● Setting up realistic and achievable deadlines.
● Addition of resources, time, and expenses.
● Specify schedule: A timeline or schedule with the tasks, required
resources, stakeholders, budget, duration, critical level, and
dependencies
 ● Risk Assessment/ Management: For unforeseen risks and their impacts,
risk assessment analysis and proper management strategy are required.
● Testing of deliverables: To make sure the deliverables meet the defined
objectives and requirements able to fix the errors and issues before
continuing to the next phase
● Evaluation of results: Determine the right and wrong aspects of the
project throughout the development and apply the findings or solutions
in future projects

10 Knowledge Areas

● Integration Management: Integration of the processes in the knowledge

areas of the whole project to develop a big picture or overview map
checking against the project plan
● Scope Management: Well-defined the boundaries of the project,
unnecessary tasks, and processes so that the PM can refine, review and
validate only what needs to do
● Time Management: Set a timeframe or duration to perform the defined
tasks or activities by scheduling
● Cost Management: To complete the project within budget, allocate the
estimated cost to each work or process needed to do in advance
● Quality Management: Define the standards and guidelines required to
validate the deliverables or outcome against the requirements and
qualities that are essential to have
● Stakeholder Management: Choosing the right channels to communicate with
the stakeholders and analyzing their influences and impacts on the
project’s success
● Communication Management: Specify the methods to deal with each group of
stakeholders and workflows of sharing information or getting approval
and confirmations to carry out the tasks
● Procurement Management: Need to consider the required equipment,
products, or services to accomplish the work efficiently
● Risk Management: The vulnerabilities, issues, and incidents that are
likely to happen throughout the project development are required to
analyze and the ways to mitigate or reduce the impacts of those events
are required to determine.
● Resource Management: Allocation plan to manage the resources of the
project to complete the project on time and on budget.

Project Plan

● Importance of a Project Plan

1. Avoid scope creep, Over budget, and extending project timeline
2. In a Project Plan, the budget plan is set by the Project Manager
with the involvement of stakeholders, team members, and product
owner.
3. Provide shared vision and understanding among stakeholders and
team members
4. Proper assignment of the project team members and tasks able to
prevent the extra workload
 5. By specifying communication flows, risk analysis, and mitigation,
quality assurance guidelines, and change control practices, it can
reduce uncertainties, overcome barriers, and easily handle the
conditions that issues might happen throughout the project
development.
● Steps of writing a project plan
1. Alignment of Project Goals & Organization Needs:
■ Consideration of the goals of the organization and the
expectations of clients and the project team
■ The time needed to get the intended goals (Quarterly,
Yearly)
2. Define Goals and Objectives:
■ The Goals and Objectives should reflect the expectations of
the organization and key stakeholders.
■ While implementing the project plan, it might need to modify
and update the project plan if required.
3. Scope Document:
■ Define what is necessary to do to get the objectives and
goals and list them into tasks and activities with the
elements of duration, resources, and stakeholder by using
the tools: WBS, Flowchart, Spreadsheets, and Project
Management Software.
■ It should be sharable and editable.
4. Specify Schedule:
■ It contains the time and tasks required to be done by the
assigned person like a calendar showing the duration of the
project and the running progress.
■ Try to cover the unexpected events of the team members
dropping out and unavailability and set the backup person
5. Define Roles, Responsibilities, and Resources:
■ Assigning the stakeholders and team members with the RACI
Chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consultant, Informed)
■ Responsible (The main person to carry out the task)
■ Accountable (Has the power of saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or
veto)
■ Consultant (The expertise who can approve the task)
■ Informed (Need to inform the updated information of
the task)
■ Resources: Money, Equipment, Software, Tools, Hardware
6. Communication Plan (Clients, Team members, & Stakeholders):
■ Use collaborative tools (communication channels) appropriate
for each group of stakeholders (Product owner, Vendor, Team
Members, Funding Organization)
■ Prevent miscommunication and unavailability of information
■ Keep the project on track and get the updates without
delaying
7. Planning to adjust discrepancies (Risk, Change, Quality):
■ Be prepared for the events and incidents likely to occur
that can affect the continuity of the project
8. Launching the project:
 ■ Start the project by sharing the information and discussing
the desired outcome with the respective stakeholders to get
a common understanding of the project
■ Some crucial points:
■ Aims & Objectives
■ The final product or result that the project delivers
■ Confirming the requirements of the stakeholders with
the tasks required to do
■ Use the Gantt chart as a map to get an overview of the
project
■ Discussing and adjusting roles & responsibilities
■ Discussing communication plan with each group of
stakeholders
■ Brainstorming the potential vulnerable issues and
risks and the actions able to solve them

