PRINCE2® Agile Foundation and Practitioner

This certification is aimed at professionals who work within a project environment including key staff involved with integrating project management with product delivery. An understanding of the agile concepts detailed in PRINCE2 Agile will also be beneficial to those with governance responsibilities for projects using agile delivery approaches as well as those involved with programme and project support functions.

PRINCE2 Agile is suitable for anyone who delivers projects, large or small, in an agile context. It is a valuable training and certification scheme for anyone working within an agile project environment, whether they're a project manager, project support or part of the wider project team.

If you already hold a PRINCE2 certification at either Foundation or Practitioner level, you are eligible to go direct into the PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner module. Please contact us for further details.

• Understand the concepts of PRINCE2
• Understand the concepts of common agile ways of working
• Understand the purpose and context for combing PRINCE2 and the agile way of working
• Be able to apply and evaluate the focus areas to a project in an agile context
• Be able to fix and flex the six aspects of a project in an agile context
• Be able to apply or tailor the PRINCE2 themes, processes and management products for a project in an agile context

You can take the PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner certificate if you hold any of the following certifications:

• PRINCE2® Foundation (or higher)
• PRINCE2 Agile® Foundation
• Project Management Qualification® (PMQ)*
• Certified Associate in Project Management® (CAPM)*
• Project Management Professional (PMP)®**
• IPMA Levels A,B,C and D® (Certified Projects Director)***.

**‘PMQ’ is a registered mark of the Association for Project Management.

**'PMP and CAPM' are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

***‘IPMA Level A/B/C/D’ are registered trademarks of the International Project Management Association.

APM, PMI and IPMA are not affiliated with AXELOS, nor do they endorse any AXELOS qualifications.

1. Agile Ways of Working

• Differences between projects and BAU (Business as Usual)
• Agile and its common approaches, how and why agile approaches have developed and where they are used.
• History of agile, its contrast to the waterfall way of working and how the agile manifesto fits in
• Different levels of agile maturity and well-known agile frameworks
• Behaviours, concepts and techniques that characterise agile
• The PRINCE2 Agile view of 'agile'
• Kanban, the Kanban method and its six general practices, including the use of Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFDs)
• Core concepts of Lean
• The use of workshops
• How to transition to agile
• Scrum essentials, Scrum teams, Scrum events, Scrum artefacts and Sprints

2. Combining PRINCE2 and Agile Ways of Working

• Complementary strengths of PRINCE2 and the agile ways of working
• Who can benefit from using PRINCE2 Agile and in what contexts/situation
• Make-up of PRINCE2 Agile (frameworks, behaviours, concepts, techniques, focus areas)
• The eight 'guidance points'
• How PRINCE2 controls and governance can enable agile to be used in many environments
• What a typical PRINCE2 'project journey' looks like in an agile context
• Apply and evaluate the focus areas to a project in an agile context

3. Purpose and Use of the Agilometer Throughout a Project

• The six sliders used on the Agilometer, explain their significance and how to improve them
• Requirements terminology, decomposition and prioritization, including MoSCoW and Ordering
• How requirements prioritization is used
• The rich communication focus area, its importance and its key techniques
• How to manage frequent releases and the benefits of 'failing fast'

4. The Six Aspects of a Project in an Agile Context

• How to use the 'hexagon' in relation to the six aspects of project performance
• Use of tolerances in terms of what to 'fix' and what to 'flex' in relation to the six aspects of project performance
• The five targets that underpin the use of the hexagon
• Why the 'fix and flex' approach is good for the customer

5. Tailoring PRINCE2 principles, themes, processes and management products to a Project in an Agile Context

• 5 PRINCE2 Agile behaviours (Transparency, Collaboration, Rich Communication, Self-Organization, Exploration)
• How to incorporate agile in all seven PRINCE2 processes and all seven themes but that the amount appropriate to each will vary depending on the project context
• The two common Organization roles of Scrum master and Product owner
• How to adjust roles, including the use of specialist roles, and the options for team organization in a project
• Make-up of a typical delivery team
• Servant leadership, its use and importance
• How to define Working Agreements
• Quality setting techniques including 'definition of done' and the use of acceptance criteria
• Quality testing, quality checking and management techniques
• Approaches to planning and typical planning techniques
• Approaches to risk and how agile concepts mitigate many typical risks
• How blending PRINCE2 with agile approaches controls, responds to, and minimizes the impact of change, including risk management and configuration management
• How empowered self-organising teams handle change dynamically within set tolerances
• Common feedback loops and their importance
• Progress monitoring techniques including use of Work in Progress boards, burn charts, information radiators
• Agile techniques that may apply to each PRINCE2 process including Cynefin
• How to flex the 'Direct a Project' stage and the benefits of collaborative working
• How to 'manage by exception' with emphasis on empowerment, quantity of deliverables, rich information flows and value of deliverables
• Why PRINCE2 'stages' may not be required, including use of timeboxes and Scrum of scrums
• Typical output mechanisms when 'Controlling a Stage' and 'Managing a Stage Boundary
• Use of retrospectives and how to make them effective
• Managing Product Delivery using Scrum and Kanban
• How to define Work Packages, Product Descriptions, quality criteria and tolerances
• Guidance on behaviours, risks and the frequency of releases
• How to manage Stage Boundaries and the similarities between a stage and a release
• How to assess quantity, quality and benefits of stage deliverables
• How to effectively close a project, including evaluation of the use of agile
• How to tailor PRINCE2 products, including Work Packages, Highlight Reports and Checkpoint Reports
• Techniques that may apply to each PRINCE2 theme including requirements, defining value and user stories
• Guidance on the use of contracts
• PRINCE2 Agile delivery roles
• How to use the Health Check
• Fundamental values and principles of agile
• Outline tips for the PRINCE2 Agile project manager

Throughout the PRINCE2 Agile course, delegates will be exposed to numerous examples of examination questions. We will undertake a number of exercises and 'question-and-answer' sessions that will help to consolidate the learning, thereby ensuring that delegates are more than adequately prepared for the final examination.

6. PRINCE2 Agile Foundation & Practitioner Exam

The Foundation and Practitioner paper-based exams will be held during the class.

Examination Format

• Objective testing
• 50 questions each worth one mark
• 30 marks or more required to pass out of 50 questions: 60% pass mark
• Two-and-a-half hours’ (150 minutes) duration, no additional reading time
• Open book exam. Candidates may use the official printed hard copy of the PRINCE2 Agile®Guidance. The manual may be annotated and tabulated but no sticky notes and loose leaf papers containing additional notes will be allowed.