SAFe Agilist Blog

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What is Lean Portfolio Management?

LPM or Lean Portfolio Management is the process of applying lean thinking for managing enterprises, program and product portfolios for delivering the fastest and flexible flow of higher-value work. Moreover, Lean Portfolio Management mainly focuses on the most valuable work first while controlling the work in process and reducing interruptions. LPM focuses on the alignment and achievement of the business outcome by concentrating on the work and deliverables. Well, it is a results-based approach that includes the adaptive planning in quarterly or lesser increments, higher visibility and alignment and inspection and validation of real outcomes.

Features of Lean Portfolio Management

The key features of Lean Portfolio Management are as follows:

Prioritization of the most valuable and critical activities

Without interruption quick delivery of the higher value work

Task alignment with the company’s objectives and completely inspections as well as validation of the work. 

Key Elements of Lean Portfolio Management 

Decentralized Decision

Demand management; continuous value flow

Lightweight, epic-only business cases

Decentralized, rolling-wave planning

Agile estimating and planning

Lean-Agile budgeting and self-managing Agile Release Trains

Objective, fact-based measures, and milestones

With the help of Lean Portfolio Management, it is the SAFe enterprise that can align the tactics and execute at the time of maintaining the flow of value and innovation. Among the five core competencies of the Lean enterprise, it is the LPM that is needed to get your company on the right track. You can enhance your knowledge in portfolio management and make use of skills in your work by doing an LPM certification course.

Thus, this three-day the course will serve you with the knowledge that is important for organizing around value for optimal business results, implementing Lean-Agile programs. You will be able to learn about all the building up, aligning and implementation of the several projects all at the same time, ensuring those that will fit together for achieving the strategic goals.

Through this certification you will be having complete knowledge of the principles and practices of the Framework that accelerate the Value flow and supports Lean-Agile Program Portfolio Management, Governance, Lean-Agile Budgeting, and Software Capitalization and get the resources that are necessary for implementing Lean-Agile Portfolio Management.

About LPM Certification:

LPM certification the course includes three days of interactive classroom training. Here, you get the opportunity to learn about:

The keys steps connecting the Portfolio with the enterprise strategy

Establishing the Portfolio Vision

Application of the Guardrails and Lean Budgeting

Creating the flow with the Portfolio Kanban

Planning and investment funding

Application of the Agile Portfolio Operations

Implementation of the Lean Governance

Generating a plan for the implementation of LPM  functions

Value Streams Management

The way by which LPM functions performance are calculated

In the LPM certification exam, you need to score 70% to qualify. After successfully completing the SAFe® Lean Portfolio Management Certification you will be provided with the certificate, one-year membership with the SAFe community platform as well as 24 PDUs and SEUs.

Conclusion:

Well, Lean thinking is a methodology that is used for the elimination of wastes from the activities, services or processes for improving the efficiency and the delivery of more values to the systems. In today’s business world for an organization to be successful is imperative to focus on the innovation to changing demand in the business. Therefore, Lean thinking helps the organization in meeting the changes and speeding up the decision-making processes. All organization has a portfolio of projects and so there is a need for effective planning and management to maximize ROI. LPM makes use of lean thinking to manage the large project portfolio and even creates a project pipeline. It aims to select the tasks on a fast-flexible flow basis which will deliver the highest value.

Keeping in mind the current market need, Leanwisdom has come up with the lean portfolio management certification course to help the professionals in their Agile journey. Here, the trainers are highly experienced and have hands-on experience in implementing Agile and Scaled Agile. You can get detail information about the courses they offer and their upcoming batches by visiting their website.

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Why Agile certification important for a career?

Agile is one of the faster and more iterative approaches to software development as well as delivery. This methodology helps the organization in releasing the software quickly to the market. Well, this methodology has led to the vast changes in the people, processes, and tools which the organizations are making use of to develop software.

