One of the most important aspects of agile development training is estimating and planning. Yes, these are important, even for agile software development. Although agile is a fluid and iterative process, that doesn't mean that planning doesn't have a place in its programming and project management.

Despite the many worthless plans that we've all seen—which may make us want to skip planning altogether—this Agile Estimating and Planning Training will demonstrate that it's possible to create accurate project plans useful for programming testing—and projecting forward from 6-9 months. Our Agile Estimating and Planning Training will teach you how to create practical, useful and reliable plans for your software development projects.

If your teams view planning as something to be avoided, or your organization uses plans as something to hold against development teams, this popular estimating and planning course can help your company break both of those attitudes and cycles.

Attendees will leave with a solid understanding and experience of agile release and iteration planning. The course also looks at various approaches to estimating including unit-less points and ideal time. The class will present four specific techniques for deriving reliable estimates, including how to use the popular Planning Poker® technique and other techniques that dramatically improve a project's chances of on-time completion.

By using this approach to estimating, teams learn to answer the ever-challenging questions that plague every development team: “When will we be done?” and “How soon can we have all of these features?”

PMPs: This course counts for 7.5 Professional Development Units (PDUs).

What You Get

• High quality training from an industry expert
• Fruit in the morning, sandwiches mid-morning, a lunch buffet, an afternoon snack, and drinks
• A 4 GB USB drive containing a PDF of the course materials, relevant articles by Mike Cohn and others, sample chapters from Mike's books, and other information
• A printed and bound copy of the course materials
• Planning Poker® cards for use in estimating with your team

What Will You Learn?

How to create an accurate and useful project plan

The importance of estimating size and deriving duration

The differences between story points and ideal time

The advantages of an abstract measure of size

Techniques for creating estimates

When and how to re-estimate

How and when to perform release and iteration planning

Tips for communicating about estimates and plans

Who Should Attend?

This course is equally suited for managers, programmers, testers, or anyone involved in estimating or planning a project. Participants will be able to return to their jobs with specific recommendations and actions they can perform to improve their current plans and projects.

About your Instructor - Mike Cohn

Learn Scrum and Agile Processes directly from Mike Cohn, one of the industry's most well-respected Certified Scrum Trainers. Mike Cohn is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. Mike is a highly popular and in-demand Scrum and agile trainer across the globe. He is also a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated specifically to Scrum, and a co-founder of the non-profit Agile Alliance, home of the Agile Manifesto.

All Mountain Goat Software's agile estimating and planning training and consultations are conducted by Mike Cohn himself. To get a sense of Mike's style, watch this sample of Mike's presentation at Google, or read feedback from others on What They're Saying About Us.Also, take a look at our client list.

For more information about Mountain Goat Software, Mike Cohn, and why to choose us for your agile estimating and planning training, please visit Why Mountain Goat? or view a complete list of our public agile and Scrum courses.

Courses in Oslo are held in either the city itself or at the Fornebu offices of Mountain Goat Software's partner in Norway, ProgramUtvikling.

What People Are Saying About This Course

“Mike’s classes at Yahoo! have been incredibly useful. I recommend him to anyone who is serious about implementing Agile in their organization.”
—Gabrielle Benefield, Yahoo!

“ You were a great instructor and you absolutely, forever altered my perspective on project management process. ”
—Ray Hutchins, SimGame Exchange

“ Awesome experience. We will be sending other team members to your classes. ”
—Misty Lowery , Edfinancial Services

“ I really enjoyed your Agile Planning and Estimating class last Thursday. It provided a ton of useful insight into some of the challenges we're experiencing with our Scrum adoption. ”
—Randy Hale, TD Ameritrade Denver

“Thank you for delivering such a valuable day last Friday. I can sincerely say that I got more from the day than any session I have attended in the last 30 years!”
—Carly Wills, Database Group Ltd.

“Your class on estimating and planning was one of the most valuable I have attended! I came home and worked on my “Planning Plan” and I am so excited to work with the team to share what I've learned and put these ideas in motion.”
—Pamela Fox, Senior Project Manager, Bridgepoint Education.