Project Management Tools

● Online Project Planning Tools

● Easy to plan, schedule, share, and get information online anytime
anywhere.
● Project Dashboard can save effort and time to track the status and
progress of the project (Task, Budget, Workload, Team) with
graphs, charts, and alert features.
● Task Management Tools
● Easy to list tasks, Sheets, and Calendars Features
● User-friendly interface
● Ability to manage team members’ workload and easy to communicate
with comment & chat features
● Review and export the reports with any formats (.pdf, .xlsx,
.docx)
● Online Timesheets
● Help with time tracking, logging hours, and filling timesheets
● Able to track the workload of staff
● Budget and Resources Management
● Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Tools
● Long-term project planning with organizable features for multiple
projects, programs, and portfolios
● Project Planning Matrix (PPM)
● A sheet contains four columns and four rows with sixteen squares
● Describe the higher-level objectives, Short-term and long-term
goals, the desired outputs or results, and the activities to do
● Assumptions that can impact the development of the project
● OVIs (Objectively Verifiable Indicators): Standards of quality,
quantity, location, and time
● Means of verification: The reports (Progress, Network, Evaluation,
& Survey) is required to prove to fulfill the objectives defined
by indicators
PPM Templates
Summary of Objectives/ OVIs Means of Important Assumptions
Activities Verification
Overall Goal

Project Purpose

Results/ Outputs

Activities

Project Manager

● Who is a PM?
● A responsible person for managing the whole project to be
successful by planning, assigning the resources, collaborating
with the project team and clients, supervising the budget plan,
and handling unforeseen risks and issues to obtain the business’s
intended goals.
● Responsibilities of a PM
● The project Manager and Project Team are meant to carry out the
phases of the project: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring
& Controlling, and Closing/ Follow-up covering the knowledge areas
of the Scope, Time, Budget/ Cost, Resources, Stakeholder,
Communication, Risk, Procurement, Quality, and Integration.
● Additional Roles of a PM
● The qualities and traits required to be a PM:
● Leadership qualities: Need leadership skills that can
motivate the team members to bring the masterpiece out of
them
● Interactional leadership: Having transactional,
transformational, and charisma to make them inspire the
works they have to do and be accountable for their actions
● Transactional leadership: Focus on the goals and rewarding
style for the accomplishments of team members
● Transformational leadership: Motivate/ Empower the team to
gain the objectives along with self-esteem, confidence, and
creative/ innovative skills
● Management Qualities: Practical management qualities of a PM
are focusing, administration, controlling with power, and
utilizing the authority to complete the works without
impacting the business continuity and sustainability.
(jeopardizing)
● Personal Power & Charismatic Leadership: Having a warm
personality and motivation energy, Charismatic leadership
has two aspects: Positive thinking & a Can-do mentality
● Knowledge Expertise: Having in-depth knowledge and excellent
skills in the respective area of knowledge
 ● Pressure-based Power: Able to restrict choices to make the
team members perform and accomplish the tasks
● Essential Skills of a PM
● Technical Skills
● Leadership qualities
● Able to motivate the team
● Problem-prioritizing
● Problem-solving
● Strategic Skills (Ability to align between project goals and the
organization’s strategic goals)
● Strategic business mindset
● Team-forming abilities
● Resolving internal and external conflicts
● Bring out the necessary changes in the management expertise
● Combination of both skills: Able to adapt to rapidly changing
project conditions and fulfill the stakeholders’ needs
● Strategic business partner
● Recognize the contributions of the people
● Respect and motivate the people
● Integrity and accountability
● Invest themselves
● Able to work efficiently in unclear work situations
● Mapping of Process Groups and Knowledge Area
● Initiation Phase (2 Knowledge Areas)
● Integration: Develop a project charter
● Stakeholder: Stakeholder registration and Stakeholder Matrix
identification
● Planning Phase (10 Knowledge Areas)
● Integration: Drawing a project plan
● Scope: Develop a scope statement by gathering requirements,
prioritizing, managing the scope creep, and breaking them
down into tasks with WBS.
● Time: Manage and arrange the resources, stakeholders, team
members, and tasks/ activities by scheduling and allocating
in the slots throughout the project development.
● Budget/ Cost: Allocating the budget for the processes to be
implemented by estimating the cost of procurement and other
things.
● Resources: Estimating the required human resources, services
(consulting, training, etc.), and equipment (software or
hardware).
● Stakeholder: By using the Stakeholder matrix, define the
RACI chart for each task or activity by assigning the
stakeholders.
● Communication: Require well-defined communication strategy:
flows and channels
● Risk: Foreseeing the potential risks, doing quantitative and
qualitative risk analysis, and planning risk mitigation
strategies
 ● Procurement: Planning and identifying the resources required
to purchase
● Quality: Specification of quality guidelines and standards
to be followed able to deliver the qualified products or
services or results.
● Execution Phase (6 Knowledge Areas)
● Communication
● Stakeholder
● Resources
● Procurement
● Quality
● Integration
● Monitoring & Controlling Phase (8 Knowledge Areas)
● Integration
● Scope: Validate and control the scope
● Time
● Budget/ Cost
● Stakeholder: Controlling stakeholders’ engagement
● Communication
● Procurement
● Quality
● Closing Phase (2 Knowledge Areas)
● Integration: Closing all project phases
● Procurement: Closing the procurement

