PMI Agile Project Management Institute (PMI) Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP ) | Size : 5.

22 GB Type : CBTs This Nugget series will prepare you to take the PMI-ACP exam and become an Agile Certified Practitioner, a new certification (2012) from the Project Management I nstitute (PMI). The PMI-ACP exam measures professionalism in Agile Project Manage ment, increases versatility in PM methods, validates ability to lead Agile teams and finally provides a framework for Agile training. Agile is an increasingly accepted project management method, and project managem ent guru Steve Caseley is the best trainer to take you through it. If you work o n Agile projects, or want to transition from traditional project management to A gile, this series is for you. This training has been approved for Category A PDUs. For a listing of how many P DUs are earned for this training, please visit our PMI R.E.P. FAQs on our Forum. PMI and PMI-ACP are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. PMI - ACP Overview This Nugget provides an overview of the PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner). T he ACP measures professionalism in Agile Project Management, increases versatili ty in PM methods, validates ability to lead Agile teams and finally provides a f ramework for Agile training. The Nugget provides an overview of both PMI and the ACP exam as well as an overview of the various Agile development methods which form the basis of the ACP exam questions. 00:21:38 PMI - ACP Exam This Nugget provides a review of the qualifications, application, scheduling of the Agile Certified Practitioner exam. In order to qualify to take the exam, the applicant must submit a formal application to PMI outlining how they obtained 2 ,000 hours of PM experience and 1,500 hours of Agile project experience, as well as evidence of 21 hours of formal Agile training. With the application submitte d (and approved by PMI), the Nugget then reviews the process for finding, select ing and scheduling an online exam center to take the exam. We then conclude with an overview off the ACP exam: 120 questions, 3 hours, and the breakdown of ques tions as 50% Agile tools and techniques and 50% Agile knowledge and skills. 00:32:15 Agile Manifesto This Nugget reviews the Agile Manifesto, a statement of "what is Agile" created by a group of individuals at a meeting in 2001. The Agile Manifesto lays the fou ndation for what Agile Development and Project Management is, focusing on the ac tivities which encourage flexible, iterative development while adhering to just enough process to maintain the direction of the project. Next, the Nugget review s the 12 Agile principles also developed in 2001. And finally, the Nugget provid es an overview of the Declaration of Independence developed in 2005 by the Agile Project Leadership network. Together these 3 documents provide the foundation o n what it takes to be Agile as well as the foundation for the PMI-ACP exam. 00:32:06 Agile Communications This Nugget is the first of 10 Nuggets from the Tools and Techniques section of the PMI-ACP exam. This Nugget reviews how effective communications is critical to successful Agile delivery, including specific communications techniques which w ould take place with the Project Stakeholders, Business Owner/Sponsor and the De livery Team. While Stakeholder communication in an Agile project focuses on the same three items, (Status, Budget and Problems/Issues) as would be expected from

a traditional project, this Nugget highlights the key difference with Stakehold er communication: an Agile project communication is more results/performance bas ed as opposed to a more traditional reporting of percentage complete. Next, we r eview effective communication as it relates to the Business Owner, including the concept of User Story. Effective business communication allows for the elaborat ion of the project vision through User Stories, which are managed through the Pr oduct Backlog. Other Agile communication techniques such as Wireframes and Perso na are introduced. Finally, we cover specific Agile communication techniques use d by the team, including the daily progress meeting and the importance of a comm on project workspace to support osmotic communication. 00:34:07 Planning, Monitoring and Adapting This second Nugget of the Tools and Techniques section of the PMI-ACP exam review s how we plan, monitor and adapt projects in an Agile way. First, the Nugget rev iews Agile techniques for developing the Product Vision, which lays out the long term strategy for the project. The next phase consists of the Release Plan, whi ch identifies which components of the vision will be delivered in the next imple mentation release. Next, the Product Backlog is presented as the tool used to tr ack all aspects (User Stories) that will be developed by the project. The final step in Agile Planning is the development of the Iteration Backlog, which identi fies the specific stories to be developed in the next Iteration. The next segmen t of this Nugget focuses on Agile Monitoring techniques, including the daily tea m meeting; Burn Down, Burn Up, and Release charts; and Kanban Board. Then we rev iew Agile Adoption. The next segment on Adapting Agile covers how to deal with c hanges within an iteration. The Nugget wraps up with a discussion on ensuring th at changes to the Agile process are controlled, to ensure that the adoption proc ess is a managed process. 