Moreover, the agile methodology makes uses of iterative development which is widely used in a variety of industrial projects as it’s a lightweight development method that will satisfy the changes that are needed. Thus, short iteration must be used which needed for producing efficient product delivery. By making use of the traditional software development process it is not possible to manage the rapid changes that are needed. This agile methodology has a great impact on software development in terms of quality within the organizational, methodical and cultural framework.

As most of the companies, for this reason, are appointing the professionals who are certified in agile methodology.  Because this proves that he/ she has complete knowledge of this methodology. Thus, agile certification can be the best one for you to give a kick start to your career.

Importance of the Agile certification in career:

To take your career to the better position you need to continually improve your skills and enhance your knowledge with the new updates.

Agile certification has brought a revolutionary change in the process of software development and project management. Thus, this has increased the demand for IT professionals who are highly knowledgeable in this field. Well, check out the reasons why Agile certification is important for a career:

Advancement in Career:

For the advancement of the brands, most of the companies are now looking for certified professionals. Besides, project management is a crucial part of the business and thus a qualified individual for this position is needed for the growth of the business. This certification will play an important role when you are looking to advance in your career. Once you complete this certification you will be able to meet your career goals and you will find yourself at the highest ladder in the industry.

Credibility:

There is a big difference between the one who is an expert and the one who is showing that he has complete knowledge of this methodology. Moreover, having the agile certification will you to stand out an explanation that you can operate the Agile software. This certification will be a profitable one for you while applying for the job because it acts as evidence that you have knowledge of this methodology and you will even get a better chance to lobby for better terms at the workplace. Without this certification, it would have been harder to prove your advancement of skills.

Enhance your knowledge:

As in today’s market scenario their continuous change with the continuous update. Moreover, working in such an industry needs dynamic flexibility. For surviving in your job, you need to grow and advance with the current development of the job requirements. It is highly not possible to be conversant with the current technology and still fulfill the requirements of the job. If you are unable to perform and adapt to the dynamic changes in this sector, then you might just lose your promotion or job.

Well, enhancing your knowledge through this certification will be a positive one for your career and will protect it from the unexpected stalls that might arise due to a lack of knowledge. Moreover, you will get the chance to become an expert in this industry and the certification will make you eligible for the opportunities that might be not available for the people that lack certification.

Demonstration practically:

It may happy happen sometimes in your company you might be called to demonstrate your expertise to get a promotion or increase your pay scale. Well, everyone wishes to grow in their career, then you don’t want to miss out on a chance due to a lack of skills which you can improve quite easily.

Agile certification can be a win for anyone around the globe who has the will to demonstrate excellence in the workplace and especially in the field of project management. On the other hand, you need to have the technical knowledge to fight with the challenges in your workplace which need solutions that can be provided by a certified individual exclusively.

Planning to run your own company:

Project management is one of the important parts of a business. Thus, knowledge is an asset for you when you are starting your own business. Just imagine you are about to run a business and you have the complete knowledge to run the operations and not only that your knowledge is of expertise level as you have completed the certification.

Most of the people have the desire to be self-employed, and if you want to expertise in this type of employment, skills because it plays a key role. Further, it is not necessarily required to perform the task instead it is about figuring out the technical characteristics of the business that will help you to monitor the behavior of the employee.

Well, for career advancement self-employment is the epitome. An Agile certification you will get the confidence to run your business with a little more knowledge than your competitors.

Conclusion:

As most of the companies are moving to agile, thus they are looking for the people who are certified and have complete knowledge of this methodology. This certification will help you stand out in the crowd and will also give a kick start to your career. So, if you are planning to pursue any agile certification like SAFe Agilist, CSM, SAFe PO/PM and others then you can get in touch with one of the top-rated agile training institutes LeanWisdom. Here, they have hands-on experienced trainers who have hands-on experience in implementing Agile and Scaled Agile. For more updates about their upcoming batches and course, you can visit their website.