PMP Certification Exam

● Initiation (13%)
● Planning (24%)
● Execution (31%)
● Monitoring (25%)
● Closing (7%)
Agile Project Management
Course Link (LinkedIn Learning)
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/paths/getting-started-as-an-ag
ile-project-manager

Agile Foundations
Modern Software Development

● Ensure to have Agile Mindset - High Productivity, Focus on people &

communications, Sprint (2-week Timebox), change their mindset
● Manager & Technical Experts (less directive & more supportive), flat
hierarchy (servant leader - scrum master)

Agile Mindset

● Agile Manifesto - Individuals & Interactions, Working Software, Customer

Collaboration, Responding to change
● 12 Agile Principles (Values) - Welcoming change, Continuous delivery,
Customer Collaboration, Self-organized Team, face-to-face communication,
Prioritized the tasks (MoSCoW), Frequent meeting (2-week Sprint)

Individuals & Interactions

● Context Switching - Try to avoid Multi-tasking (Switching Time)

● Handoff the work - Queue size (Large batches of work) - Keep the batch
size smaller
● Penny Game for Productivity - Handoff the finished tasks (break down the
tasks) as soon as possible so that the product can deliver to the
customer quickly
● Principle 8 - Predictable = Sustainable & Constant, 2-week short-term
plan on a long-term plan (Rapid/Early delivery of working software)
● Principles 5 & 11: Silo teams (self-organized & motivated) - Team
Members: cross-functional horizontally - ensure each functional member
contribute to the team
● User Stories (P.O & BA) - Principles 6 & 2: As a [User], I want
[Features] so that [Value], What (Business) vs How (Technical), Focus on
‘Value’

Delivering Working Software

● Agile Principle 1 - Satisfy customers with the early deliverable, 80:20

Rule (20% of features is always used), High-Value task first
● Scrum Board - User Stories, To Do, Doing & Done (Ensure working on
highest value feature)
Respond to Change

● Adaptation: Welcome changes (Extreme programming, Scrum: Inspect &

Adapt) - Technology Update, Changes & Enhancement throughout the project
● Principle 3: Deliver product frequently (Embrace change & experiment),
Be Aware of Time, Timebox Usage: Individual, Not > 8 hrs work, OT
impacts on predictability & sustainability
● Principle 4, 5 & 11: Agile Team work closely with business people
(Cross-functional)
● Sprint Planning Meeting - < 2 hrs, End of a Sprint: Review & Customer
Feedback, Retrospective - Fix & Enhance
● Sprint Planning Meeting - < 2 hrs, End of a Sprint: Review & Customer
Feedback, Retrospective - Fix & Enhance
● Agile - Incrementally & Iteratively: Focus on value (any way can be used
to deliver the value)

Popular Agile Framework

● Scrum: Agile (Methodology) - Mindset, Scrum & DSDM - Approach/Framework

to apply the mindset, Scrum: Inspect & Adapt, light work, 3 Roles, 5
Events & Outputs/Artifacts
● Extreme Programming (XP Framework): Embrace changes (Effectively), Only
for Software Development, Agile Planning, Continuous integration,
Test-driven development, Software re-factoring, User Stories
● Kanban (lean): Scheduling the work, Focusing on Value, People over the
project, Respect people, Kanban Board (User Stories, To Do, Doing, Done)

Improve Customer Collaboration

● Team Roles: Product Owner (User Stories, Business) vs Agile Business

Analyst (Technical), Scrum Master(Coaches, Encouraging, Self-Manage),
Project Manager (Hiring & Firing)
● P.O: Own the product & have high authority, Product Manager (long-term
strategy, Create budget, Competing product), Work with different teams
and Customer Representatives
● Scrum Master: Scrum Master (Trainer or coach, Administrative work,
Bulldozer from obstacles, Shield from interferences, Closely work with
the development team
● Combat groupthink: Face-to-face meetings, Groupthink (Share opinions,
ask challenging questions), Need a facilitator
● Facilitator, Scrum Master: Planning Poker (Guessing the effort & time of
each task)
Transition from Waterfall to Agile
Becoming Agile

