Overview
Open Colleges has teamed up with Elabor8 to bring you the Introduction to Agile short course. This course has been developed in consultation with agility experts to provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to embrace an agile mindset. During this course, you’ll learn about the tools and frameworks that will help you adopt agile ways of working.
The idea of agile working was once limited to technology professionals. But now, a wide range of businesses around the world are adopting agile ways of working to maximise outcomes. The Introduction to Agile short course has been specifically designed to equip you with the skills to work within an agile organisation, in any professional context, and help you succeed.
What you'll learn
In this course you'll learn how to:
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better understand agility and how it creates value for individuals and organisations when working with complex projects, with an understanding of the mindset, principles and frameworks;
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create and participate in a high performing team, with a focus on ownership, collaboration and soft skills;
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build a Kanban system, to manage and optimise a workflow or project delivery;
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maximise productivity and the delivery of valuable outcomes, by adopting modern approaches to progressively creating and maintaining a backlog of activities; and
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use the Scrum framework to better manage delivery of projects or a product in complex environments.
Benefits to you
On completion of this course, you’ll:
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develop the essential mindset to work in a more adaptable, efficient way;
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immediately be able to apply agility to a range of contexts;
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have covered the breadth of modern agile tools, techniques and frameworks;
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be able to work smarter, not harder, as you boost your personal effectiveness through the adoption of a learning mindset; and
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gain an understanding of the Agile Manifesto, a document that outlines the key values and principles of agile software development, but is also relevant across all areas of business.
Complete at your pace
The Introduction to Agile short course can be completed at your own pace. With three months access, you can study when it’s convenient for you. Study intensively and complete it in a matter of days or put in a few hours a week and complete it over a longer period – the choice is yours.
Overview
Open Colleges has teamed up with Elabor8 to bring you the Introduction to Agile short course. This course has been developed in consultation with agility experts to provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to embrace an agile mindset. During this course, you’ll learn about the tools and frameworks that will help you adopt agile ways of working.
The idea of agile working was once limited to technology professionals. But now, a wide range of businesses around the world are adopting agile ways of working to maximise outcomes. The Introduction to Agile short course has been specifically designed to equip you with the skills to work within an agile organisation, in any professional context, and help you succeed.
What you'll learn
In this course you'll learn how to:
-
better understand agility and how it creates value for individuals and organisations when working with complex projects, with an understanding of the mindset, principles and frameworks;
-
create and participate in a high performing team, with a focus on ownership, collaboration and soft skills;
-
build a Kanban system, to manage and optimise a workflow or project delivery;
-
maximise productivity and the delivery of valuable outcomes, by adopting modern approaches to progressively creating and maintaining a backlog of activities; and
-
use the Scrum framework to better manage delivery of projects or a product in complex environments.
Benefits to you
On completion of this course, you’ll:
-
develop the essential mindset to work in a more adaptable, efficient way;
-
immediately be able to apply agility to a range of contexts;
-
have covered the breadth of modern agile tools, techniques and frameworks;
-
be able to work smarter, not harder, as you boost your personal effectiveness through the adoption of a learning mindset; and
-
gain an understanding of the Agile Manifesto, a document that outlines the key values and principles of agile software development, but is also relevant across all areas of business.
Complete at your pace
The Introduction to Agile short course can be completed at your own pace. With three months access, you can study when it’s convenient for you. Study intensively and complete it in a matter of days or put in a few hours a week and complete it over a longer period – the choice is yours.
Who's this for?
The Introduction to Agile short course has been designed for those who want to learn the fundamentals of agile working. Whether you’re a student or already working, this course will enable you to upskill swiftly and become an effective agilest.
This course has been designed for:
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anyone looking to achieve better results within their work environment;
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technology professionals and students wanting to increase their agile fluency; and
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managers looking to improve team performance.
This course addresses common challenges, including:
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dispelling all the myths and misconceptions around agile working – What is agile and why is it useful?
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purposely applying the approaches to your context – How do I effectively apply the techniques to my situation?
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ensuring you understand the breadth of approaches – What are all the agile techniques? How do they come together? Where do I start?