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6 Hurdles that Scrum Masters Face Often

Scrum framework of Agile methodology is used for managing complex product development and helps in improving the gaps between the teams. This rule of this framework is to bring together the events, roles, and artifacts that are governing the relationships and interactions between them. Moreover, this framework is adopted by the organization, which is based on the need, provides the basic Scrum rules are not violated.

A certified Scrum Master serves the organization in several ways that include:

· A Scrum Master plays a crucial role in completing the project and he/she holds the entire project.

· A Scrum Master might not participate in the everyday Scrum meeting but supports the whole team.

· For the Agile development team Scrum Master plays a crucial role.

· Team meetings are facilitated by the Scrum Master that includes the Daily stand-up.

· The main aim of the Scrum Master is to deliver the maximum value to the customer.

6 Common Hurdles for the Scrum Master:

Well, the Scrum framework is highly used, and it is also a mishandled Agile framework. Scrum framework is highly essential, but it is hard to implement perfectly well. Check out the hurdles that Scrum Master faces in an organization:

High expectation:

Most of the upper management and organization mix up the role of the Project manager and Scrum Master. The most important point that we should keep in mind is that the role of the Scrum Master is a Scrum facilitator for the team as well as the organization.

Well, sometimes the expectation of the management is quite different that makes the life of the Scrum Master a little harder. We should keep in mind that a Scrum Master is a facilitator, a guide, a process follower and most importantly he/she is a Servant Leader.

Change Resistance:

When there is a change there is a resistance it is a social aspect. These resistances come from a specific individual, not from teams or departments. However, when we speak about the implementation of Scrum, the Scrum Master is referred to as the change agent. The hurdle of resistance is faced by the Scrum Master which the implementation of this framework. Resistance while changing is not a surprise it is the highly expected reaction whenever any new change is created.

Putting everything within Time-Boxed:

Implementation of the Sprints makes sure that all the events are time-boxed to get a productive result. The daily Scrum sprints must not exceed the limit of minutes because you will find that the team members start discussing the technical difficulties which lead to longer meeting that goes beyond the allotted time. This is one of the most challenging tasks for the Scrum Master to make sure that the team spends the allotted time for the Scrum events. You need to take an effective decision to finish up the meeting within the time.

Handling of an urgent change request:

While implementing the Scrum, A Scrum Master follows the rule which doesn’t accept any changes within the Sprint. The changes are made either at the beginning or at the end of the sprint, but not in between. Moreover, you will find in this practical world the Product owner/customer/ stakeholders are coming up with the change requests or bugs.

Furthermore, it is not always good to blindly follow the process without understanding the aspects of the business and the market needs. Thus, this necessary to communicate, work together with the Stakeholders for planning and making good decisions.

Distributing Teams:

Distributing the Teams is one of the most common barriers that the Scrum Master faces. Whenever the teams are geographically distributed there are some delays, networking issues, regional issues, different Time Zones as well as different working hours it becomes difficult for the Scrum Master to connect and collaborate with everyone.

Well, with the updates technologies it has become possible to overcome this hurdle through video conferencing, over calls and many other tools.

Conclusion:

These are the common hurdles that are faced by the Scrum Master and are dealt with the good skills, expertise, and experience in the implementation of the Scrum framework. To come across these hurdles, you need to first enhance your skills and understand your role as a Scrum Master. If you are looking for the best Agile institute to do your CSM certification then you can come in contact with LeanWisdom. They have experienced trainers who have hands-on experience. For more detail, about their upcoming batch and course, you need to visit their website.

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10 Important Qualities That an Agile Leader Must Have

Agile is a method of project management that is mostly used by software development companies. In this methodology, the project is divided into several sprints and in each sprint, there are development and testing. Thus, this helps to produce a quality product at a faster rate. It also involves the clients in each stage and if the changes required are done immediately.

Qualities that must be present in Agile Leader are:

Mission and Vision

It is the responsibility of an efficient Agile leader to make sure the target of the entrepreneurs is cleared to everyone who is working in the delivery of the project.  This includes Scrum teams, customers and stakeholders. A good Agile leader confirms that the work is done properly and proceeding towards the goal.

