Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills

About

Innovative products and services change lives, and having the right innovative process creates an competitive advantage. Ultimately, innovation is about one thing: problem solving.

As an agile problem solver, you'll need to expand your critical thinking skills to address the key sources of risk in developing best solutions for your new products and business lines. The Problem-solving techniques covered begin with problem definition, beginning with job descriptions and applying the right soft skills to enhance requirements gathering. This ensures you're targeting a good problem to solve, and that you understand the business model. The course then moves on to practices such as "brainstorm and storm drain" to target new creative solutions. You will learn how innovation works on fast feedback cycles to test possible solutions and target root causes of defects. Creative thinking isn't a straight line, and neither should the problem-solving process be a straight line. Each course of action needs early and frequent testing.

Key lessons taught in this course are:

• Delivering business value, not technical scope with User Stories

• Why innovating is the key to risk management and gaining a competitive advantage

• The best innovation process for startups in new markets or disruptive innovations, versus sustaining product and process innovations

• How to employ an innovation process that fits your business model and situation

• Using Cross-functional teams and user stories to gather accurate requirements

• Leveraging constraints to apply tested solutions to new technology and new innovations

• Applying Test-Driven Design (TDD) to deliver better designs with less designing

By following best practices of Agile, including timeboxes, constraint-based thinking processes, and empathetic problem solving, you'll learn how to provide a sustainable innovation environment for your teams.

While this course will not make you an agile certified practitioner (PMI-ACP), or certified scrum master (CSM), it offers a more fundamental agile certification based on agile principles and how agile innovation is accomplished in industry today. You'll finish this course more than ready to continue your agile journey, which we hope takes you to the next course in the series on "Agile Leadership Principles and Practices."

Upon successful completion of this course, learners can earn 10 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credits, which are recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PDU credits are essential to those looking to maintain certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Upon successful completion of this course, learners can earn 10 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credits, which are recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PDU credits are essential to those looking to maintain certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

What you will learn

• How Agile manages solution risk and return more effectively

• Accurate, effective requirements gathering that avoids delusional "perspective taking"

• Paradox of structure, aka "how constraints drive creativity and luck!"

• Test-driven development for faster, better solutions in complex systems

• How to target scope to meet Performance Objectives via the Theory of Constraints

Skills you learn

• Timeboxing
• Business Valuation
• Requirements Elicitation
• Empathy
• Project Management Professional Certification
• Agile Methodology
• Project Management Institute (PMI) Methodology
• Problem Solving
• User Story
• Business Modeling
• Innovation
• Risk Management
• Agile Leadership
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner
• Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• Scrum (Software Development)
• Certified Scrum Master
• Creative Thinking
• Thinking Processes
• Critical Thinking

Syllabus

• Week 1: The first week of Innovation revisits concepts of capability delivery from technical perspective; asking how do we achieve a project's purpose to innovate? What are the risks and methods to be successful in delivering a defined output under uncertain conditions? Here the Theory of Constraints (TOC) is used to target innovation for maximum impact.

• Week 2: The second week dives into the requirements gathering and validation process, and the science behind the most powerful requirement tool, a User Story, and how it forms the basis for Test-Drive Development (TDD).

• Week 3: The third week looks at how adding constraints to solutioning unleashes creativity, luck, and productivity towards solving hard, uncertain problems.

• Week 4: The fourth week culminates with the application of the TOC Thinking Processes, User Stories, and Constraints along with the use of the powerful system engineering solutioning techniques (isolation, absorption, acceleration, etc.) and tools like TRIZ.

Auto Summary

Embark on a journey to master innovative problem-solving with the "Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills" course, designed for professionals in the Science & Engineering domain. This expert-level course, offered by edX, focuses on enhancing your critical thinking and agile techniques to tackle risks and develop cutting-edge solutions for new products and business ventures. Guided by industry principles, this course delves into essential problem-solving methods, beginning with accurate problem definition and effective requirements gathering. You'll explore creative practices such as "brainstorm and storm drain" and learn to implement fast feedback cycles to test and refine potential solutions. Key lessons include delivering business value through User Stories, leveraging constraints for innovation, and utilizing Test-Driven Design (TDD) for superior outcomes. Throughout the 20-hour course, you'll gain insights into sustaining innovation, managing risks, and employing cross-functional teams to gather precise requirements. While it doesn't lead to agile certifications like PMI-ACP or CSM, it provides a robust foundation in agile principles and prepares you for advanced studies in Agile Leadership. Upon completion, earn 10 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credits, recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI), crucial for maintaining PMP certification. Subscribe to the professional plan and elevate your problem-solving prowess to drive business success and innovation. This course is ideal for professionals seeking to enhance their capabilities in agile methodologies and innovation management.