● Triple Constraints: Time, Scope, Budget

● Agile: Flexible Scope
● Empirical Process: Upfront Planning, Small incremental Plan, Observation
& Experiment
● Goals: Fast Delivery, Never compromise Quality, Enter into the market
early
● Working software & Demos
● Org Style: Strategy - Culture: Mgt Style, Acceptance to change, Process
focus, Trust,
● Team Building: Right people, Individual Contributorss, Middle-Mgt,
Executives
● Resistance: Educate or Ensure to understand the mindset of Agile
(Collaborative Approach)

Starting Agile Practice

● Agile Pilot: Ensure understanding of the Purpose with Project Sponsor

● Size: Not more than 12 weeks
● Priority & Risk: Analyze the area of org and current practices
● Depth & Breadth: Engage with all roles
● Customer Engagement: Engage with Sponsor, Sponsor will encourage the
customers to participate
● Product Owner: Business Representative, Authority to set the priority of
the work, Engage closely with customers
● Scrum Master: Team Lead, Work closely with developers
● Colocate the team in one place (Balance Skills, Open to learn)
● Set the vision: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How (Kickoff: Communicate
openly with Sponsor)
● Minimum: What, When & Why

Agile Essentials

● Scrum Framework: 5 Events & 3 Artifacts (Sprint: 2-week Timebox), Sprint

Planning, Daily Scrum (15-mins), Sprint Review + Sprint Retrospective,
Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Product Increment (Completed work ready
to release)
● Sprint Planning: Create Sprint Backlog (2 weeks Sprint - 2 hours
Planning)
● Tasking the Stories (Current Sprint)
● Plan for next Sprint + 2 Sprints
● Daily Planning/ Collaboration, Focus on Done, Measurement: Progress
using Sprint Burn Down Chart
● Review & Retrospect: Share demos/ working software with stakeholders,
Transparent performance, P.O give the view of next deliverable,
● Retro: Examine the current practice, processes, tools then find out the
ways to enhance them
● What do well?
 ● What to improve?
● What to deliver in the next sprint?
● Scrum Master is responsible for sharing the Final Outcome of the Sprint
in the Sprint Review Meeting

Building Agile Team

Making Sure You’re Ready

● Agile alliance - Adaptive, Quick & Flexible

● Agile Manifesto - Uncovering better ways of developing a project
● Agile Team - Re-engineering better ways of working, Process Improvement
● Challenges: Unclear requirements, Unrealistic Deadlines, Priorities
Changes frequently, Lack of stakeholder communication
● 2 Groups: Executive Sponsors (Predictability & Delivery), Development
Manager (Clearly defined tasks & feedbacks)

Forming the Team

● Cross-functional Team: Team formation horizontally from Functional Org

Silo
● P.O - Have power and authority for priority (Product Backlog)
● SM - Coach (Bulldozer & Shield) - Restraint?
● Developers - Workers to implement the project (Self-empowered Team)
● SM responsibilities: PM vs SM (Facilitator not Manager) Not communicate
with Management Authority but with Product Owner, Work estimation &
Tracking progress
● Obstacles for SM - Like a officer or administrator (Equipment,
Inconvenience workplace, Communication gap, Conflicts, Allowances)
Having good EQ & ensure to follow the framework
● P.O = Customer Representative: Break down the User Stories into small
chunks of work & Product Backlog with Prioritizing features, Create
Acceptance criteria & ensure customer satisfaction
● Self-organized Team: Experts in a particular area, Set their own
schedule and estimates
● PM: Team level, Portfolio level, Share the concept and mindset of Agile
to Executives

Starting the Work

● Train the core team to energize each other

● Training Goals: Understand the Rules of Agile, Provide space to discuss
● Agile Implementation Musts: P.O continuously communicates with the team

Establishing Agile Mindset

● New mindset for each role

● Agile - Kanban has no defined team roles
● Changing the roles a bit - Lightweight not Loose
 ● Best to stick up the clearly defined roles
● Educate the team at the very beginning
● XP Values: Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage, Respect
● P.O focus on highest-value items, 20% features of a software mostly
used, Ranking the items from top to down is an on-going task,

Avoiding Pitfalls

● PMO - Manage all the projects of an organization

● PMO focus on project standards, policies & guidelines, planning, &
documentation (Gantt chart & insights)
● Respect PMO & boost the Agile transformation
● Developer Responsibilities: Interact with P.O, Break down items into
tasks, Estimate own work, Focus on delivery
● Spider-Man Mgt: With great power comes with great responsibility,
Embrace failed sprints
● SM ensure the team following the framework
● Delivery & Deadlines are Pain points of PM
● Portfolio Manager - Big Picture of the Project/Projects
● Renaming or Retooling - Need long-term commitment
● Support from the executive level?
● PMO - Tailoring (Processes & Tools) matters rather than Agile Mindset