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encouraging a continuous learning approach – What kinds of approaches do I use to ensure I’m always learning?
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the Heart of Agile – What is it, and how does it relate to the concept of agile working?
Course Content
This module will provide you with a background on the link between mindset and agility. Learn about fixed and growth mindsets and how you can improve your resilience when working in changing situations.
Learning Content
- Mindset and agility
- Social motivations
Learning Activities
- Discussion on fixed and growth mindsets
- Explore your personal sensitivities to threats in your external environment
Knowledge Quiz
Topic Takeaways and Tools
- Ways to develop a growth mindset
- Explore the Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness (SCARF) model and your personal triggers
- Growth mindset journal template to measure improvement
| SH1004-1.2 |
Introducing Agile |
The world is changing rapidly, driving increased uncertainty and complexity. Agile is one way of working that can help teams efficiently plan, collaborate and execute projects. In this module, you’ll explore agile, where it began, what is at its core and how it’s different from traditional methods of delivery.
Learning Content
- Agile Foundations, mindset, values and principles
- Difference between traditional vs agile
- The nature of problems
- How iterating on work solutions can help achieve best possible results over time
Learning Activities
- Explore the drivers for agility
- Learn about volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) and explore a related case study
- Discuss the Agile Manifesto
Knowledge Quiz
Topic Takeaways and Tools
- Identify the key drivers for agility, both from a personal and external perspective
- Consider the values and principles of agile working
- How can repetitive delivery minimise risk while maximising learning
- An understanding of the four imperatives which make up the Heart of Agile
| SH1004-1.3 |
High Performing Teams |
What is the key to building a high performing team? In this module you’ll learn about the fifth principle of the Agile Manifesto, which focuses onbuilding projects around motivated individuals, giving them the environment and support they need, and trusting them to get the job done.
Learning Content
- Leading with intent
- High performing teams
- Psychological safety and trust
Learning Activities
- Discuss empowerment and motivation
- Build a team agreement
- Understand the role of trust
- Explore techniques to build high performing teams
Knowledge Quiz
Topic Takeaways and Tools
- Learn how leading with intent creates engaged, thinking team members
- Identify the ways you can build an environment built on trust and safety
- Use tools and practices to create a team agreement
- Explore complementary practices to create high performing teams
You might already have an understanding of what a Kanban is, or you may never have heard the term before. This module will give you an overview of what a Kanban system is, and will teach you to embrace its philosophy and how to apply it to your daily work. By the end of this module, you’ll understand the six practices of Kanban and the key elements of creating a visual board to manage your work.
Learning Content
- Kanban principles and practices
- Kanban boards
- Benefits of Kanban
Learning Activities
- Participate in a context switching exercise
- Understand the elements of a Kanban board
- Identify the six practices of Kanban
- Access a range of digital tools to manage your Kanban
Knowledge Quiz
Topic Takeaways and Tools
- Understand the impact of context-switching on your productivity
- Describe the six core practices of Kanban and how they help you optimise your process
- Define the key elements of a Kanban board and how they help you create transparency
- Articulate the benefits of Kanban and the importance of sharing this with your team when building a board together
- Five Kanban digital tools to create a board
| SH1004-2.2 |
Create a Kanban System |
This module is all about putting the practices of Kanban into action. You’ll explore how to use systems thinking to approach implementing a Kanban system. Using a real-world example, you’ll be guided through building a system to manage work.
Learning Content
- Systems thinking approach to implementing Kanban (STATIK)
- Classes of services
Learning Activities
- STATIK at home – build a Kanban system
- Use a visual board to infer challenges and opportunities to improve
- Consider how to apply Kanban in your place of work
Topic Takeaways and Tools
- Use a collaborative approach to build a system to manage work
- STATIK canvas
- Determine ways to create cadences to reflect and improve
- Describe a change management approach to implementing Kanban
| SH1004-2.3 |
User Stories and Personas |
Communication can sometimes be difficult. And getting people onto the same page can be even harder. In this module, understand the value of storytelling and how that relates to user stories. Also work on understanding what motivates your customers so that you can build a stronger connection with them.