00:43:23 Agile Estimating This Nugget is the third of 10 from the Tools and Techniques section of the PMIACP exam. This Nugget reviews how we estimate in an Agile way. Agile Estimating i s focused on doing "just enough" estimating "just in time" to support the planni ng for the next Iteration. The User Story is a small unit of work, typically a s mall piece of code which satisfies a specific and single Business Function. Stor ies are estimated in terms of Story Points, a measurement of work required to co mplete a story. Each story is assigned a Story Point estimate in relationship to the relatively complexity of each story. For example a very simple story, a sim ple menu, is assigned a Story Point value of 1 while a complex data validation s tory may receive a 13. The project's performance in terms of the number of Story Points completed per iteration is then used to determine the team's velocity. U sing an Agile term called "Yesterday's Weather", the team's performance, or velo city, for the last iteration is used to predict the number of Stories, estimated by Story Points which can be completed in the next Iteration. The Nugget then d oes a detailed review of four Agile Estimating Methods: Wide Band Delphi, Planni ng Poker, Estimating Games and Affinity Estimating. The term "Fibonacci Sequence " is introduced to provide a distributed range to help achieve consensus in esti mating Story Points. 00:36:37 Agile Analysis and Design This Nugget is the fourth of 10 in the Tools and Techniques section of the PMI-A CP exam. This Nugget reviews Agile Analysis and Design, and yes, Agile still does Analysis and Design: just enough and just in time. Agile Analysis and Design co nsists of developing the Project Roadmap/Charter, which outlines the vision for the project. Story Maps provide the next level of Analysis and Design, where Sto ries are combined to provide an overall "map" for how Stories will be combined i nto Releases and installation packages. User Stories are the key tool used to co mplete the Analysis and Design activities as the business requirements evolve fr

om high-level functional requirements (epics) into stories, which then evolve as details are added, until the Story is code ready and ready for development in t he next iteration. Finally, we review Wireframes and Personas, techniques to hel p complete the work with just enough detail and just in time for development. 00:41:58 Product Quality This Nugget is the fifth of 10 in the Tools and Techniques section of the PMI-AC P exam. This Nugget reviews Agile Product Quality. We see how following Agile Pri nciples such as Definition of Done, Test Driven Development, Pair Programming an d Continuous Integration ensures that every action taken on the project is focus ed on high quality delivery of the functionality (and only the functionality) re quested by the business. The key premises of Agile (Just In Time, Just Enough) e nsures a very high quality delivery as the team is focused on addressing immedia te and focused business requirements. Combined with the principle that the Produ ct Owner must be available to the team a minimum of 50% of the time ensures that the team's questions are answered in a timely fashion and that the right code a nd only the right code is written. It also ensures that the Sprint Retrospective validates that the code written truly satisfies the Definition of Done as defin ed by the business prior to acceptance. Finally, the Nugget reviews how Agile de velopment techniques such as Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, and Cont inuous Integration. 00:31:32 Soft Skills Negotiation This Nugget is the sixth of 10 from the Tools and Techniques section of the exam . To a large extent, the soft skills needed to be successful in Agile delivery a re very similar to those required in traditional project delivery, with one nota ble exception: there is a much higher need for collaboration and performing in s elf-organizing leaderless teams. We begin with a review of Emotional Intelligenc e (EQ) and importance of being able to relate to and lead others. Next, the Nugg et reviews the importance of collaboration, as Agile delivery is focused on the team functioning as a self-organizing unit where all team members are expected t o cooperate. We cover Agile concepts such as collective code ownership, daily st and up meetings, and effective conversations. We look at adaptive leadership mod els, such as Team Forming Model and Situational Leadership Models. Then we look at negotiation and conflict resolution, and the 5 levels of conflict as defined by Leas. The Nugget concludes with a discussion on the principle of Servant Lead er. 00:34:58 Value Based Prioritization This Nugget is the seventh of 10 Nuggets from the Tools and Techniques section o f the exam. This Nugget reviews the Agile technique for Value Based Prioritizati on, which is used to ensure that the project is working on the items (stories) t hat provide the highest value to the business. We begin with a brief overview of a number of financial analysis methods: Net Benefit, Return on Investment, Net Present Value, and Internal Rate of Return. Next, the Nugget reviews the impact that Compliance or Mandatory stories will have on how stories are prioritized. T hen we cover Customer-Based Prioritization, the most common method for prioritiz ation. In this method, the product owner prioritizes the stories based on overal l importance and ranks stories for development based on the overall business pri ority. Finally we cover Minimally Marketable Feature (MMF). 00:29:58 Risk Management This Nugget is the eighth of 10 Nuggets from the Tools and Techniques section of the exam. This Nugget reviews Risk Management in Agile projects. Generally, the overall approach of Agile of completing high priority stories first (where the priority in this case is the elimination of risk) provides a very powerful risk

