Online Webinar – recorded May 2014
Duration: 45 min Webcast Up to .75 Category C PDU – Free PDU
Hosted By:  QSM

A business stakeholder (project manager, account representative, etc.) is faced with an all-too-familiar challenge: his client requests a quote for developing a new application within a very short timeframe, and not much information about scope to go on.

In this webinar, QSM’s Laura Zuber (LinkedIn profile) shows how the business stakeholder can produce a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate on the spot, using QSM’s web-based solution, SLIM-WebServices.

Follow his process as the business stakeholder collaborates with corporate estimation specialists to refine those initial estimates as they advance to more detailed stages.

By incorporating contributions of a variety of project stakeholders in the estimation analysis process, the business stakeholder is able to make better business decisions.

PDU Category C documentation details:
Process Groups: Planning
Knowledge Areas: 4 – Integration

• 5.3 Define Scope
• 6.2 Define Activities
• 6.4 Estimate Activity Resources
• 6.5 Estimate Activity Duration
• 13.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

Click to register for How A Collaborative Estimation Process Produces Realistic Estimates Fast

Online Webinar – Recorded September 10th 2013
Offered by ASPE (REP 2161) 1 Category A PDU – Free PDU
Course ID :  WS091013A

In the business world, we hear a lot about technology and disruption, and their many challenges. But we’re also starting to hear more about pitfalls related to the human side of business…gaps in the “soft skills” that are equally critical to successful people and companies.

Although many of these skills gaps are nothing new, they are more relevant than ever, and in some cases have been made worse by disruption.

Without core professional skills like communication, initiative, leadership, and etiquette, no team can be truly great and no professional can be truly successful.

You probably deal with the consequences of “soft skill” deficits every day: communication breakdown, misunderstanding, conflict, and damaged morale – just to name a few.

These are productivity killers, and the root causes are broad. There are rising cross-generational differences, a growing lack of interpersonal skills, differences in personality and culture, and erosion in consensus about what constitutes professional behavior.

The good news is that there are teachable skills to address these challenges, and accessible techniques to overcome them. In this free one-hour presentation, we’ll take a look at some of the most common “People Problems” in the mainstream business world, and how we can start dealing with them.

Key topics include:

• How to communicate effectively
• Overcoming generational and cultural barriers
• Leveraging emotional intelligence in the business environment
• Encouraging self-awareness while building a team mentality
• Keeping action and culture tied to productivity

Although these needs aren’t new in the business world, even seasoned veterans are beginning to see the need for a “reloaded” approach to developing these skills. This will be a high-level conversation about how to navigate these soft skills as we face continuing changes in business landscapes and a rising new generation of professionals.

Presenter: Chris Knotts PMP – (LinkedIn profile) ASPE Creative Director

Click to register for Core Professional Skills: A 60 minute Primer

Agile Online Course – Recorded Includes:
Presentations, Quizzes, Certificate Of Completion
Duration: 1 hour 4 PDU or 4 CDU 1 Category A $100 or $150 USD
Presented by: Mountain Goat Software (REP # 3102)

• Cost: $100.00 Streaming Only OR…
• Cost: $150.00 Streaming + Download

About the Course – Agile Estimating & Planning

Improve Your Ability to Plan Agile Projects
By taking this interactive video course that will
Build Your Knowledge of Agile Estimating & Planning

This course covers all the important topics for agile and Scrum planning–from estimating to iteration planning to release planning.

• You’ll learn about story points and ideal days and the advantages to each.
• You’ll leave knowing how to produce fixed-date, fixed-scope, and fixed-price plans you can be confident in, as well as how to avoid anchoring and other common pitfalls.
• You’ll understand how story points differ from simply using hours,
• You’ll understand how to estimate as quickly as possible with Planning Poker, and both approaches to iteration planning so you can help your team.
• You will learn to answer “When can I get all of these features?” or “How much can I get by June?” from Customers/Stakeholders

Remember, this course is interactive (with short quizzes after each section to keep you on track), and it’s broken into short, quickly watched videos on specific questions you may have.

Agile Experts Love Mike Course

Even though I expected a lot from you, I’m blown away by your online Agile Estimating and Planning course. First of all it’s crazy fun. I about fell off my chair when you held up that koala bear. Second of all, there is REAL Learning. ”

—Lisa Crispin, (LinkedIn profile, @lisacrispin) co-author of:
Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

This course is for you, if …

• You’re a Project Manager and want to learn how to estimate and plan agile projects.
• You’re about to be a part of an agile project and need to gain an expert understanding of agile estimating and planning. This is the course that will cover everything you need to know about the agile estimating and planning process.
• You’re a ScrumMaster! As the team’s coach, it will be important for you to understand the ins and outs of Agile planning. This course is the most efficient, fastest, and easiest way for you to learn how to estimate and plan agile projects.
• You’re a Product Owner! Bosses, clients and customers come to you asking the hard questions.  This course will show you how to answer those questions and much more.
• You’re a Team Leader. This will be your ultimate Agile Estimating & Planning “download” directly into your brain.

