Agile Product Development Course

Lesson 1 • Agile vs. Waterfall Compared

Contrasts sequential and iterative delivery models across planning, risk, and feedback. Prepares students to justify framework selection decisions.

Lesson 2 • Agile Mindset and Culture

Defines the behavioral and cultural shifts required for Agile adoption. Students identify mindset blockers and enablers within organizations.

Lesson 3 • The Agile Manifesto Unpacked

Examines all four value pairs and twelve principles in depth. Students learn to apply each principle to real product scenarios.

Lesson 1 • Kanban Flow and Visualization

Introduces Kanban's pull-based system and WIP limits for continuous delivery. Students design a basic Kanban board for a product workflow.

Lesson 2 • Scrum Structure and Roles

Breaks down Scrum's three roles, five events, and three artifacts. Students map each element to its purpose in the delivery cycle.

Lesson 3 • Hybrid Agile Approaches

Explores blended models combining Agile with structured governance or compliance needs. Students design a hybrid approach for a constrained environment.

Lesson 4 • Lean Principles in Product Development

Applies Lean waste elimination and value stream thinking to product work. Students identify waste types in a sample product process.

Lesson 1 • Market and Customer Discovery

Introduces methods for identifying target customers and unmet market needs. Students conduct a structured discovery exercise using real or simulated data.

Lesson 2 • Defining a Compelling Product Vision

Teaches techniques for crafting vision statements that align teams and stakeholders. Students draft and critique vision statements using structured templates.

Lesson 3 • Product Strategy Frameworks

Applies strategic tools like OKRs and opportunity trees to product direction. Students connect strategy to measurable outcomes for a sample product.

Lesson 1 • Writing Effective User Stories

Teaches story formats, splitting techniques, and common anti-patterns. Students rewrite poorly formed stories using INVEST criteria.

Lesson 2 • Backlog Refinement Practices

Establishes cadence, facilitation, and output standards for refinement sessions. Students facilitate a mock refinement session and self-assess facilitation quality.

Lesson 3 • Prioritization Techniques

Compares MoSCoW, WSJF, RICE, and value-vs-effort methods for ranking work. Students apply two techniques to the same backlog and compare outcomes.

Lesson 4 • Managing Technical Debt in Backlog

Integrates technical debt visibility and trade-off decisions into backlog management. Students categorize and prioritize a set of technical debt items.

Lesson 1 • Velocity and Capacity Planning

Uses historical velocity and team capacity to set realistic sprint commitments. Students calculate available capacity and forecast sprint scope.

Lesson 2 • Story Points and Planning Poker

Teaches story point calibration and Planning Poker facilitation techniques. Students run a Planning Poker session and calibrate a reference story.

Lesson 3 • Forecasting and Release Planning

Extends sprint-level planning to multi-sprint release forecasting under uncertainty. Students build a probabilistic release forecast using velocity data.

Lesson 4 • Principles of Agile Estimation

Explains why relative estimation outperforms time-based estimates in Agile. Students distinguish between effort, complexity, and uncertainty in sizing.

Lesson 1 • Retrospective Facilitation

Introduces multiple retrospective formats and techniques for generating real improvement. Students facilitate a retrospective and produce a committed action plan.

Lesson 2 • Sprint Review and Demo Techniques

Teaches how to structure reviews that generate actionable stakeholder feedback. Students design and deliver a sprint review for a simulated product increment.

Lesson 3 • Daily Standup Mastery

Defines standup purpose, format, and common dysfunctions to avoid. Students identify and correct dysfunctional standup patterns in case scenarios.

Lesson 4 • Remote and Distributed Team Practices

Adapts Agile ceremonies and collaboration for geographically distributed teams. Students redesign a ceremony set for a fully remote team scenario.

Lesson 1 • Test-Driven and Behavior-Driven Development

Introduces TDD and BDD as quality-first engineering practices within Agile. Students write acceptance tests in Gherkin format for a user story.

Lesson 2 • Managing Bugs and Defects Agilely

Establishes Agile-compatible defect triage, prioritization, and resolution practices. Students apply a defect triage process to a simulated bug backlog.

Lesson 3 • Continuous Integration and Deployment

Explains CI/CD pipeline concepts and their role in reducing release risk. Students map a CI/CD pipeline for a sample product delivery flow.

Lesson 1 • Product Outcome Metrics

Connects product decisions to customer and business outcome measurement. Students define outcome metrics for a product initiative using a metrics tree.

Lesson 2 • DORA Metrics and Delivery Performance

Applies the four DORA metrics to assess and improve software delivery performance. Students benchmark a team against DORA performance levels.

Lesson 3 • Kaizen and Continuous Improvement Culture

Embeds structured improvement cycles into team and organizational routines. Students design a continuous improvement system for a product team.

Lesson 4 • Agile Maturity and Transformation Tracking

Uses maturity models to assess Agile adoption depth and guide transformation. Students score a team's Agile maturity and create a growth roadmap.