management tool. We begin with a review of traditional risk identification and r anking processes to ensure that the riskiest stories are identified and analyzed based on impact to project and probability of occurrence, and then prioritized based for early development. We then review the Risk Burn down chart. The Nugget concludes with a discussion on Risk Based Spikes, exploratory exercises to inve stigate ways in which risks can be eliminated. Spikes are intended to be "throw aways" to do just enough research and development to develop options for elimina ting the risks from the project. 00:25:45 Metrics This is the ninth of 10 Nuggets from the Tools and Techniques section of the exa m. We review the metrics typically produced during an Agile project, including B urn Down and Burn Up Charts, Velocity, Earned Value Management, Cycle Time, and Escaped Defects. This Nugget is focused on gathering and reporting on the indica tors that indicate the health of the Agile project. We cover Information Radiato rs to track and manage performance as it relates to managing the backlog and pre senting Burn Down and Burn Up charts. Next, we review Velocity as a metric for r eporting project performance. While Velocity is primarily a measure of the amoun t of work the team can accomplish in an iteration, it can also be a very powerfu l tool for reporting project performance. We also look at Earned Value Managemen t (EVM), including adaptations necessary to use EVM on an Agile, how Story Point s combined with Cost can be used to support the development of EVM, and PV and A C as required for EVM calculations. We also look at Cycle Time, the elapsed time to complete to complete a unit of work on an Agile project. The final metric re viewed in this Nugget is Escaped Defects. 00:42:05 Value Stream Analysis This Nugget is the final Nugget from the Tools and Techniques section of the exa m. We review the Value Stream Analysis process used for Agile delivery. This is a Lean Manufacturing process which has been adopted by Agile to ensure that all waste in the system is eliminated from the Agile project and that all of the wor is completed to satisfy the project. The focus is o k but only the required work n maximizing the Value Add and eliminating the Non-value Add processes to elimin ate the inefficiencies in the system. We review how the Value Stream Map is crea ted to identify all process steps and the interfaces between each process step, the calculation of the Cycle Time, the review and examination of the Map to iden tify inefficiencies, and finally the redevelopment of the Value Stream Map as an optimized process. We close with a review of the complete Tools and Techniques section of the exam. 00:34:05 Knowledge and Skills Level 1 Part 1 This Nugget kicks off a series of Nuggets reviewing the Knowledge and Skills sec tion of the PMI-ACP exam. Knowledge and Skills represent the remaining 50% of th e exam questions. PMI has broken the Knowledge and Skills section into three lev els, where Level 1 are considered to be the most important, Level 2 are less imp ortant and Level 3 are the least important, yet still relevant skills to be succ essful delivering Agile Projects. PMI has distributed the questions by level of importance were 33% of the total questions will be from Level 1, 12% from Level 2 and the remaining 5% from Level 3. This Nugget is focused on the first 9 of th e 18 Level 1 Knowledge and Skills. The Knowledge and Skills discussed in this Nu gget are: Active Listening, Agile Manifesto, Assessing and Incorporating Communi ty and Stakeholder Values, Brainstorming Techniques, Building Empowered Teams, C oaching and Mentoring within Teams, Communications Management, Feedback Techniqu es for the Product and Incremental Delivery. 00:35:56 Knowledge and Skills Level 1 Part 2

This Nugget continues with the discussion of the Level 1 Knowledge and Skills an d presents the second 9 of the 18 Level 1 skills. The Knowledge and Skills discu ssed in this Nugget are: Knowledge Sharing, Leadership Tools and Techniques, Pri oritization, Problem Solving Strategies, Tools and Techniques, Project and Quali ty Standards for Agile Projects, Stakeholder Management, Team Motivation, Time, Budget and Cost Estimation, and Value Based Decomposition and Prioritization. 00:36:06 Knowledge and Skills Level 2 This Nugget reviews the Level 2 Knowledge and Skills as defined by PMI for the A CP exam. These 12 Knowledge and Skills are defined as Important skills to be suc cessful in Agile Project delivery and will consist of 12 % of the total question s on the exam. The Knowledge and Skills discussed in this Nugget are: Agile Fram eworks, Building High Performance Teams, Business Case Development, Collocation (geographic proximity)/Distributed Teams, Continuous Process Improvement, Elemen ts of a Project Charter for an Agile Project, Facilitation Methods, Participator y Decision Models, PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Process A nalysis Techniques, Self Assessment and Value Based Analysis. 