The British Academy for Training and Development offers a comprehensive and practical Agile Estimating and Planning Course. This training prepares attendees with a comprehensive understanding of agile planning frameworks and gives advantages over traditional planning. Attendees will learn agile estimation techniques including story points, affinity estimation, and planning to improve team alignment and forecasting reliability.

Another emphasis is creating a product roadmap and knowing how to align release plans with business objectives that offer continual value. Attendees will learn about principles involved in iteration planning, including backlog grooming and sprint planning, ensuring every cycle is well-structured and productive.

The course covers topics such as Capacity Planning and Velocity Tracking, used to accurately forecast team performance and manage workload. Real-life examples will establish the importance of prioritising user stories, performing release forecasting, and maintaining stakeholder transparency.

At the end of this course, attendees will feel confident enough to apply agile project planning concepts integrated with collaboration, flexibility, and on-time delivery for their teams or organisations.

By the end of this course, attendees will be able to:

• Agile planning principles and concepts and the difference from traditional methods.

• Agile software estimation techniques, examples include: story points, planning poker, and affinity estimation.

• Deliver product roadmaps and release plans that accurately reflect business goals.

• Efficient processes for iteration planning, including backlog grooming and sprint planning.

• Monitor and improve team velocity and capacity planning for sustainable delivery.

• Prioritising and managing user stories for optimal team performance.

• Release forecasting and expectation communication with stakeholders.

Who Should Attend?
This course is ideal for:

• Project Managers operating in an Agile environment or hybrid promise.

• Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, aiming at strengthening planning techniques.

• Product Owners working on backlog and release planning.

• Team Leaders and Software Development Professionals who participate in project estimation.

• Anyone wishing to benefit from Agile methodologies in the successful delivery of projects.

How Will Attendees Benefit?
Attendees will gain many benefits include:

• Understand thoroughly the Agile principles of planning and their practical application in the context.

• Become familiar with such agile estimation techniques as story points, planning poker, and affinity estimation, which lead to estimations being more accurate and reliable.

• Learn how to develop and maintain sound product roadmaps and release plans that are consistent with business objectives and customer needs.

• Enhance team synchronisation with practice-oriented experience in the contexts of sprint planning, backlog grooming, and iteration planning.

• Increase transparency and visibility through burn-down charts and velocity tracking and forecasting for releases.

• Build assurance when conversing with stakeholders, especially regarding project estimating and timeline deliveries.

• Increase overall productivity with clear flexible and realistic techniques of capacity planning.

• Strengthen the skills of decision-making and prioritisation by using tried and proven frameworks for user story management and change adaption.

Introduction to Agile Planning

• Agile principles and mindset

• Benefits over traditional planning

• Agile vs. Waterfall estimation

Agile Estimation Techniques

• Story points and relative sizing

• Planning poker

• Affinity estimation

• Estimating spikes and technical tasks

Creating a Product Roadmap

• Vision and goal setting

• Defining epics and themes

• Aligning roadmap with business strategy

Release Planning

• Setting release goals

• Estimating scope and timelines

• Risk management in release planning

Iteration and Sprint Planning

• Backlog grooming and prioritisation

• Sprint planning meetings

• Setting sprint goals and tasks

Capacity Planning and Velocity Tracking

• Calculating team capacity

• Tracking and improving velocity

• Handling changes and interruptions

User Story Prioritisation and Estimation

• INVEST model for story quality

• MoSCoW and Kano prioritisation techniques

Release Forecasting and Stakeholder Communication

• Burn-down and burn-up charts

• Communicating progress and changes

• Transparency and collaboration in Agile