Presenter:  Mike Cohn (LinkedIn profile) is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, where he teaches and coaches on Scrum and agile development.  Mike  has written 3 of the most notable books on agile and has contributed to numerous other books and publications. With more than 25 years of experience, Mike is a highly sought after keynote speaker, and is a founding member of the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance.

Mike is the author of these Agile Bestsellers!

1. Agile Estimating and Planning
2. Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum,
3. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development

Click to Purchase Agile Estimating & Planning & then the Buy Now button

Recorded Presentation – June 6th 2012
Presented at the Norwegian Developers Conference
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or 1 CDU 1 Category A Free
Presented by: Mountain Goat Software (REP # 3102 EUS-Intro)

The technique of expressing requirements as user stories is one of the most broadly applicable techniques introduced by the agile processes. User stories are an effective approach on all time-constrained projects, and are a great way to begin introducing a bit of agility to your projects.

In this session, Mike describes how to identify and write good user stories.

This presentation describes:

• The six attributes that good stories should exhibit
• Presents 13 guidelines for writing better stories And …
• Explores how user “role modeling” can help when gathering a project’s initial stories.

Because requirements touch all job functions on a development project, this tutorial will be equally suited for analysts, customers, testers, programmers, managers or anyone involved in a software development project.

By the end of this tutorial, you will leave knowing the six attributes of a good story, learn a good format for writing most user stories, learn practical techniques for gathering user stories, know how much work to do up-front and how much to do just-in-time.

Presenter:  Mike Cohn (LinkedIn profile) is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, where he teaches and coaches on Scrum and agile development. He is the author of Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum, also Agile Estimating and Planning, and User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development  and contributor to numerous other books and publications. With more than 25 years of experience, Mike is a highly sought after keynote speaker, and is a founding member of the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance.

Click to view the presentation An Introduction to User Stories  on YouTube

Recorded Presentation – December 13th 2012
Presented at the Norwegian Developers Conference
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or 1 CDU 1 Category A Free
Presented by: Mountain Goat Software (REP # 3102 AEP1)

Now that you have learned about planning Poker  – Make sure to check out PlanningPoker.com An estimation tool that is fun to use brought to you by the agile experts at Mountain Goat Software.  It is free to sign up and This Tool Even Lets Distributed Teams Estimate Together!

“Planning Poker is a good way to come to a consensus without spending too much time on any one topic. It allows, or forces, people to voice their opinions, thoughts and concerns.”

— Lori Schubring, Manager, Bemis Manufacturing Company

Presenter:  Mike Cohn (LinkedIn profile) is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, where he teaches and coaches on Scrum and agile development. He is the author of Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum, also Agile Estimating and Planning, and User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development  and contributor to numerous other books and publications. With more than 25 years of experience, Mike is a highly sought after keynote speaker, and is a founding member of the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance.

Click to view the presentation Agile Estimating  on YouTube

Recorded Presentation – June 6th 2012
Presented at the Norwegian Developers Conference
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or 1 CDU 1 Category A Free
Presented by: Mountain Goat Software (REP # 3102 EUS-Intro)

The technique of expressing requirements as user stories is one of the most broadly applicable techniques introduced by the agile processes. User stories are an effective approach on all time-constrained projects, and are a great way to begin introducing a bit of agility to your projects.

In this session, Mike describes how to identify and write good user stories.

This presentation describes:

• The six attributes that good stories should exhibit
• Presents 13 guidelines for writing better stories And …
• Explores how user “role modeling” can help when gathering a project’s initial stories.

Because requirements touch all job functions on a development project, this tutorial will be equally suited for analysts, customers, testers, programmers, managers or anyone involved in a software development project.

By the end of this tutorial, you will leave knowing the six attributes of a good story, learn a good format for writing most user stories, learn practical techniques for gathering user stories, know how much work to do up-front and how much to do just-in-time.

Presenter:  Mike Cohn (LinkedIn profile) is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, where he teaches and coaches on Scrum and agile development. He is the author of Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum, also Agile Estimating and Planning, and User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development  and contributor to numerous other books and publications. With more than 25 years of experience, Mike is a highly sought after keynote speaker, and is a founding member of the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance.

Click to view the presentation An Introduction to User Stories  on YouTube