00:33:16 Knowledge and Skills Level 3 This Nugget reviews the Level 3 Knowledge and Skills as defined by PMI for the A CP exam. These 13 Knowledge and Skills are defined as Least Important skills to be successful in Agile Project delivery, however, they are still valuable skills for being successful with Agile Delivery. Questions from Level 3 Knowledge and Skills will constitute only be 5 % of the total questions on the exam. The Knowl edge and Skills discussed in this Nugget are: Agile Contracting Methods, Agile P roject Accounting Principles, Applying New Agile Practices, Compliance (Organiza tional), Control Limits for Agile Projects, Failure Modes and Alternatives, Glob alization, Culture and Team Diversity, Agile Games, Principles of System Thinkin g, Regulatory Compliance, Variance and Trend Analysis, Variations in Agile Metho ds and Approaches, and Vendor Management. 00:41:34 Domain I - Define Positive Value This Nugget begins our comprehensive review of the six Domains defined by PMI re presenting the methods of implementing the Tools and Techniques and Knowledge an d Skills in actual Agile project delivery. This Nugget kicks off Domain I - Valu e Driven Delivery with a review of Define Positive Value. The Nugget reviews the four tasks associated with Define Positive Value, all focused on ensuring that the project delivers the maximum value to the business. This is accomplished by following the principles of Value-Based Prioritization and Value Stream Mapping to ensure that only the appropriate business features are decomposed in Epics, a nd then that only the appropriate stories (based on maximizing value to the orga nization) are developed into functional code. Next, the Nugget reviews the impor tance of incorporating all the feedback received from daily conversations, daily stand-ups and the iteration reviews. The Nugget then reviews the importance of acceptance criteria to ensure that each story is completed to the mutual satisfa ction of both the team and product owner. We conclude with a discussion on tailo ring the project delivery approach by selecting and tailoring the approach that best fits the organizational and project characteristics. 00:32:34 Domain I - Incremental Delivery This Nugget continues the review of the Domain I, focusing on Incremental Delive ry. We review the five tasks associated with Incremental Delivery, all focused o n ensuring that the project follows the principles of incremental development to deliver Minimally Marketable features to the business as quickly as possible. T he Nugget begins with review of the principles of iteration planning to select t he highest priority features for development in the next iteration. The next sub

ject is a review of the Release Planning process to define the medium-term visio n of the functionality expected to be completed and implemented in the next rele ase to production. We then cover ongoing reviews to validate the results of the implementation and that the code is successfully running "live," and the importa nce of running Release Reviews and Release Retrospectives. Next, the Nugget revi ews an interesting perspective of value-based prioritization by reviewing the ba cklog and investigating opportunities to do an early termination of the project when there are no high-value stories remaining in the backlog. We conclude with a review of the IT functions such as design, database and environment documentat ion to ensure that the code implemented is consistent with corporate standards a nd that the code will have long term maintainability and viability. 00:32:57 Domain I - Avoid Potential Downsides This Nugget continues the review of the Domain I, covering Avoiding Potential Do wnsides. The Nugget reviews the three tasks associated with Avoid Potential Down sides, all focused on implementing proactive and effective Risk Management. We b egin with a comprehensive review of Agile Risk Management practices. Risk Manage ment is all about the early identification of unknown and uncontrollable future events which could result in project challenges. Risk Management is the "dream a nd worry" time to identify risk events and then the development of proactive str ategies to eliminate, mitigate transfer and/or accept the risks. The Nugget then reviews the actions to be taken during project delivery to deal with risk event s when they occur and the use of the contingencies assigned to each risk event. This section of the Nugget also reviews the necessity of ongoing risk identifica tion throughout the project. The Nugget concludes with a review of the necessary reviews, Iteration, Release and Risk, to ensure that business feedback is recei ved and incorporated into the project. 00:30:59 Domain I - Prioritization This Nugget completes the review of the Domain I, covering Prioritization. The N ugget reviews the three tasks associated with Prioritization, all focused on ens uring that the features, epics and stories are appropriately prioritized to addr ess organizational value (net benefit), business value (priorities), and risk el imination, as well as other IT priorities for logical precedence and compliance are all combined to produce the most effective priority list for the project. Th e Nugget reviews the processes to be followed to ensure that all the above are c onsidered before stories are selected for completion in the next release and/or iteration. Next, the Nugget reviews the importance of re-prioritizing the backlo g on a regular basis, using a process called Backlog Grooming. The Nugget conclu des with a review of the importance of having Team Stories incorporated into the prioritized backlog to ensure that the "IT plumbing" is in place to ensure that all the code developed is optimally positioned for ongoing maintenance and supp ort in the organization. These team stories include Operational Support, Databas e Maintenance, Environment Setup and Preparation and other technical stories to satisfy IT standards. 