Delivering Products using Azure DevOps and Scrum

Course Overview

This three‐day course will help take your team and product to the next level. Using a combination of lecture, demonstrations, hands‐on activities, and team‐based exercises, attendees will experience how to deliver software using the Scrum framework and the corresponding tools and practices in Azure DevOps and Visual Studio.

Key Learning Areas

Agile software development values and principles
Why empiricism is best suited for complex work
Scrum framework (accountabilities, events, artifacts)
Product Backlog refinement
Lean approaches to software requirements
Requirements vs. specifications
Importance of acceptance criteria
Agile estimation techniques
Understanding and using a definition of Ready
Reducing waste during development
How to use Azure Boards to support Scrum
Creating a custom Professional Scrum process
Creating and configuring an Azure DevOps project
Mapping Scrum to a Azure DevOps
Using Azure Boards to plan and track work
Strategies for multiple teams and multiple products
Managing a Product Backlog in Azure Boards
Tagging, finding, and querying work items
Tracking business value and size/effort
Customizing and using the Kanban board
Using Epic and Feature level backlogs
Using the SpecMap extension to create story maps
Forecasting work for upcoming Sprints
Planning work in the current Sprint
Capturing the Sprint plan as Task work items
Capturing the Sprint plan as Test Case work items
Using the Taskboard to visualize/manage the plan
Using boards and charts to assess progress
Understanding and using a definition of Done
Using the Definition of Done extension
Collaborating as a team & improving productivity
Pairing, swarming, and mobbing
Maintaining a wiki in Azure DevOps
Performing code reviews using pull requests
Requesting and capturing stakeholder feedback
Using the Test and Feedback browser extension
Using Live Share to collaborate in real time
Assuring quality using Azure Test Plans
Development, acceptance, and exploratory tests
Creating test plans, test suites, and test cases
Importing and exporting test artifacts
Testing web applications and desktop applications
Performing exploratory testing
Creating automated acceptance tests in Visual Studio
Collaborating in code using Azure Repos
Git overview and basic workflow
Writing and running unit tests
Practicing Test-Driven Development (TDD)
Building and releasing code using Azure Pipelines
Practicing Continuous Integration (CI)
Practicing Continuous Delivery (CD)
Agile metrics vs. traditional project metrics
Reporting on a product’s health and progress
Configuring project alerts and notifications
Using Excel for reporting and charting
Using the Analytics Service and related widgets
Velocity, Cumulative Flow, and other analytics
Using Power BI, OData, and the REST API for reporting

Course Outline

The Scrum Framework

The Scrum framework
Empiricism, inspection, adaptation, transparency
Scrum accountabilities, events, and artifacts
The Scrum Values

Scrum in Action

Refining the Product Backlog
Planning a Sprint
Planning and executing work
Conducting a Sprint Review
Conducting a Sprint Retrospective

Adopting Scrum

Changing organizational culture
Adoption blockers and common issues
Dysfunction case studies

Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps overview
Creating a custom Professional Scrum process
Planning and creating an Azure DevOps project
Configuring security, areas, and Sprints
Socializing the development effort
Mapping Scrum to an Azure DevOps project

The Product Backlog

Introduction to Azure Boards
Creating and managing the Product Backlog
PBI and Bug work item types
Tracking business value and size (effort)
Tagging, querying, and charting work items
Customizing and using the Kanban board
Implementing a definition of “Ready”
Using Epic and Feature level backlogs
Mapping work items to portfolio backlogs
Using Excel to manage the Product Backlog
Understanding and leveraging stakeholder access
Using SpecMap to create a story map

Planning and Managing a Sprint

Using the forecasting tool
Planning the forecasted work in the Sprint
Representing the Sprint plan with work items
Assessing progress during the Sprint
Using the Burndown, CFD, and other analytics
Using the Sprint Goal, Definition of Done, and Retrospective extensions

Collaborating as a Team

Pairing, swarming, mobbing, and other practices
Creating and maintaining a wiki
Using pull requests to review code
Requesting and collecting stakeholder feedback
Using the Test and Feedback extension
Collaborating using Visual Studio Live Share

Agile Software Testing

Agile testing principles and practices
Introduction to Azure Test Plans
Development, acceptance, and exploratory tests
Creating a test plan, test suites, and test cases
Testing web and desktop applications
Performing exploratory testing

Agile Software Development

Introduction to Azure Repos and Azure Pipelines
Git overview and workflow
Unit testing & Test-Driven Development (TDD)
Automated build and release using Azure Pipelines
Practicing Continuous Integration (CI)
Practicing Continuous Delivery (CD)

Reporting

Agile metrics that matter
Configuring alerts and notifications
Using the Microsoft Analytics service
Ad-hoc reporting using Excel and Power BI
Querying data using the OData feed and REST API

Who Benefits

Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Developers, testers, architects, business analysts, team leaders, and managers who want to improve the way their software is delivered should attend this class. Both technical and non‐technical people will benefit from the discussions. Having some product development, project management, and/or software development experience, either as a team member, product owner, or project manager, is preferred. Experience with Agile software development, Scrum and Azure DevOps are also helpful, but not required. Attendees should read and be familiar with the Scrum Guide.

Prerequisites

Team based development experience recommended.

Want this course for your team?

Atmosera can provide this course virtually or on-site. Please reach out to discuss your requirements.

Atmosera is thrilled to announce that we have been named GitHub AI Partner of the Year.