Looking for an Agile training guide?
When it comes to managing an Agile project, you need to learn quite a few things:
Agile methods, concepts, roles, responsibilities… the list is endless!
But how do you do that?
With Agile training!
In this article, you’ll learn what Agile training is and its key benefits.
We’ll also cover seven training courses and how you can use your Agile training to become an excellent Agile project management professional in 2022.
Let’s get started!
What Is Agile Training?
Agile training teaches you the Agile methodology concepts to help you manage Agile projects and teams the right way.
But what is the Agile methodology?
Agile is a modern project management method that helps you split a large project into smaller development phases, known as sprints.
In the Agile method, you develop the product in sprints, get customer feedback at the end of each phase, and implement the required changes before the next product release.
The result?
As you actively involve the customers in the Agile development process, you’ll develop a product that perfectly fits their needs, making them dance with joy!
3 Key Benefits Of Agile Training
Sure, the Agile framework is a modern project management method. But it also comes with tons of new concepts, roles, and responsibilities.
Which is why you ideally need an Agile training course for it.
Here are just a few of the benefits you gain from an Agile training course:
1. Learn the fundamentals
Taking a training course teaches you the fundamentals and in-depth concepts of the Agile method.
But that’s not all!
Agile training also helps you:
- Understand how the Agile process uses continuous improvement and regular testing to develop great products
- Conduct Agile ceremonies smoothly, like planning and retrospective meetings
- Learn how to implement customer feedback in the Agile approach
2. Facilitate Agile transformation
Regardless of the scale of transformation, adapting to new changes is not easy.
After all, bringing major changes to an organization’s fundamental element is always going to be challenging.
But does this mean you’re calling for trouble?
An Agile transformation typically involves:
- Analyzing your organization’s current stand on all fronts
- Understanding the vision and mission of the transformation
- Setting communication rules for team members
- Creating plans to coach employees who aren’t familiar with Agile
And as an Agile training course teaches you these aspects, you’ll know how to implement Agile transformation properly, contributing to an easier onboarding experience for you and your organization.
3. Earn a certification
While a training course is all about imparting the Agile framework’s knowledge and skills, it offers more.
An Agile training course can also help you earn the required number of credits or contact hours to take a certification exam).
The benefit?
By getting a certification, you’ll become a certified Agile project management professional. This adds value to your resume and helps you take a step further in the field.
Check out these top Agile project management certifications and product management certifications.
Top 7 Agile Training Courses in 2022
Did your search for a training course leave you confused?
Don’t worry!
Here’s a detailed breakdown of seven training courses to know your options.
For each Agile training course, we’ll highlight:
- The domains the course covers
- The Agile certification you can earn
- Which project management institute offers it
- How much it costs
1. Agile Fundamentals Training
This Agile training course teaches the fundamentals of the Agile methodology. You learn different Agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Lean, and XP (Extreme Programming) in detail.
The Agile Fundamentals Training course covers:
- Agile project management
- Agile testing
- Agile principles and values
- Accredited Agile Scrum master training
This training course is available in three formats:
- Live, instructor-led
- On-demand
- A blended on-demand/instructor-led version
With the live and on-demand Agile Fundamentals Training course, you earn:
- 17 Professional Development Unit (PDU)
- 17 NASBA Continuing Professional Education (CPE)
But what’s a PDU and NASBA CPE?
- PDU: a unit established by the Project Management Institute to measure an individual’s professional development
- CPE: a unit to measure the number of course participation hours to maintain certification status. One NASBA (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy) CPE credit is equivalent to 50 minutes of training.
Certification you can earn
ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP) Certification by The International Consortium for Agile
There is no specific certification exam to earn this certification.
Yep.
All you need to do is to complete an ICAgile-accredited class. And upon successful completion, you’ll receive an invitation to claim your certification.
Offered by
Learning Tree International
Course pricing
- For blended learning: $1090/year
- For live, instructor-led: $1795
- For premium training: $2250/year
2. Certified Scrum Master Training
Certified Scrum Master Training is a 2-day, instructor-led (Certified Scrum Trainer), live training course. It teaches the Scrum framework, with a special focus on task-level tracking, burndown charts, and daily Scrum meetings.
With this Scrum course, you also get a 2-year membership to Scrum Alliance.
The Certified Scrum Master Training course covers:
- Fundamentals of the Scrum framework
- Agile values and principles
- Scrum roles
- Scrum meetings
- Scrum artifacts
Taking this Scrum master training course helps you earn:
- 16 PDUs
- 16 Scrum Education Unit (SEU)
What’s SEU?
Earned by completing a training, an SEU is a credit that enhances your knowledge as a Scrum practitioner.
Certification you can earn
Certified Scrum Master by Scrum Alliance
To earn this Scrum certification, you must attend the entire Scrum master training course.
After completing it, an examination link with 90 days access is sent via email. You get 2 attempts to clear this Agile certification exam, which contains 50 multiple choice questions with a time limit of 60 minutes.