00:29:14 Domain II - Stakeholder Needs This Nugget kicks off Domain II - Stakeholder Engagement with a review of the fi rst Domain II practice - Stakeholder Needs. The Nugget reviews the two tasks ass ociated with Stakeholder Needs, both focused on ensuring that the needs of all p roject stakeholders are understood and satisfied. This is accomplished by first identifying all the project stakeholders, ranging from the very involved Busines s and Product Owners, through less involved but interested groups like senior ma nagement. With the stakeholders identified, the Nugget then focuses on analyzing the stakeholder's expectations regarding the level and type of information they are expecting to receive from the project. With this information, the prime dri typically time, budget or scope can be structured to support ver for the project

the key stakeholder's requirements. The next area this Nugget covers is effecti ve knowledge sharing of the project status to the stakeholders in the level of d etail and in the timeline requires to satisfy the stakeholder's information need s. 00:31:44 Domain II - Stakeholder Involvement This Nugget continues the review of the Domain II and discusses Stakeholder Invo lvement. We cover the two tasks associated with Stakeholder Involvement, both fo cused on identifying and ensuring the stakeholders roles are identified and that the stakeholders agree to deliver on these commitments. The Nugget begins with a review of expectations that the project will have on the key stakeholder, the Product Owner. These include: story owner, backlog prioritization, iteration rev iews and retrospectives and acceptor of done. The Nugget also reviews the expect ations on other key stakeholders, including the Business Owner and the Business Area Subject Matter Experts. The Nugget concludes with a review of the work requ ired to orient new stakeholders when they join the project in-flight. Plus, the Nugget reviews the impact that changes in stakeholders will have on the project. 00:32:28 Domain II - Stakeholder Expectations This Nugget completes the review of the Domain II. We discuss Stakeholder Expect ations. FIrst, we review the three tasks associated with validating that the sta keholder's expectations are met. This begins with a review of the Definition of Done and the validation of a shared expectation of what constitutes success, at the story, iteration and release, including agreeing that the definition of the story itself is complete. The Nugget then focuses on the steps requires to effec tively communicate the project's status to all interested stakeholders. This is typically accomplished through a combination of Agile Information Radiators and traditional (senior) management reporting. Finally, the Nugget reviews the proce sses to be followed to negotiate with the business/product owner the iteration p lans. This should address business, risk and team priorities to ensure that the stories selected for each iteration will support Minimally Marketable Functional ity. It is important to ensure that the risk and team stories required to keep t he project on a strong technical foundation are included in the iteration plans as needed. And finally, the iteration plans must be developed supporting the pre -determined story point estimates for each story and the project's velocity with the need to develop a Win-Win relationship between the team and the business to deliver optimal business value with each release. 00:33:23 Domain III - Team Formation This Nugget continues our review of the six Domains defined by PMI of methods of implementing Tools and Techniques and Knowledge and Skills in actual Agile proj ect delivery. This Nugget kicks off Domain III - Boosting Team Performance Pract ices with a review of the first Domain III practice, Team Formation. We review t he four tasks associated with Team Formation, all focused setting up a high-perf orming team. We start with a review of the steps to define the team norms, and g round rules which the team must follow to ensure a rapid transition to the Perfo rming stage. These ground rules will document the expectations on the team inclu ding working hours, social media rules, availability expectations, etc. Next, th e Nugget reviews team setup and how a servant leader can "manage" a team of peer s or self-managing, self organizing team. With the self-managing team in place, the next step is a review of the processes to develop the iteration plans and as signment of stories to each team member. We review identifying soft and technica l skill shortfalls in the team and the organizing of the training needed to prov ided the required training. And finally, the Nugget concludes with a review of t he importance of selecting and defining the specific Agile Management and Agile Development techniques to be followed on each project. 00:32:43