Learning Content
- User stories
- Creating personas
- Jobs-to-be-Done framework
Learning Activities
- Consider the drawbacks of communicating via the written word
- Create a user story
- Evaluate user stories
- Create a persona
- Use Jobs-to-be-Done to understand motivation and think more flexibly
Topics and Takeaways and Tools
- Best practice guidance on creating great user stories
- Create a persona and gain access to widely used templates
| SH1004-2.4 |
Backlog Management |
Understanding your work and being able to break it down is key to prioritising tasks. This topic takes you through approaches that will enable you to learn fast, through breaking your work down and finding ways to start delivering sooner.
Learning Content
- Build, measure, learn
- Slice your user stories
- Story mapping
- Estimation
- Prioritisation
Learning Activities
- Create your approach to create a minimum viable product (MVP)
- Break a story down using common splitting patterns
- Create a user story map to organise and visualise your work
- Participate in relative estimation
- Consider a variety of ways you can sequence your work to maximise outcomes
Topics and Takeaways and Tools
- MVP and experiment templates
- Understand how to break your work down and connect strategy to execution
- Exposure to user story mapping techniques
- Understand and participate in relative estimation
- Downloadable planning poker cards for estimation
- Use Cost of Delay divided by Duration (CD3) to order your work
Scrum is an extremely popular framework used by businesses across many different industries. 7 million + teams use it (as you know, there are many others). In this module you’ll cover the Scrum framework, outlining some of its roles, events and artefacts. We will begin by giving you a better understanding of what Scrum it is, where it can be used and when to use it.
Learning Content
- Scrum overview
- Planning your Sprint
- Daily Scrum
- Backlog refinement
- Reviewing your Sprint
- Running a retrospective
Learning Activities
- Use the patterns of Scrum to iteratively solve a problem
- Learn how to run an effective Sprint Planning session
- Create a Definition of Done (DoD) and understand how it is important in relation to building in quality
- Engage in an effective daily Scrum meeting
- Complete a case study and learn how to progressively elaborate your work
- Connect the roles with key responsibilities related to the Sprint review
- Design your own retrospective
Topics and Takeaway and Tools
- Understand the Scrum framework and when you could apply it
- Understand the key roles and responsibilities of Scrum; Product Owner, Scrum Master and Team
- Expert advice on running effective daily Scrum meetings
- Build your backlog using tried and tested facilitation approaches
- Explore delivery metrics that matter and how to measure them
- Gain access to guidance and tools for running fun and engaging retrospectives
How it works
Upon enrolling and paying the one time fee, within minutes you’ll be granted access to OpenSpace, our world-class learning platform.
To find out more about your online campus, you can watch this short video on OpenSpace:
This course consists of:
1. VIDEOS brought to you by an experienced agile coach and teacher, who will guide you through the content.
2. INTERACTIVE CONTENT that will help you further your knowledge with activities, resources and articles.
3. QUIZZES to test the progress of your knowledge.
4. PEER SHARING ACTIVITIES that give you an opportunity to reflect and practice agile exercises with fellow students studying the course.
5. RESOURCES and templates that you can download and put into practice straight away.
FAQs
Open Colleges short courses are learning assets created by Open Colleges which you can utilise to gain skills to fast-track your workplace success and grow your career. When you purchase a short course you get access to the learning assets within that short course. Assets include but are not limited to short video courses, audio versions and transcripts, as well as customised learning activities and resources which can be accessed via desktop and mobile devices.
Throughout each topic / module, there'll be learning activities (also called self-check quizzes). They are designed to test your understanding of what you’ve read, seen and practiced. You may attempt a quiz at any time you are ready. They're not assessed and you do not need to submit them for marking as they are auto-marked. Your results and feedback will appear immediately after completing the quiz.
Some of the activities may ask you to share your thoughts and discuss the activity with other students. These discussions are not moderated and are optional, however they're a great way to build on your knowledge, share your learnings and learn from other students.