Offered by
Cprime
Course pricing
$895
3. PMI-ACP Certification Training
It teaches the principles and methods of the Agile framework, covering Scrum, Extreme Programming, and Lean. This course includes exam prep materials, training aids, and practice questions.
You also get 6-months access to Project Management Academy’s online training portal.
Agile Practitioner Training course covers:
- Fundamentals of the Agile method
- Agile practice for project estimation
- Agile communication and leadership
- Agile contracts and accounting principles
This Agile practitioner training course is available in four formats:
- Live virtual classroom
- Live instructor-led classroom
- On-demand video
- In-house
With the Agile Practitioner Training course, you earn 21 PDUs.
Certification you can earn
Agile Certified Practitioner by The Project Management Institute
To earn this certification, you need to clear an Agile certification exam that contains 120 multiple choice questions with a time limit of 3 hours.
Offered by
Project Management Academy
Course pricing
- For virtual classroom training: $1195
- For on-demand video: $995
4. Leading SAFe 5.0 (Scaled Agile)
The Leading Scaled Agile Framework training course is a 2-3 days training session that teaches you how to scale Agile principles by adopting Lean thinking practices and Product Development Flow techniques.
This training course covers:
- Scaled Agile Framework introduction
- Lean thinking
- Agile development
- Agile transformation
- Scaled Agile Framework at the team level
Leading Scaled Agile training course is available in two formats:
- 2-day classroom live
- 3-day virtual classroom live
Certification you can earn
SAFe 4 Agilist Certification by Scaled Agile
To earn this certification, you need to clear an Agile certification exam with 45 questions and a time limit of 90 minutes.
Offered by
Global Knowledge
Course Pricing
- For virtual classroom live: $995
- For classroom live: $995
5. Agile and Scrum Foundation
It’s a 2-day Agile and Scrum training course that covers the fundamentals of Agile principles and Scrum framework.
This Scrum training course covers:
- Agile way of thinking
- Scrum practices
- Scrum events
- The importance of the backlog
- Definition of Done
The Agile and Scrum training course is available in two formats:
- Classroom live
- Virtual classroom live
Certification you can earn
Agile Scrum Foundation Certification by EXIN
To earn this Agile certification, you need to clear an exam that contains 40 multiple choice questions within a time limit of 1 hour.
Offered by
Global Knowledge
Course pricing
For virtual classroom live: $1595
6. Certified Scrum Product Owner Training
It’s a 2-day training course which deals with the role of a product owner in a Scrum team.
You’ll get to participate in training exercises and techniques, in-depth discussions, and case studies. A certified Scrum trainer from the Scrum Alliance teaches this Scrum certification training.
Certified Scrum Product Owner Training course covers:
- Fundamentals of product owner role
- Product backlog
- Working with stakeholders
- Understanding customers and users
This training course is available in two formats:
- Live online
- Live instructor-led course
Taking this Scrum certification training course helps you earn:
- 16 PDUs
- 16 SEUs
Certification you can earn
Certified Scrum Product Owner by Scrum Alliance
There is no specific certification exam to earn this certification.
But no slacking!
You must attend both days of this training course to receive the certification.
Offered by
Cprime
Course pricing
- For live online: $895
- For live Instructor-led course: $895
7. Agile Coaching Workshop (ICP-ACC)
Agile Coaching Workshop is a 2-3 day training course taught by an Agile trainer. It deals with the core coaching competencies of an Agile coach.
This Agile training course covers:
- What is an Agile coach
- Agile coach as a facilitator, mentor
- Agile mindset
- Team coach
Agile Coaching Workshop is available in two formats:
- 3-day classroom session
- 4-day live online
Taking this Agile certification training course helps you earn 21 PMI PDUs.
Certification you can earn
ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) by The International Consortium of Agile
There is no specific certification exam to earn this certification. Upon successful completion of this ICAgile-accredited class, you’ll be awarded the certification.
Offered by
ASPE
Course pricing
- For individual classroom registration: $1595
- For group classroom registration: $1495
- For live online: $1595
How To Put Your Agile Training To Use
You’ve completed your training course and even obtained a certification.
How do you use this knowledge and skills for managing projects?
Simple: With project management tools!
Project management tools help you manage Agile tasks and collaborate with your teams effectively.
And ClickUp is the only project management tool you need to put your Agile training to use!
But what’s ClickUp?
ClickUp is the highest-rated project management tool in the world.
From project planning to analyzing your remote team’s activity levels, ClickUp is the only tool you need!
Here’s how ClickUp brings agility into the Agile adoption process:
1. Multiple Views to adapt to varying project needs
Unlike other project management tools, ClickUp’s Multiple Views lets you work in any way you want.
Whether it’s Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, or any project methodology, ClickUp can easily adapt to your needs.
Here’s a detailed look at what ClickUp offers you:
A. Required Task Views
ClickUp offers two required task Views to adapt to your Agile process:
1. List view
ClickUp’s List view lists down tasks one after the other in the form of a checklist.
As you progress through your Agile project, you can tackle each task sequentially and check them off after they’re completed.