Domain III - Team Empowerment This Nugget continues the review of Domain III, discussing Team Empowerment. We review the three tasks associated with Team Empowerment, focused on ensuring tha t the project environment supports the team being empowered to complete all assi gned project tasks. We begin with a review of how the Agile principle of the sel f-organizing team supports empowerment as the team makes their own decisions on the work to be completed in each iteration through the Iteration Plan, and makes its own corrections based on the Iteration Retrospective. The next Agile princi ple that supports team empowerment is the concept of experimentation to "try and fail early," to continuously explore the bestl method of satisfying each story' s requirements. Finally, the Nugget reviews motivators and de-motivators for the team and the individual to ensure that the team has a safe and comfortable work environment. This includes a discussion on the appropriate work space to suppor t public (Common) workspace and private (Caves) space for quiet thinking time. 00:35:05 Domain III - Team Collaboration This Nugget continues the review of Domain III, covering Team Collaboration. We review the two tasks associated with Team Collaboration, focused on ensuring tha t the team works like a "well-oiled machine." The Nugget begins with a review of Group Decision Making techniques to help define the processes to be followed to ensure that the self-organizing/self-managing team is able to effectively make project decisions. Next, recognizing that there will be time when the team won't unanimously make all decisions, the Nugget next reviews Conflict Resolution tec hniques. We then conclude with a review of the importance of effective communica tion within the Agile team. This is typically accomplished through co-location a nd/or collaborative tools. The key is to make it very easy for the team to parti cipate in conversations to address immediate project needs. 00:30:20 Domain III - Team Commitment This Nugget completes the review of the Domain III. This Nugget discusses Domain III - Team Commitment. We review the three tasks associated with ensuring that the project environment supports full team commitment, beginning with a review o f the steps necessary to ensure that outside distractions are minimized so each team member is able to focus on completing project stories. Next, the Nugget rev iews the importance of removing any roadblocks preventing the team from being fu lly productive. Roadblocks can be technical shortcomings, lack of access to the business, poor team workspace, etc. The next task this Nugget reviews is the imp ortance of establishing and socializing shared vision and objectives for the pro ject, team and individual team member. It is important that each team member's p ersonal career goals and objectives are aligned with the team and project to sup port a high level of personal commitment. The Nugget concludes with a review in the importance of setting achievable and realistic goals for the team and the in dividual for each iteration. These goals should be present a challenge but achie vable without overtime and unnecessary stress supporting long term sustainabilit y iteration after iteration. 00:30:48 Domain IV - Levels of Planning This Nugget continues our comprehensive review of the six domains representing t he methods of implementing the Tools and Techniques and Knowledge and Skills in Agile project delivery. This Nugget kicks off Domain IV- Adaptive Planning with a review of the first Domain IV practice - Levels of Planning. The Nugget review s the three tasks associated with Levels of Planning, all focused on reviewing t he planning that takes place on an Agile project. The first task reviews Rolling Wave/Progressive Elaboration, where high-level plans are developed at the proje ct which are refined into Release Plans and then further refined into Iteration Plans. Next the Nugget reviews the importance of having the team and the busines

s involved in all planning activities to ensure buy-in and commitment to all pla ns developed. Prioritization Games, Remember the Future, Tree Pruning, Planning Poker, Estimating Game and Delphi Estimation are reviewed to help improve the Ag ile planning processes. We conclude with review of the importance of having real istic and achievable project, release and iteration plans and the ongoing tracki ng and reporting on progress against these plans to maintain customer confidence and commitment. 00:35:57 Domain IV - Adaptation This Nugget continues the review of Domain IV. This Nugget discusses Domain IV Adaptation. The Nugget reviews the two tasks associated with Adaptation, focuse d on ensuring that the team is prepared to be adaptable to the changing requirem ents which will be placed on the project, i.e. being Agile. The first process th e Nugget reviews is maintaining the rhythm of the project while supporting the r hythm of the team. First and foremost, the project has to be adaptable to busine ss, complexity, team and or technology changes while still maintaining the basic principles of daily standup, story conversations and sprint reviews/retrospecti ves and delivering results based on the established team velocity. Next, the Nug get reviews the importance of the project being adaptable to maximize the value that the project is delivering to the business. The business has full ownership of the project backlog and can add, remove and reprioritize any and all stories on the backlog as required to support changing requirements. 00:20:26 Domain IV - Estimation This Nugget continues the review of Domain IV with a discussion of Estimation. T he Nugget reviews the two tasks associated with Estimation, focusing on ensuring that the estimates developed for the projects are appropriate and realistic. Th e first task ensures that the estimates developed for each story reflects the fu ll effort to complete the story, including analysis, design, database design, de velopment, testing, documentation, training and implementation preparation. The next step in realistic estimating is ensuring that the estimates reflect project reality. This introduces the concept of "Ideal Time," which considers the amoun t of time, in an ideal world, that the story would take to complete. This allows for the determination of the total effort for each story without having to cons ider which team member will be working on the story. Next, the Nugget reviews es timating methods to develop realistic story "ideal time" estimates. To ensure th e accuracy of each estimate, we must ensure estimates are relative to previous s tories' actual results and applying lessons learned in the project retrospective s. Next, the Nugget covers the importance of having the entire team involved in the estimating processes. 