Small Release

The agile leader ensures that the work becomes more effective when the task is divided then subdivided because the features can be released iteratively and incrementally not like big-bang releases. Thus, this methodology states that large projects should be divided into smaller ones when it is possible. Thus, it describes the concept of an agile delivery model, iterative and incremental.

Pre-planning meetings

The Agile leader makes sure that before the planning session the items in the backlog are maintained. The stories must be groomed and can be conversed before one sprint starts so that the planning session is done faster. By keeping track of the team’s velocity there is the scope of sprints that can be calculated. If any kind of change is made in the priorities are informed to everyone.

Short feedback loop

The Agile leader makes sure that there is a short feedback loop between the development team, design, product, and clients by involving them in frequent communication. He ensures that the work is demoed and discussed earlier to avoid any sort of misunderstandings. The Agile leader confirms that the progress is based on the actual value that is delivered to the business.

Knowledge sharing

The Agile Leader must ensure that the knowledge of the different team members are shared across different parts of the organization and this will lead to an improvement in the work process. Retrospectives and Scrum of Scrum provides a great opportunity to remove the impediments and difficulties that are faced by the team in each sprint, this will help to plan the action which can be brought together to identify the obstacles.

Remove failure

An efficient Agile leader makes sure that the team dares to experiment with new technologies and approaches. It is his responsibility to create such an environment that will reduce the risk of failures at the end of the project.

Imparting

Agile Leaders makes the work environment-friendly which improves good face-to-face communication and reduces the requirement of needless documents, emails and other forms of low-bandwidth communication.

Focus:

Agile leaders believe in working smarter, not harder. An agile leader makes sure that the team is not doing multitasking instead they are focused, dedicated and tuned to the work which is of higher priority that will get more business value. Working with the right people and teams are available at the right time maximizes the chance of success.

Remove the obstacle:

An Agile Leader removes all the obstacles that come in the way of the team’s work. This will help the team to focus on the work and produce high-quality work on time.  

Improvement invisibility

An Agile Leader must ensure that everyone has the idea of progress and can perceive the bigger picture.

Conclusion:

In an organization, an Agile leader plays a crucial role. His role for both the organization and team is perceptible and impactful. An agile leader has the potential to bring change in the work culture, environment and have an impact on delivering value. As per the demand of the market, most of the individuals are opting for Agile courses like SAFe Agile Certification. Leanwisdom has turned with some Agile courses with hands-on experienced trainers in implementing Agile and Scaled Agile.

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WHAT IS AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

Agile Project management is the process by which a project is managed by breaking it down into several chunks of work. However, Agile delivers the value to the business and frequent small deliveries of product that is called the features. If you go through the traditional methodology you will find that the testing is done at the end after the completion of the development.

Agile methodology is most frequently used by most of the business who wants to receive products and benefits earlier. By using this methodology, you can concentrate on the requirements and any change required by the business can be accommodated in the next iteration. Agile is most frequently used by most of the IT and Non-It projects.

Now, let’s discuss how Agile projects are managed

In Agile development, Scrum explains most parts of it. Here I will use Scrum methodology to explain the project management in Agile. There are three roles that you will find in a Scrum methodology. They are Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Team.

A product owner must look after the different aspects of the project, confirming that the right products are built and that too in the right order. A good product owner will always balance competing priorities, available in need of the team and participates in the discussion about the product.

The main job of a Scrum Master is to help the team to work together and bridge the gap between the teams. A good Scrum Master tries to provide a service to the Team, removes impediments to progress, arranges meetings and discussions, and performs few project management duties. He takes care of the issues that the team faces while processing the project.

Even the teams undertake agile project management to find the best process to achieve their aim. However, the whole team together decides who will work on which task, and what are the technical necessities to produce high-quality products.

Thus, we can conclude that Agile Project Management divides responsibility among the team members. In Scrum methodology, you will find that it is divided among the Product Owner, Scrum Master and the rest of the team.

