Developing an Agile Team (Coursera)

You will evaluate your team’s level of change resilience and agility, and you will be applying practical tools for building Agile teams by applying Scrum project management framework. You won’t stop there, you will learn how to be a servant leader. You will learn practical tools for organizing, leading, and facilitating a Scrum team. Parts of the content are written from a Scrum Master perspective, and even though you will not be able to use it as a Scrum Master certification, I will be sharing tools and best practices learned through my own experience of being a Scrum Master.

Course 3 of 5 in the Agile Leadership Specialization

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Social Psychology

When we lead change, we typically rely on change management theories for help. They bring structure, ease, and they provide context for the psychology of an individual and also organizational psychology. This leaves a gap, which manifests in how others influence individual behavior, or, in other words, social psychology. Even though the domain of social psychology is often overlooked, it provides key insights for the successful execution of change management theories. In this module, you will learn the basics of social psychology, which is instrumental as you begin implementing change management theories at the team and organizational levels.

WEEK 2

Agile Team

You have a team and you’d like it to become Agile. Where do you start? You start at the beginning by developing a team working agreement, empathy map, and introducing the basic concepts of Scrum to your team, which you will work through in this module.

WEEK 3

Agile Team Collaboration

Scrum is a lightweight Agile framework. It can be applied across different industries, it is simple, and it can be adopted fairly quickly if the team is open to it.

In this module, you will learn Scrum terminology and tools for transforming your team into an Agile one. You will be introduced to the concept of sprint planning, daily scrum, work velocity, and retrospective. As you begin implementing these tools, invite your team to take a learning journey with you. You can suggest it as a “pilot” and see if it works well for your industry, company, and your team.

WEEK 4

Agile Team Leadership

When leading a team, a lot of key moments are discovered through the art of facilitation. It’s a key skill for any leader, regardless of rank.

In this module, you will learn tools for facilitating teams virtually and in-person. You will learn how to break down team psychological barriers, facilitate brainstorming sessions, and cultivate the culture of innovation in a sustainable manner.