A Professional Introduction to Scrum

Successfully navigate change and unpredictability for Agile project management and any complex work

Are you and your team exhausted and frustrated because you are juggling multiple projects and constantly task-switching? Does working this way make it difficult to understand progress or to feel a sense of purpose in your daily work? How often do you discover that what you delivered doesn't achieve desired outcomes? Does quality often get sacrificed under pressure to do more faster? If you are looking for a better way to approach complex work and deliver high value solutions, Scrum is the way.

Scrum done well enables business agility, which is essential in our unpredictable and rapidly changing world. Scrum is a framework that helps people productively and creatively solve complex problems and deliver greater value. Scrum enables you to deliver Increments of value working in short cycles. This approach helps you incorporate learning as you do the work, get feedback frequently to make sure you are on the right track, and respond quickly to change.

I created this Udemy course for you - filled with my unique insights as a licensed Professional Scrum Trainer, Steward of the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) curriculum, and owner of an agility training and coaching business. I have taught over 1,300 students on 5 continents. I am co-author of the book Mastering Professional Scrum, published in 2019 by Pearson Addison-Wesley. I am also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and started my career working in traditional project management, which gives me a unique perspective to help people understand the difference and make the transition to Scrum and agility if it makes sense for them.

Note: This course is up-to-date with the 2020 Scrum Guide.

Scrum may have its roots in software, but it has been used well beyond software for decades. I designed the course to help you apply Scrum in any context - from operations to marketing, from projects and products to research and problem solving, and even running departments or entire organizations. I offer a wide range of examples to help you see how the concepts can be applied for different types of work.

Student Review --> "This was a phenomenal course. Stephanie's lectures were fun to watch, and it's clear she knows her material. She spoke at a cadence that was easy to follow, and you can tell she's into what she's teaching. I found her guides to be very helpful and highly recommend signing up for her newsletter. I look forward to taking more courses from Stephanie in the future."

This course is built to help you learn Scrum the right way - in alignment with the official Scrum Guide and leveraging the foundational values and principles. Zero previous Scrum experience is required. In fact, it is often beneficial to have zero experience because you won't have as much to unlearn. In my experience, there are many misunderstandings and myths about Scrum that prevent teams from applying Scrum well and gaining the benefits of agility. This course can also serve as a great refresher and validation of knowledge for people who do have Scrum experience but little to no professional Scrum training.

In this course, you will learn to:

• Identify the key differences between a traditional plan-driven approach and an agile value-driven approach

• Shift your mindset towards an agile way of thinking

• Define the roles, artifacts, and events of the Scrum framework, the importance of each one, and how they all fit together to maximize value delivery

• Leverage empiricism and the Scrum values to navigate challenges and maximize the benefits of Scrum

• Determine when to use Scrum

• Define and meaure value

• Create and evolve a definition of "Done"

• Break out of the mindset of focusing on tasks and deliverables and see opportunity to deliver value in entirely new ways

• Rethink how you can iteratively and incrementally deliver value

• Apply the Goldilocks Principle to Product Backlog Refinement

• Make the minimal decisions needed to get started with Scrum

• Estimate and forecast using agile techniques

• Avoid using velocity in the wrong ways

• Leverage an agile approach to managing budgets and schedules

• Apply my model for improving your Scrum implementation (because there are no best practices when dealing with complex work)

• Get additional resources to go deeper in your learning

Agility is essential in today's environment. Agility is the real competitive advantage. Teams and organizations must be nimble, creative, and resilient in order to effectively navigate complexity and thrive in a constantly changing world. Scrum is used by over 12 million people around the world. While Scrum does have its origins in software development, it has been used well beyond software for decades as more and more teams and organizations have realized their work is complex and their environment is unpredictable and rapidly changing. I offer a wide range of examples to help people understand the concepts and how to apply in their own context.

Throughout the course, you will have opportunities to reflect on questions that will help bring the course concepts to life in your own context. I have included two canvases I use with my coaching clients that will help you start applying Scrum in your work environment. And for those of you who are eager to take your learning deeper, I'll guide you toward next steps.

This course is different because it is true to the Scrum Guide and Ken Schwaber's vision, and it is not prescriptive. Agile is not a silver bullet. Scrum is a framework - not a methodology - that leverages the power of a small, self-organizing team. The Scrum Team decides their process within the framework, and that process will evolve as they inspect and adapt, learn and grow.  There are no best practices in Scrum because we are dealing with complexity. Best practices only exist in simple environments. A lot of the information you find online and even what is delivered in training does not clarify what is required by Scrum versus what is an example or personal opinion. I aim to teach you the foundational knowledge you need to effectively navigate in your own context. I provide examples of helpful practices and advice from my own experience, however, I make clear distinctions and help you understand why you might use a practice and the benefits it can provide.

When applied with discipline and intention, Scrum helps you confidently navigate complexity and uncertainty, deliver greater value, and thrive in a constantly changing world.

Are you in for that?

Enroll today and begin your Scrum journey with me!

(Trust a former project manager and perfectionist... This can change your life!!  See you in the course!)