In this three-day course, you'll learn everything you need to know about delivering software using Agile. After completing the course, you will be prepared to:

• Build and ship weekly increments of software using iterations/Sprints.
• Create nearly bug-free code using test-driven development, refactoring, and exploratory testing.
• Understand and accommodate stakeholders and their diverse opinions.
• Work in a cross-functional team with on-site customers, testers, and programmers.
• Prevent build failures with continuous integration.
• Incrementally build technical infrastructure alongside features.

Course Structure

This is a hands-on course with a heavy emphasis on doing, not watching! You will form cross-functional teams and deliver actual software in four 90-minute iterations, in a real-world environment that includes version control, automated builds, and continuous integration. That's right: you'll design, build, test, and ship software, as well as build out your technical infrastructure, all in ninety minutes. If that sounds impossible, you need to come to this course!

We cover a lot of ground in this three-day course. We intersperse the real-world iterations with lots of interactive workshops to ensure that you can experience remember everything you learn. Come prepared to drink from the firehose! Topics include:

• Eliminating bugs
• Incremental requirements
• Working with stakeholders
• Customer tests and acceptance test-driven development
• Test-driven development
• Refactoring
• Code management
• Continuous integration
• Exploratory testing
• Pairing
• Incremental design and risk-driven architecture
• Cross-functional collaboration

Testimonials

"I don't know how they pulled off the [class project], but going through four iterations brought the concepts home. Also I was a programmer wanting to learn about the project development side. Diana's four-quadrant diagrams (about stakeholders) were enlightening as was Jim's [incremental design] box diagrams and analogy of TDD to double-entry bookkeeping. Thank you!!"

Steve Tamura, Developer

"Extremely educational--lots of new material. Well organized."

Dave Goldman, Senior Developer, Inspiration Software

"They were great. They were funny, understanding, and answered questions well."

Ven Cohen, Programmer/Technical Lead, ISI

(See the comments for more testimonials.)

Target Audience

This course isn't just for programmers! Programmers, testers, on-site customers, business analysts, project managers, product managers, ScrumMasters, coaches, team leads, and anyone else on an agile team will benefit from this course.

Programmers: We use Java, Eclipse, Ant, and Subversion in this course. You'll be working in teams, so it's okay if you aren't completely familiar with these technologies.

About the Instructors

James Shore is a prominent figure in the Agile software development community. He has been coaching teams in Agile development since 1999 and is a recipient of the Agile Alliance's prestigious Gordon Pask Award for Agile Excellence. James consults with development teams worldwide to help them meet commitments, improve product quality and increase productivity. He is co-author of The Art Of Agile Development.

Diana Larsen consults with leaders and teams to create work processes where innovation, inspiration, and imagination flourish. With more than fifteen years of experience working with technical professionals, Diana brings focus to the human side of organizations, teams and projects. Diana co-authored Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great! and is current chair of the Agile Alliance Board of Directors.

Together, James and Diana provide the highest level of Agile understanding and expertise. They focus on practical experiences and deep understanding. You'll learn a great deal from them, and you'll have a good time doing it.

Our Philosophy

Diana and I share two core beliefs about training: we want to our students to have experiences, not lectures; and whenever possible, we want those to be real-world experiences rather than metaphors or simulations.

Part of the reason is that "textbook" answers tend to strip out the messy complexity that occurs when you put work into practice. In real-world planning, there's tension and pressure. Different people want different things. There's a fear about what will happen if you don't get everything done by a certain time. Existing interpersonal friction is magnified.

You'll never learn this stuff by hearing a lecture. Most instructors don't even mention it. (Sadly, some teach from books, not experience, and don't know that they don't know it.)

So we do it. Suddenly the stuff that seemed so easy when it was up on the board isn't as easy any more. Mistakes are made. And real learning happens.

(Read the rest of my essay, "Come Drink from the Firehose.")