00:30:25 Domain IV - Velocity/Throughput/Cycle Time This Nugget discusses Domain IV - Velocity/Throughput/Cycle Time. The Nugget cov ers the two tasks associated in determining the capacity of the project team to complete project activity, i.e. complete stories. First, we look at velocity, wh ich factors reality into the capacity of the team to deliver "ideal stories." Th e combination of "ideal time" and velocity/capacity allows for estimation of eac h story (independent of who works on the story and their availability to the pro ject), and then adjusts this based on the team's velocity, which averages the to tal team's capacity over a number of iterations. The Nugget also reviews the nee d to calculate velocity based on completed stories only. Next, the Nugget review s the definition of Cycle Time, which measures the time it takes from "story sta rt" to "story complete," to reflect the time it takes the project team to delive r value to the business. With the velocity set, the next step is to track the pr ogress of each iteration against the planned velocity with a iteration burn down /burn up chart. The establishment of a realistic and achievable velocity ensures that the team should be able to consistently delivery to the velocity in an ong

oing basis with no overtime, no stress and predictable sustainable performance. 00:29:29 Domain V - Problem Detection and Resolution This Nugget reviews the 5 tasks in Domain V - all focused on providing an enviro nment which supports the proactive identification and resolution of project risk s and problems. The Nugget starts with a review of the importance of encouraging all team members to actively identify problems and participate in the resolutio n of these risks and problems. This starts with the third item in the Daily Stan d-up agenda, where each team member has to feel comfortable identifying problems and impediments. It continues to Iteration Retrospectives and Risk Sessions. Th e key is ensuring that the project reacts appropriately and encourages the proac tive identification of and resolutions of issues, problems and roadblocks. Next, we discuss the importance of periodic risk sessions. We then look at root cause analysis of problems, escaped defects and trend analysis as part of these ongoi ng risk and problem identification sessions. Next, the Nugget covers the importa nce of "failing early" through exploratory spikes to identify and implement solu tions. We do a quick review of how Agile development methods such as Pair Progra mming, Continuous Integration and/or Test Driven Development provide very proact ive problem detection and resolution. Finally, we review the importance of manag ing these through Risk Register/Graphs and continuous communication with the pro ject stakeholders. 00:31:31 Domain VI - Continuous Improvement This Nugget reviews the 8 tasks in Domain VI, which ensure that the project envi ronment is focused on continuous improvement at the product, process and people levels. This Nugget focuses on being Agile with being Agile, ensuring that the p roject itself continuously adapts to and implements appropriate process improvem ents to improve project performance. We begin with a review of the importance of tailoring the Agile Management and Development practices to develop an approach that is appropriate for the specific dynamics of the project. Next, we review t he importance of performing retrospectives at the end of every iteration. The Nu gget then reviews the importance of identifying wasteful processes and any addit ional processes that can be changed to improve overall efficiency. Next, we look at the importance of sharing lessons learned, deliverable templates and samples . A key component of continuous improvement is effective knowledge sharing throu ghout the team ensuring that all team members are capable and confident for comp leting any task/story. The Nugget concludes with a discussion of the importance of continuously reviewing Agile tools and techniques and being willing continue to add new Agile practices as appropriate. 00:33:39 Scrum Part I This Nugget is the first of two Nuggets which provides an overview of the Scrum agile development approach. We begin with a review of Scrum and its focus on Tra nsparency, Inspection and Adaption. Next we cover the roles that Scrum defines a s being critical for project success: Product Owner, Scrum Master and Team. Othe r project roles reviewed in the Nugget include: Business Owner, Subject Matter E xperts and other interested members of the organization. Next, the concept of Sc rum of Scrums is presented as the way to scale Scrum teams to larger sizes.The N ugget then concludes with a discussion on the Scrum Rituals: Release Plan, Itera tion Plan, Daily Scrum, Sprint/Release Review and Sprint/Release Retrospective. The Release Plan defines the overall high level plan/strategy for the project id entifying the vision of the functionality to be delivered in each release and th e timeframe for the release. Next, the Iteration/Sprint plan identifies the spec ific stories to be completed in the next Sprint/Iteration and the work assignmen ts. The Daily Scrum, the most recognized of the Scrum Rituals, is the 15 minute daily standup meeting. The Sprint/Release Review presents work results to the Pr oduct Owner and to get acceptance of Done. And finally, the Sprint/Release Retro