What’s more?
You can even organize your tasks any way you want!
2. Board view
If you prefer Kanban boards, then ClickUp’s Board view is perfect for you.
You can quickly visualize your Agile project progress and drag and drop tasks around according to your needs!
B. Box view
Ever dozed off during review meetings?
Not anymore!
ClickUp’s Box View provides a visual overview of your team’s tasks and projects. You can easily view who’s working on what without having to attend those endless meetings.
A product manager or Scrum master can quickly view:
- What tasks their Scrum team members are currently working on
- What has been completed so far
- Who has too many tasks
The Box view also helps you identify if a team member has too much workload. You can easily reassign tasks to avoid employee burnout.
C. Calendar view
With ClickUp’s Calendar View, you can easily keep track of your busy schedule.
It’s the quickest way to plan and manage your Agile project schedules without missing any task.
You can even toggle your Calendar view between:
- Days: view all the tasks for any selected day
- 4-Days: look at your task schedule over four days
- Week: see your scheduled tasks for a whole week
- Monthly: visualize the tasks for the entire month
D. Me Mode
Want to view only the work that’s assigned to you?
Use ClickUp’s Me Mode!
This way, you can focus better on your tasks, and also avoid being distracted by other Scrum team member’s workload.
Additionally, you can easily customize the items you want to see in your Me Mode — simply select the attributes according to your requirement.
2. Sprint Lists to track your sprint progress
ClickUp’s Sprint Lists help you to track how your sprint cycle is progressing — by breaking it down into small tasks. You can quickly check off each checklist item as you progress through your sprint cycle.
You can even add Scrum points to ClickUp’s Sprint Lists to estimate the time you’ll take to finish your product backlog item.
Additionally, you can use Sprint Lists and retrospective tools to review progress during Scrum events like sprint planning, sprint review, sprint retrospective, or daily Scrum meetings.
3. Workflow Automation to automate recurring tasks
Wasting time on recurring tasks?
Not anymore!
ClickUp brings tons of workflow automations to your workspace, which saves you a lot of time and also lets you focus on essential tasks. You can use them to easily automate repetitive tasks to speed things up.
ClickUp’s workflow automation structure looks like this:
When a trigger is initiated, and a condition is satisfied, a specific action is executed automatically.
For a product manager, an automation workflow could be:
To ensure that the project is completed on time, he could set up a reminder to notify his team.
Here:
- Trigger: approaching due date
- Condition: specified team member’s the assignee
- Action: post a comment “What’s the status on the project?”
What more?
While ClickUp offers 50+ premade Automations, you can also create your own Automations.
Some of these preset Automations are:
- Post a comment when all subtasks within a task are marked closed
- Automatically assign new tasks to specific team members
- Add a tag or move task to a list when priority changes
- Move a task to a particular list when the list of watchers is reassigned
- Apply an agile template when a task’s status change
For more Automations, click here.
4. Agile Dashboards for a visual overview of your projects
With multiple teams and projects, how do you keep track of them all?
By using ClickUp’s Dashboards!
Dashboards provide a high-level visual overview of your Agile projects.
You can add your Sprint Lists and tasks to these Dashboards to quickly see how your projects are progressing.
Here’s a closer look at various graphs that you can use:
- Velocity Charts: quickly determine the completion rate of your tasks
- Burnup Charts: highlight the tasks that have been completed
- Burndown Charts: visualize your team’s performance against a target line
- Cumulative Flow Charts: visualize and track how the project is progressing over time
5. Custom Task Statuses for varying project stages
Most project management tools come with a set of default project statuses that might not be relevant for all your projects.
I mean, not all projects are the same, right?
A status like “Testing” would be useful for software development but not so much for editorial projects.
With ClickUp, you’re not stuck with statuses that don’t accurately reflect your project stages.
It lets you customize them easily according to the varying needs.
You can use “Editing”, “Content Ideas”, “Quality Check”, “Negotiation:” it’s all up to you!
But that’s not all of ClickUp’s features!
This powerful Agile tool also gives you other features, like:
- Priorities: help your team members know what tasks are to be tacked first
- Notepad: a virtual notepad to quickly note down stuff
- Pulse: see your Scrum team’s activity level during a day
- Dependencies: ensure that your team members attempt tasks in the right order
- Profiles: know the tasks of all your Agile team members
- Native Time Tracking: track the time your tasks and Agile projects take
- Collaboration Detection: know when others are working on the same task as you are
- Team Reporting: analyze the performance of your Scrum or Agile team with real-time reports
- Mobile Apps: manage projects on the go from ClickUp’s powerful iOS and Android apps
Conclusion
While an Agile training course teaches you various Agile concepts, it can also help you earn an Agile certification.
However, choosing a training course doesn’t have to be as challenging as choosing the next Netflix series to binge.
Just go through the training courses we’ve listed here to choose the Agile training course that suits your needs.
And as having the right Agile software is essential to implement your training, why not sign up for ClickUp today?
It’s got all the features to help professionals manage their projects efficiently in an Agile environment!