Agile at Work: Planning with User Stories

Understanding Agile Planning

● Epic - User Story - Sprint

● Establish a deadline - Not a detailed plan
● Predictability & Delivery - Upfront Sprint Planning
● Sprint - 2-week iteration or time box to deliver the working software
● The Cone of Uncertainty is becoming narrower as the project is getting
completed

Estimating an Agile Project

● Product User Roles: Visitor, Member or Sponsor

● 3C
● Context is different between roles
● Criteria: Customer’s expectation
● Character: Role-specific function
● User Stories: Brief statement of a function for a specific user type
● As a [User], I want [Feature/Function] so that [Purpose/Value].
● 3Cs: Card (Story Card) Conversation (Group Chat) Confirmation
(Acceptance Criteria)
● I (Independent), N (Negotiable), V (Valuable), E (Estimable), S (Small),
T (Testable)
● Epic or Theme: Large work of the group with a common objective
● FEEDBACK (Epic Splitting Method)
● F - Flow
 ● E - Effort (Developer)
● E - Entry (The way of data entering)
● D - Data Operations (CRUD)
● B - Business Rule (Goals)
● A - Alternatives (Methods or ways)
● C - Complexity (Additional features)
● K - Knowledge

Planning an Agile Project

● Project Charter: Agile Charter - 1 Page or Less (Vision, Mission &

Success Criteria)
● Relative Estimate: Remove false precision, Range ( 3 - 10 hrs a week)
● Planning Poker: Card game able to estimate the time of a task
● Time, Risk, Complexity, Relevant factors
● Allow group debate till getting of a consensus
● Velocity: 8 hrs per day, Marathon, Predictable, 16 Story points in Each
Sprint (Velocity = 16/1 then 48/3)
● Sprint Planning: Sprint Backlog, Taskboard (User Stories, To Do, Doing,
Done), Based on Intuition & Velocity
● Release Plan: Rough Order of Value (ROV) - Trading Board, Epics into
Story Points into Backlog’s Items

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

● Acceptable documentation: Working software is the way of reporting

progress, Make it collaborative

Agile at Work: Getting Better with Agile Retrospectives

Starting Retrospectives

● A formal 2-hr meeting, Structured Agenda, Record all ideas, Call actions
● 5 Phases of Agile Retrospective:
● Facilitator: Outside the team like an Agile Coach
● Start: Create Structure & Safety (Purpose - On the same page -
Read post-it note)
● Data Gathering: Starfish Diagram, Pancake (Notes & Action Items),
SMART goals, Shared understanding
● Insights: Find out the ideas or ways to improve based on collected
data, Focus on the process (rusty) not individual
● Decisions: Choose clear action items (How to fix/ enhance the
processes)
● Closing: Gathering feedback on the action items met with
everyone’s expectations
● Choosing a comfortable meeting place: Setting (People, Doing, Place)
matters, Enough space (Cafeteria near office building), Comfort can lead
to creativity, variety, and safety
● Identification of issues: Challenges, Causes of issues
 ● Work with a distributed team: Challenges (Questions?: Trust - Remote
area - Video chat)
● Split 2 teams: Onsite & Remote - Create a video summary of the
team’s decisions
● Role of facilitator: Facilitated workshop/ Brainstorming session -
organize the meeting on the right route to reach the goals/ objectives,
SM would be a facilitator in that he/she is easy to address the
challenges from the previous sprint.
● Not fixing the obstacles but addressing the issues & ways to solve
● Prime directive as a guide: Being transparent, exploring, adapting &
learning, Building shared understanding & trust

Running a Retrospectives

● Encourage discussion - The Dunning-Kruger Effect (line chart: X -

Confidence, Y - Competency (None, Average, Expert)
● Starfish Diagram: Start Doing, Keep doing, Less of, More of, Stop Doing
● Retrospective use only
● 1 person - 1 Post-it Note
● The category of the work need to (Less of, More of, Stop Doing)
● PANCAKE: High-level list of retrospective categories (Help to start a
conversation)
● Puzzles: Why this way? What is that?
● Appreciations: Enjoyment, Constructive feedback,
● News: Rumors or News in the organization
● Challenges: Issues or problems
● Aspirations: Hopes or Wishes (Reflect action items)
● Knowledge: Shared knowledge (relatable with the team) - What did
we learn from it? - action: Let’s learn
● Endorsements: Prioritized the action items (agree on worthwhile
improvements)
● SMART: Management Guru, Peter Drucker - Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic & Time-bound (To implement the Action items)

Generating Good Insights

● Games to stimulate reflection: Question Circle (Questioning the one on

the left) Start clockwise and then counterclockwise
● Comfort & fun matters, Don’t manage on the question
● Ask future perspetives (openly & creatively), How to implement?
● Reflection to Prediction
● Asking good questions: Keep questions simple, What, How, Who & Why?
● 5 Why Technique: Ask ‘Why’ five times to find out the root cause,
Finding the best ‘Why?’

