Textbook Information
Required
Cobb, C.G. (2015). The project manager’s guide to mastering agile: Principles and practices for an adaptive approach, 1st ed. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1118991046
An electronic version of the textbook will be readily available through the Penn State Libraries at no cost to the student. Students do not need to purchase physical copies of these materials. Instructions for accessing the e-book will be provided in the course. Additional materials will also be digitally provided in the course.
Recommended
Suggested articles linked within Canvas or via announcements. See our course Canvas site for additional materials.
The Wall Street Journal. Register for digital access Student News Readership Program | Penn State Student Affairs (psu.edu)
Published Remarks
This is an elective course for the MPM Program. Students can take this course to partially fulfill 6-credit requirement of elective courses.
Hardware Requirements
- None
Software Requirements
- None
Proctored Exams
- None
Course Description
Agile is not about benchmarking best practices. Agile is about continuously improving your own practices and evolving and adapting the best ways of working in you, your team, and your organization. Agile is about pursuing excellence through continuous improvement. The course provides an overview of how Agile Project Management has evolved and how Agile principles and practices are changing the landscape of project management at both project level and enterprise level. It is designed to offer students a deep understanding on Agile Project Management and offer insights into how to find an optimal blend of agile and traditional project management principles and practices in a continuous spectrum to meet business needs and project situation.
Course Overview Video
Course Structure
Course topics are divided as follows:
Part 1 Fundamentals of Agile
- Introduction, Course Objectives, and Agile Overview
- Agile Fundamentals with Agile Early History and Agile Manifesto
- Scrum Overview
- Overview of Agile Practices
Part 2 Agile Project Management
- Time-boxing, Kanban, Theory of Constraints, and Estimation
- Agile Project Management Role
- Agile Communications Practices & Tools
- Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level with Systems Thinking and the influences of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Lean Manufacturing
Part 3 Making Agile Work for a Business
- Enterprise-level Agile Implementation
- Enterprise Level Management Systems
- Enterprise-level Agile Frameworks and Sustainability
- Case Studies
Objectives
The general objective of the course is to teach students Agile Project Management skills in applying its approach to projects for organizations in a dynamic and ever-changing environment. In addition, students will understand a new outlook on how to view Agile Project Management and traditional plan-driven Project Management approaches and the challenges and frameworks for leading overall Agile business transformations.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Situate Agile Project Management in its historical and evolutionary context.
- Apply Agile Project Management principles and practices to given situations.
- Select tools and frameworks to facilitate Agile Project Management.
- Propose solutions to the challenges of scaling up Agile at an enterprise level.
- Apply industry frameworks for Agile transformations at an enterprise level.
Course Requirements and Grading
Course Assignments
The course contains the following graded assignments:
Discussion Board Assignments
Each lesson in this course includes a discussion. Normally discussions occur asynchronously; however, for some discussions, students will be given the option to choose between an asynchronous or synchronous format. Your instructor will inform you in which lessons this option will be offered. Students are expected to participate in online discussions. Because of the importance of discussion to meeting the objectives of the course, students also will be evaluated on the frequency and quality of their participation. This evaluation will be based on the level of preparation for class discussion and student analysis and integration of the lesson materials. Students are expected to communicate their ideas clearly and persuasively.
For the lessons where there is a choice of formats, students must select one option. Regardless of format, students will be graded on the quality of their contributions. Merely offering an opinion or agreeing with someone else’s comment/post does not equal quality! Students should strive to apply the information from the text and the lessons and connect the theoretical concepts and frameworks to their life or work experiences that support their positions.
Lesson Retrospection
Each lesson in this course includes a lesson restrospection assignment. Lesson retrospectives allow students to reflect and assess their learning around the objectives listed on each lesson’s introduction page. Students are asked to rate themselves on how well they think they learned each objective. Then, students are asked to explain why they rated themselves the way they did.
Midterm Paper
The purpose of this midterm paper provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate the knowledge on agile project management they gained and apply the knowledge to implement agile project management at a team level.
Final Paper
The purpose of this final paper is to empower students to develop an agile transformation plan for an organization by applying the knowledge they learned and investigating related industry practices.
Course Grading
The following table summarizes assignments and their associated weights.
|
Assignment |
Weight towards the final grade |
|
Midterm Paper |
35% |
|
Final Paper |
35% |
|
Discussion Board Assignments |
20% |
|
Lesson Retrospection Assignments |
10% |
|
Total |
100% |
You are responsible to check your grades on Canvas and report in the case of any discrepancy. Any concern regarding the grading should be addressed directly to the instructor, no later than one week after the grade was released on Canvas.
Letter grades will be based on the following scale:
|
Letter Grade |
Range |
|
A |
≥ 93.00% |
|
A- |
90.00 – 92.99% |
|
B+ |
87.00 – 89.99% |
|
B |
83.00 – 86.99% |
|
B- |
80.00 – 82.99% |
|
C+ |
77.00 – 79.99% |
|
C |
70.00 – 76.99% |
|
D |
60.00 – 69.99% |
|
F |
≤ 59.99% |
Your final grade will not be rounded up and there will be no exceptions to this policy. For example, if your final grade is 92.8%, you will have earned an “A-.”
The instructor reserves the right to modify the total course point by adding or eliminating assignments based on the class progress.
Late Submissions
Submissions after the due date will not be accepted. All assignments are set to be due by midnight (11:59 pm) (Eastern Time) on Sunday of that week. Please do not wait until the last minute to start your homework.