PMI-ACP® Agile Tools

Quick reference

• 00:03 Hi this is Ray Sheen.
• 00:04 I wanted to continue to discuss some of the items found
• 00:08 in the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner exam content outline.
• 00:12 In particular, the list of Agile Tools.
• 00:16 >> Agile methods are linked by principles, not tools.
• 00:20 In the PMI, Agile serve by practitioners exam content outline.
• 00:23 The principles are found in the domains and their associated tasks.
• 00:28 The book also lists tools though.
• 00:30 Each methodology uses a different set of tools.
• 00:33 The list of tools have been organized into ten groups.
• 00:36 Each methodology uses at least one tool from each group and
• 00:39 sometimes the methodology will use several tools.
• 00:42 But no methodology uses them all.
• 00:44 Many of the tools are derivatives of those used in more traditional projects
• 00:48 management methodologies or other business management applications.
• 00:52 You should at least be familiar with all the tools listed in
• 00:55 the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner Exam Content Outline.
• 00:58 I don't mean that you need to be experienced with them but
• 01:01 you should at least be able to recognize what the tool is and what it used for.
• 01:05 By the way, there is one further section of the exam content outline handbook
• 01:09 that I didn't bother going through in this session.
• 01:11 It's a list of agile knowledge and skills.
• 01:14 When reviewing that list, virtually everything was either the use of a Agile
• 01:18 tool, or it was a knowledge base that is part of any project methodology.
• 01:23 And those of you who are already PNPs should already be familiar with it.
• 01:28 And I'll highlight the tool categories and briefly mention one or two tools in each
• 01:32 category that are not normally use with the Agile/Scrum methodology.
• 01:36 Of course, those use with Agile/Scrum will be talk about in the later sessions.
• 01:40 First is Agile Analysis and Design.
• 01:42 These tools help to create the structure and their boundaries of the project.
• 01:47 One interesting tool is the use of personas.
• 01:49 This tool creates a hypothetical user within a specific category of customers or
• 01:54 users, and identifies everything that that user would do with the product or
• 01:58 service that is being developed.
• 02:00 The next category is communication.
• 02:02 Most of those tools are used in most of the methodologies.
• 02:06 An example is active listening, which is a skill used for interviewing that considers
• 02:10 both the words and the body language of the person being interviewed.
• 02:14 Onto the category of interpersonal skills.
• 02:17 Many of those tools are used in all forms of project management methodologies.
• 02:22 One you may not be familiar with is emotional intelligence.
• 02:25 This is a combination of recognizing, understanding and monitoring your own
• 02:29 emotions while recognizing, understanding and influencing the emotions of others.
• 02:34 The fourth category is product quality.
• 02:37 This category is just what it says, tools for analyzing and approving the product
• 02:41 quality of whatever's being developed in the agile project.
• 02:45 Continuous integration is a software technique that requires the software
• 02:49 developer to integrate their code, in whatever shape it's in,
• 02:53 several times during the day for testing.
• 02:55 Next is the category of agile estimating.
• 02:58 Agile methodologies will sometimes use some kinda funky estimating techniques,
• 03:02 and in fact I'll talk about several of them with Scrum.
• 03:05 An interesting concept to use is the ideal time.
• 03:09 This is the time it would take to do an activity if there were no interruptions or
• 03:12 unexpected problems.
• 03:15 Well, we are halfway through.
• 03:17 Now, let's look at planning, monitoring, and adapting.
• 03:20 These are tools for just that, project planning and monitoring.
• 03:23 Many of these tools are used in Scrum.
• 03:24 One that we don't use is the cumulative flow diagram.
• 03:28 This diagram shows several cumulative lines
• 03:31 that represent different stages of development.
• 03:33 So one line is the number of items that are started, another is the number
• 03:37 completed development, and a third might be the number of the completed testing.
• 03:42 In a well run project, these lines are parallel and just offset a bit.
• 03:47 Another category is risk management.
• 03:49 This is a core element of any project management methodology, but
• 03:52 there are many different tools that can be used.
• 03:55 The risk-based spike is a technique used in extreme programming for
• 03:59 putting a time box around a new or uncertain technology in order to gain
• 04:03 experience with it before moving forward with that technology in the project.
• 04:07 Our next category of tools is metric.
• 04:09 Again, many of these are used in Scrum.
• 04:11 However, one that I've never used in Scrum but
• 04:13 have used in other project management methodologies, is earned value management.
• 04:18 This is a good technique for combing scope, schedule and
• 04:20 cost into one comprehensive set of metrics.
• 04:24 The next and last category is Value-Based Prioritization.
• 04:28 These are tools that are used for
• 04:29 providing prioritization both within the project and between projects.
• 04:34 The use of ROI, NPB and IRR are classic financial tools
• 04:38 often applied to project business case in order to obtain project approval.
• 04:43 The last category is process improvement.
• 04:46 As you're aware, this is an entire management discipline with a myriad of
• 04:50 tools, only a small number of which are used with Agile projects.
• 04:54 For instance, value stream mapping is a tool typically associated with lean
• 04:58 manufacturing and is used to identify and eliminate waste from a process.
• 05:04 >> So when preparing for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner exam,
• 05:08 you should study up on each of these tools.
• 05:11 With respect to Scrum, just hang on, we're about to dig deep on that approach.

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