Choosing Out the Retrospective

● Kvetchrospective: Too much talk then nothing

● Too many action items: Need to prioritize
● SM dependency: The team doesn’t take responsibility
● Best Practices: Assign an owner
 ● Ask for volunteer
● Allow self-organization
● Tweak Wall (Their Action Items on Their Names) - Set the deadlines

Driving Productive Project Meetings

(5) Activities of Scrum Master

1. Stand Up (Daily 15-mins Stand Up Meeting)

2. Planning (Sprint - 2 weeks, Tasks & Deliverables, Priorities)
3. Refining (Backlog refinement - Fixing/Updating the features from the
previous sprint/ time box)
4. Demoing (Product Demo/ Prototype, Product Owner & Stakeholders)
5. Improving (Retrospective activities - Enhancing the deliverables)

Timebox

● A period or block of 2 weeks that the tasks or deliverables are

completed
● Agile: Adaptive not Predictive
● Let’s say that 10% of the project can be finished in a time box, then it
will need 10-time boxes to complete the project.
● Flexibility & Adaptation are the core values of Agile
● When 2 tasks are left to do in a time box, they will develop in the next
sprint.

Backlogs

● Product Backlogs - Features of the Product

● Release Backlogs - Released Features of the Product in a Timebox
● Sprint Backlogs - Features of the Product planned to deliver in a
Timebox
● ROV Release - Rough Order of Value - Focus on the Value of the Product
rather than Completed features of a Typical Release Plan
● For instance, there is a feature that will make engagement with the
customers called Live Chat so, the value would be making engagement with
the customers and the features might be Live Chat or an Event or
something that will improve the communication between the customers and
the business.

Scope

● Against Iron Triangle: Scope ~ Budget & Schedule

● Quality & Value are not outside of the Scope
● Product Owner priorities the KPIs or Expected value of the Project.
● The scope would be variable based on the final deliverables, budget &
schedule.
Inviting Right Stakeholders in a Meeting

● Choosing who will need to contribute to a Meeting

● Separating the groups: Talkers & Listeners
● Daily Stand Up: Developers are talkers whereas PM is the listener
● Project Status Meeting: PM & Product Owner are talkers and the
Developers are listeners. They would talk when shooting the questions by
the Project Owner.

Keeping the Team synchronized

Scrum Master (Team Leader) Tips

● Examine team interaction patterns

● Driving a self-organized team (Improving communication among Developers)
● Ask 3 Questions: Done? To Do? Problems?
● Avoid role conflicts with PM: Inform the progress of the project to PM
and Align with the Developers

Scrum Master Role

● Setup: Create shared workplace and Team roles

● Mentoring: Technical knowledge to deal with the developers
● Input: Ask for opinions Vs Direction: providing and giving instructions
● Training: Ensure understanding of the concept of Agile
● Hiring: Need an administrator to hire the qualified candidate required
for the team

Planning the Sprints

● Use Task Board (Trello - Software) for Predictability & Transparency

● One Task = One Day
● Product Owner Role = Customer, Provide Requirements (User Stories) ->
Break into Tasks (WBS)

Barriers of Sprint

● Assumptions (Barriers/Risks) - Lack of courage, Communication gap,

Difficulty in estimating (Problems)
● Try to encourage them to overcome the obstacles

Sprint Demo

● Sprint Demo/Review (Every 2 weeks), Use screenshots or slides to

demonstrate (2 hrs - Start Thursday & End Wednesday - Meeting on
Wednesday - Drive by Product Owner - Listen by Stakeholders)
● Why P.O? (P.O commitment, good relationships with stakeholders, shared
vision with P.O, ensure to meet with business/stakeholders’ requirements
or expectations)
Sprint Feedback

● Scrum Feedback Loops

● Daily Standup - End with Feedback - SmallTalk,
● Backlog - ever-changing lists - P.O Sit with Team,
● Retrospective - Give feedback to each other - Exchange opinions -
Facilitator - Encourage to communicate)
● Sprint Demo - Feedback (Heart It / Did It Board) prioritizing the tasks