You'll receive an Open Colleges certificate of attainment for your short course. Our short courses are not qualification-led. Instead, they are custom designed to fast-track your workplace success and grow your career. As such, you'll not receive a qualification for completing a short course. If you’re interested in going on to study a recognised qualification, Open Colleges offer a wide range of nationally-recognised qualifications which can be browsed from our home page.
Our short courses are ideally accessed with a fast-broadband connection to enjoy a smooth learning experience. Assets can also be viewed over your mobile 4G connection with our iPhone or Android mobile application.
All Open Colleges courses include the following minimum computer and audio-visual requirements.
You’ll need the following:
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Microsoft Office 2010 or equivalent
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Broadband internet connection
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2GB of RAM
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Adobe Reader XI or equivalent
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Printer and associated software
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Digital imaging software
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File compression software
For Windows users:
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Microsoft Windows 7 or higher (Windows 8 recommended)
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1 Ghz or faster processer (2GHz recommended)
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Adobe Flash Player 10 or higher
For Mac OS users:
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Mac OSX v10.5 or higher (Mac OSX v10.6 recommended)
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1 Ghz or faster processer (2GHz recommended)
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Adobe Flash Player 10 or higher
Audio-Visual Requirements
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All learners will need access to software such as Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, Windows Photo Viewer etc. to view online videos and images. The software mentioned is available as a free download from the internet.
Once you’ve purchased a short course, you’ll receive an email containing login information and simple instructions on how to get started and access your content within our OpenSpace learning portal. If you have not received an email please check your spam or junk folders within your email program to make sure it has not accidentally been filtered by your email program.
Although we have made every effort to make our OpenSpace learning platform as simple to use as possible, you can access support via the platform's menu after logging in. Here you can ask technical questions relating to navigating content or getting around the portal.
Open Colleges does not offer support on the short course content from a tutoring\knowledge perspective.
We recommend taking the short course in order. This gives you an introduction and overview of the course, with each module or topic acting like a building block to prepare you for the next.
You'll need to complete any knowedge-check quizzes that usually appear at the end of a module or topic, in order to receive your certificate of completion. Each quiz usually takes around 15 minutes to complete.
Unfortunately, we do not offer payment plans or government funding for this course.
The course price displayed includes GST and must be paid in full upfront, no discounts apply.
Unfortunately we do not facilitate the purchase of this short courses over the phone. All enrolments for this course are conducted online.
Prices for our short courses are based on the breadth of content assets contained within each course. As not all short courses contain the same amount of customised content, we have priced them appropriately to offer the best value for money.
Short courses are not refundable, subject to your rights under Australian Consumer Law. We encourage you to read the Terms and Conditions and to browse our short course program overview to make an informed decision regarding purchasing a short course.
Our short courses are self-paced which means you have the flexibility to choose how and when you want to study.
However, our short courses have a maximum duration of 3 months, so you'll need to finish your course within that time frame.
Your short course expiry date is based on the maximum duration of the course and your date of enrolment. Your course expiry date is 3 months from enrolment.
No, there is no cooling off period.
Subject to your rights under Australian consumer law, once you have purchased this short course you are unable to cancel. This course is non-refundable.
Nothing further is required except access to a printer to print your PDFs from the available resources section if desired.
Subject to your rights under Australian consumer law, this course cannot be cancelled. However, you can extend it for up to one month. We may charge fees if you request an extension to the term of the short course. These fees are intended to cover our reasonable administrative costs and reflect the nature of short courses. In certain circumstances we may waive the fee for granting an extension.
These fees are:
• $50 for a one-month extension
We may charge fees if you cancel in the cooling off period or request an extension to the term of the short course. These are intended to cover our reasonable administrative costs and reflect the nature of Short Courses. In certain circumstances we may waive the fee for granting an extension.
These fees are:
- $50 for a one-month extension
You must be at least 18 years of age and reside in Australia to be eligible to purchase a short course.
You can find our Terms and Conditions
here. Our
Privacy Policy can also be viewed here as this details how we use and handle your personal information. Note: We do not store your credit card details.
Open Colleges has co-created this course in partnership with Elabor8. The content is delivered by Open Colleges and you will be using Open Colleges’ online learning platform, OpenSpace, to complete the course.
What are Open Colleges short courses?