How is traditional Waterfall Project Management from different from Agile?

If you go through the traditional Waterfall Project Management, then you will find that the Project Manager is loaded with the duty to balance the project scope, cost, quality, personnel, reporting, risk, and necessary changes. However, Agile project management divides the responsibilities into three Agile roles:

Product owner- His role is to handle the project goals, the tradeoff of schedule versus scope, adapting to changing project requirements and creating the priorities for the product.

The role of a Scrum Master is to giving importance to the tasks and even removing impediments of handling the tasks. Agile project management along with the Scrum has opened a new world.

The role of the Team Members is to handle the task assignment, progress reporting, controlling the quality of the product and regular details management.

5 benefits of Agile Project Management: The advantages of Agile project Managements are as follows: • High product quality • Higher customer satisfaction • Increased project control • Reduced risks • Faster ROI

Conclusion: One of the toughest jobs of a Project Manager is to meet the project objectives while creating a consistent formula at minimum cost and best ROI processes. As far as Statistics, you will find that with Agile Project Management the product produced is 37% time faster, and the efficiency of the team also increases and in total, productivity almost increased by an average of 16%.

Well, if you are willing to learn SAFe Agilist courses to have a brighter future then you must choose the best training institute for yourself. Among the well-liked institute, Leanwisdom is one of the prominent names. They have experienced and highly efficient trainers.

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What is an Agile methodology?

Agile is a method by which a team in an organization can manage their project by breaking down the several stages and it involves synchronization with the stakeholders and there is an improvement as well as iteration in each stage. However, Agile methodology describes the clients what the product they will receive and what problems it will remove. It brings a clear picture of the customer's expectation in front of the project team.

In Agile methodology, once the work is started the product goes through the process of planning, executing and evaluating. Thus, this helps to fulfill the customer's needs.

Check out the promises that Agile makes:

•    Product of high quality

•    Delivery on time

•    Easy maintainable of codes

•    Good communication and collaboration with customers

•    Development teams empowered

How agile is practiced?

The most popular among all the agile methodologies are:

1.    Scrum:  It is one of the most popular Frameworks. Here, the roles include the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the development team which has programmers and testers. A Scrum project includes in its 3 roles, 3 artifacts, and 5 events. Those are:

The three roles are:

•    PO

•    Scrum Master

•    Development Team

Three Artifacts are:

•    Product Backlog

•    Sprint Backlog

•    Product Increment

Now, the five events are:

•    Sprint

•    Sprint Planning

•    Daily Scrum

•    Sprint Review

•    Sprint retrospective

2.    Kanban: This is a Japanese term which means card. However, these cards contain details of the work that is to be done on the software. The main purpose of it is visualization. Thus, every team member is aware of the work through visual supports. Less organization is required in the organization and it avoids nonvalue adding activities.

3.    Lean: This type of methodology encourages the flow of value to the customer through the two guideline beliefs those are:

•    Continuous improvement

•    Continuous delivery

A leaner process means faster is the delivery lesser is the effort used. Most of the software companies included lean principles in their company.

4.    Extreme Programming: It is another most popular agile techniques in use. The Extreme programmers use some simple codes and they start getting feedback from the very first day. It keeps the design simple and produces minimum products that will serve the need.  

All these methodologies focus on lean software development and thus helps in forming better software efficiently as well as skillfully.

Advantages of Agile methodology:

Some of the benefits of involving Agile methodology in your organization is as follows:

•    Transparency

Agile methodology keeps the client involved throughout the project from the process to the product. However, in this way the client can get a clear picture of how the product is made and if required changes can be made during the process only. Thus, it helps to maintain a good relationship between them, everything remains transparent.

•    Perceptible schedule and cost:

As each sprint has fixed duration and the cost is predictable and limited to the amount of work which is performed by the team within a fixed-schedule time. However, here the clients can get the idea of the approximate cost for each future to improve decision making about the priority features and there is no extra iteration.