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

● P.O is the sitter in Daily StandUp

● Scrum Master is intermediate between sitters and developers
● S.M need to ensure the sitters not questioning the developers
● Stand Up - Gather like a circle-shaped
● Distractions - Late Risers (Popcorn the ball), Oscar Winners (Steal the
time)
● Examine Team Members’ Personalities
● Abnormal termination sprint - Blow up the sprint - Push it back to the
future sprint (S.M Responsibility) - Poor estimation & unforeseen events
● P.O has the power to end the Sprint
● Context Switching Time (Multitasking) - Minimize Tasks, Timebox the
activities, and Complete on time (Efficiency & Productivity)

Reporting with Agile Charts & Boards

Understanding Agile Reporting

● Simple & Visible - Transparent Info (Speed, Deadline, To Do) to monitor

& control easily
● Burn-down Charts (Simple line chart - Work Capacity & Completed Work)
● Task Board (Transparency)
● Reporting Technique: Avoid Duplications, Create reports for improvement,
Kai Zen - Lean (Kai = Change, Zen = For the better)
● Prioritizing the Work: Backlogs instead of requirements, Product Backlog
(Prioritized List of all features), High-level User Stories, Backlog
Refinement by P.O, DEEP (D-Detailed, Estimated, Emergent, Prioritized)

Show Daily Progress

● Signboard/ Task Board - Swim lane diagram: Prioritized top to bottom,

Completed progress left to right, Lightweight & Easy to read, Set up in
advance, Use Physical Board first
● Reading a Task Board - Obstacles? Overload? Report & Share the status &
progress
● Updating a Task Board - One Task per Day per Developer - Task
Dependencies?
● Sizing the Task Board - Clear the board every two weeks, Multi-tasking
makes bottleneck, Kanban (Tasks throughout the project)
Burning Down the Sprint

● Types: Sprint & Release - X (Time), Y (Work Capacity), 2 lines (Team

Capacity, Work Completed)
● Timebox - Predictable chunks of time using Burn Down Chart, Scrum Master
updates the Chart after a sprint,
● Release Burndown - Velocity x No of Sprints = Story Points

Release Burn Down Chart

● Release: Time (2 Weeks Sprint), Velocity x No of sprints = Story Points,

X axis & Y axis are fixed
● Epic - A target amount of work that can be broken down into small
stories

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

● Documents: Charter, Mgt Plan & Schedule (Gantt chart & WBS)
● Relationship between P.O & Scrum Master
● Triangle of Responsibility: P.O, PM & SM

Project Planning with Microsoft Project

Set up Agile Project

● Create Agile Project from scratch: New - Sprint - Sprint Planning Board
/ Manage Sprint - Access agile features
● Backlogs: Project:Project Info - New Tasks: Name - Sprint Planning Sheet
- Copy from word file & paste the at the cell - R-Click: 5 Days
● Custom fields for points & priority: Type - ‘Number’ & make custom
column - Click Heading & add custom columns - Copy the points & priority
from excel file then paste in the cells
● Sprint lane: Sprint tab - Manage: Start Date, Duration - Summary tasks -
Gantt chart view for hybrid project - Insert a Task - Task Mode
‘Manually scheduled’ - Select the tasks rows and add ‘Summary Task’
● Assign feature: Sprint - Sprint Planning Sheet - Filter by Priority -
Choose the Sprint - Task tab - Gantt chart - Insert Sprint Column -
Indent the tasks to be under the sprint - Add ‘Duration’
● Release: Insert Tasks - Release 1, 2, 3, … - Outdent to be at the above
of Sprint - Insert Summary Tasks = Create parent row - Link the Tasks
with ‘link icon’

Track Agile Progress

● View from backlog: View tab - Data section - View By - Create Custom
Fields - Formula
● Update Status of sprint: Sort the Column (R-Click - move left/right),
Task Board Format tab - Customize cards - ‘PercentCompleted’
● Handle incomplete features: Task tab - Backlog view - Change ‘No Sprint’
to the tasks that are not finished, Reassign the tasks into Sprints
 ● Reprioritize: Req evolve throughout the development, Task tab - Backlog
- Feature Priority Column, Update in Gantt chart (Auto update?)

Report on Agile & Hybrid Projects

● Burndown & Reports: Report tab - Burndown - Work & Task - Task, Report
tab - Task Boards - Task Status/ Sprint Status -
● Points & Velocity Report (Custom fields): Report tab - Chart - Name -
Select fields (Field List) - Group by, Gantt chart - View tab - Filter -
More filters, Chart View - Filter with the created Custom Filter
● Hybrid (Dependencies): Create Subproject - Link the tasks - Select
summary task - Insert Milestone - Link the tasks - Check at the Gantt
chart
● High-level view of the Project - View tab - Click ’Timeline’ checkbox -
Select summary tasks & R-click & add to timeline - R-C on config bar -
Set color - Gantt chart - Save View - Copy Timeline - Paste on any file