spective reviews the successes and challenges and identifies opportunities for p rocess improvements. 00:29:51 Scrum Part II This Nugget is the second of two Nuggets which provides an overview of the Scrum agile development approach. This Nugget concludes our review of Scrum and begin s with a discussion of the Artifacts (or deliverables) that Scrum defines as bei ng important for successful project delivery. The first of these is the Product Backlog, where individual story cards are stored as they evolve from initial ide ntification through a Story Complete state where each story is fully defined. Th e Product Owner is totally responsible for the Product Backlog and ensuring that there is an appropriate number of "story complete" stories ready for Iteration Planning. Next, we cover Sprint Backlog, which tracks the specific stories in a Sprint as they progress from Not Started through Done. Then we discuss Informati on Radiators. The Burn Down Chart is the most common Information Radiator used t o visually and publicly present Scrum status. Next, the Nugget reviews the role Releases and Sprints/Iterations play in the project. Finally, the Nugget reviews the Story Card. The front of the Story Card typically has 3 parts: First, the s tory itself; then, the Definition of Done; and third, the business prioritizatio n and ranking. The back of the Story Card is available to the team for notes, wo rking material and process step confirmation. 00:33:41 Extreme Programming (XP) Part I This Nugget is the first of two Nuggets which provides an overview of the eXtrem e Programming (XP) development approach. This Nugget begins with a review of XP and its focus on agile development approaches. This Nugget kicks off with a revi ew of foundational principles of XP: Simplicity, Communication and Feedback. Nex t, we look at the first 6 of the 12 XP practices: Planning Game, Small Releases, Metaphors, Simple Design, Test Driven Development, and Pair Programming. 00:36:27 Extreme Programming (XP) Part 2 This Nugget is the second of two covering the Extreme Programming (XP) developme nt approach. This Nugget starts with a review of the remaining XP practices: Ref actoring, Collective Code Ownership, Continuous Integration, Sustainable Pace, O n-site Customer, and Code Standards. The Nugget concludes with a review of the p roject roles defined by XP: Coach, Customer, Programmer, Tester and Tracker. 00:32:57 Kanban This Nugget examines another popular agile development approach called Kanban (o r Kanban Boards). We'll look at the Kanban approaches, which have been borrowed from Lean Manufacturing methods. While Kanaban doesn t define a full agile life cy cle, it warrants discussion, as the Kanban Board is gaining popularity as it rep laces the Iteration Backlog on many Agile projects. The Kanban Board augments th e traditional Iteration Backlog with additional detail by including the developm ent steps/processes as well as introducing work limits.The Nugget then discusses an advanced application of Kanban, where the Kanban Board expands to cover the focus of an entire release and manages the progress of the stories as a continuo us process eliminating iterations in the Agile process. 00:30:41 Other Agile Methods This Nugget concludes our review of the commercial Agile development methods cov ered in the exam. The first of these is Feature Driven Development (FDD). FDD is based on an agile iterative-driven method, where the length and contents of eac h iteration/release is based on delivering a complete business feature. Next, th e Nugget reviews Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM). We also look at the

Crystal delivery methods, which define an initial Project Charter, followed by i terative releases containing multiple development releases with an implementatio n and reflective workshop for each release. And finally the Nugget reviews the L ean Software Development method and its focus on lean, or simple and efficient m ethods, to ensure continuous process improvements. 00:25:59 Day of the Exam This Nugget helps you ensure you're prepared for the day that you take (and pass ) the PMI-ACP exam. We start with a review of the importance of, and strategies for, being rested and non-stressed on the day you are scheduled to take the exam . We also discuss what you need to bring with you to the exam. Then, we cover th e structure of the exam: 120 questions from a comprehensive bank of questions, w ith 60 questions drawn from Tools and Techniques and a remaining 60 questions fr om the Knowledge and Skills. The Knowledge and Skills questions will be further distributed with 39 questions from Level 1 K&S, 15 from Level 2 and the remainin g 6 from Level 3. All questions will validate your knowledge of Agile practices and methodologies. 00:37:11 PMI-ACP Review In this final Nugget, we review the material that will be in the PMI-ACP Exam -essentially, a review of this series! First we talk about the structure of the exam. We review the 18 Level 1 Knowledge and Skills; the 12 Level 2 Knowledge an d Skills; and the 13 Level 3 Knowledge and Skills. The Nugget concludes with a r eview of the 6 Domains defined by PMI which combine the Tools and Techniques and Knowledge and Skills into a practical application of agile delivery methods. 00:49:02 Total Series Duration: 23 hours