•    Improved quality

By breaking the projects into several units, the project team focuses on quality development, testing, and synchronization. Conducting and testing in each iteration and where the quality is improved by finding and fixing the defects quickly as well as rectifying the problems quickly. Project quality can be increased by sprint meetings, transparency, and Jira usage.

Conclusion:

If you take to look at the market report, you will find that most of the companies are using the Agile methodology. This has made them faster by 37% and increased their productivity by 16%. Thus, to use this methodology in your organization you need to have a clear concept of it. LeanWisdom has turned with the best Agile courses which will help you to develop your skills and you will get the idea of how to implement it.  

For more details you can click below:

SAFe Agile Certification SAFe Agilist Certification in Bangalore SAFe Agile Training in Chennai SAFe Agilist in Hyderabad SAFe Agilist Training in Pune

SAFe Agile Certification in Mumbai

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Why Scrum Master Certification?

Scrum is an Agile framework methodology that is highly used by the organization to solve complex work with ease. However, Scrum is not only for the organization but also for the customers and team members. Further, if you look at the scenario you will find that a professional Scrum Master makes the workplace more enjoyable for the team to work. Thus, this will lead to the improvement of product quality.

Role of a Scrum Master:

The main work of a Scrum Master is to motivate the team so that the quality of the product is high. The main job of a Scrum Master is rising the need for Scrum experts and thus there arises a great chance for the Scrum professionals. However, choosing a Scrum Master's career can allow you to form your career in different fields.

What is CSM?

In every agile development team, there is a need for Scrum Master to make their work successful. However, doing the CSM can help you to work properly and produce high-quality work to the customers. Thus, a Scrum Master is not a project manager rather he is a servant leader who is responsible to help the team within this framework. The responsibility of a Scrum Master is protecting the team from all sorts of distractions that will harm productivity. Thus, CSM can help you in flourishing your career and influencing the other Scrum Master.

Things to do before you take up CSM course

When you are planning to CSM course you need to first go through the Scrum theory and its principles. Thus, this will make easy for you to under the concept and whatever is taught during the training process. Go through the series of videos that explain Scrum which introduces several topics like, Scrum Theory, Scrum Events, Scrum Roles and Scrum Artifacts. However, you need to download Scrum Guide which is like the Agile Manifesto.

CSM Exam procedure:

You need to attain two days of classroom training that is of 16 hours. After completion of the class, you must sit for the online CSM exam. In the CSM exam, you will be given 1 hour to solve 50 questions. However, you must obtain 37 correct answer which is 74% to qualify.

Advantages of CSM

In today’s market scenario traditional method is removed by the Agile methodology. Scrum methodology has made the work procedure easy and the distraction in the work procedure can be solved with ease. By doing the CSM certification course you will understand how to implement Scrum in large-sized and small-sized projects.

Improvement of Scrum skills: It is highly essential to increase your knowledge in Scrum methodology to work in any organization. If you are new to this then you must take up the CSM course to grabs the knowledge and skill which can give a great start to your career. Thus, this course will help you to understand how you can implement this methodology in your work.

Improvement in communication: However, this training program will help you improve the communication between the teams. Further, many organizations are looking for scrum certification. Thus, the implementation of Scrum makes the teamwork well and makes sure that the project is completed on time. With the improvement in the work ambiance, there is also an improvement in the quality of the product produced.

Conclusion:

From the above writing, you can understand that a Scrum Master is highly essential for an organization. However, to become a Scrum Master you need to have clear knowledge and skills of it. For this, you need to do a Scrum Master Certification course. LeanWisdom has come forward to fulfill the desire of those who want to become a Scrum Master. They are offering courses and here one can get trained by the highly experienced mentors. To grab the opportunity, you can visit LeanWisdom

For more details kindly visit below:

CSM Certification in Bangalore

Scrum Master in Chennai

CSM in Hyderabad

Scrum Master Certification in Pune

Scrum Certification in Mumbai

Agile Certification