Customize Project 2019 for Agile

● Set Project options - Create blank project - File tab - Option -

Schedule,
● Project - Custom Fields
● Project - Custom Fields - Rename - Velocity - Formula, Gantt chart-
Features flag -

Manage Agile Work with Project 2019

● Add features to Backlog: Add new column - Features & Features Priority
● View: Gantt chart - Save view - Add new columns, View - Filter by
● Assign features to sprint - View - Data section - Make group - Release
Numbers
● Assign resources to sprint - Add new column - Resources Name, View -
Click ‘Detail’ checkbox - Set the duration
● Define sprint & release schedule - Gantt chart
● Update progress - Select the tasks - Add Schedule -

Evaluating Agile Tools

Comparing Agile Tools

● Trello, MS Azure DevOps, Jira, GitLab

● Agile Mindset: Individuals & Interactions, Working Software, Stakeholder
Collaboration, Responding to Change

Excel

● Easy to list, Avoid dozens of spreadsheets, and expect many insights

● Creating Product Backlogs: Id, Importance, Title, User Story, Acceptance
Criteria, Estimate (Time)
● Show Team’s Progress: Release Burn Down Chart (Google Docs)
Jira

● Comes from the Japanese term Gojira

● Scrum Template: Team-managed vs Company-managed
● Backlog creation: Story Point Estimates (8 Story Points), Drag & Drop to
sort out (priority), Start/End Date
● Task from User Stories: Add child issue Tasks from User Story, Add
comments, View ‘Group by’ - ‘SubTask), Close the tasks out
● Change the workflow: Workflow Diagram - To-do Status (Creating Stories
Column - Sort the column)
● Use Epic to group User Stories: Add Epic, Add child issues
● Complete Sprint: Name, Start/End Date, Sprint Goal, Move the tasks over
columns, Change the status ‘complete’ in User Story
● Summary: The tasks as the issues (Issues vs User Stories vs Epics vs
Tasks)

Trello

● Product Backlog: Agile Sprint Template - Customize the columns, Create a

card - Description, Date,
● Power-Ups: CUS (Custom fields) - Custom fields in the card
● Labels of the card - Color, Name
● Plan the Sprint: Velocity and To-do items
● Break the User Story into Tasks: Create checklists in the card (Copy the
link (Share) of the card and paste into the text box of the checklist)
● Tracking: The progress on the board (checklist’s progress)
● Close out the Sprint: Archive the complete cards

MS Azure

● On-Premises & Cloud: Server and Services (MS Visual Studio) - Better
communication between Developers and Operation teams
● Create Account: MS Account - Azure DevOps withe MS Account - New Project
- Agile/ Scrum/ CMMI - Scrum: Add Release (Iteration) and add the
Sprints under the Release (1, 2, 3, …)
● Team Board: Create a Backlog Item or Bug - Create Work Items (Epics) ->
Product Backlog Items under Features under Epics
● Epic
● Features
● Items
● Rename the columns of the board - New, Refined, Estimated, Done -
Effort, Priority, Tags, Value Area
● Add User Stories to Sprint: Features - Effort - Drag & Drop the items
into the Sprint (Planning)
● Create the Task in the Sprint/ under Feature - Taskboard View - To Do,
In Progress, Done
● Track the Progress: View ‘History’ of the Card, Create a Dashboard - Add
widget - Work assigned, Sprint Burndown, Velocity
GitLab

● Open source: Install - CentOS7 - Follow (Copy & Paste in the

Command-line) the command given - Create Password
● Setup Group: Groups (Whole Org) - Name & URL - Sub-group
● Create New Project: Name, URL, Description, Visibility level (Private) -
New App Repository - New Issue: Title, Type, Des, Assignee, Milestone,
Label, Due Date
● Labels to prioritize the stories with Colors
● List menu: Able to edit in Pop-up for the user stories, Sort out the
Cards
● New Milestones: Title, Des, Start/End Date - Sprint 1, 2, 3, … - Board -
Card - Edit Milestone (Choose Sprint)
● Unable to create sub-task - Text attached in the issue/card in the Des
(Checkbox using ‘- [ ]’) - Tasks list with checkboxes
● Use wiki page for retrospective: Feature for retro meeting - Wiki menu -
Create page - Title, Format, Content, Commit? - ‘- [x]’
● Benefits - good for software development (team) - for Developers - Clone
repository - Web IDE - Connect with Github (technical) - Technical P.O
less of business - Not for large agile team

Conclusion

● Jira - Strong Developer Culture

● MS Azure DevOps - MS Shop
● GitLab - Self-hosted solution
● Trello - For Starters
● Sticks with agile values
● Consistent with common practices
● Collaboration (face-to-face interactions)
● MS excel - A good place to start