Agile & Scrum Training for a major UK Bank

Example programmes delivered:

• Professional Scrum Master PSM I
• Agile and Scrum

These are 2 day courses which focus on understanding the agile/scrum methodology and implementing it in the attendees’ workplace.

They start by describing Agile principles and benefits and then progress into using Scrum as a methodology for implementing Agile.

They use fun, team based exercises to illustrate and reinforce the Scrum principles and practices.  These exercises can be run by the attendees with their colleagues when they return to their workplace in order to describe and distribute the knowledge they have gained.

Several versions of the course exist, each version is aimed at a particular role within scrum, e.g. Scrum Master or Product Owner, or at a particular workplace sector, e.g. managers or those who work with scrum teams.

In addition to the content described above, we also provide optional coaching within the course in order that the attendees can pass scrum.org exams to prove their Scrum knowledge and competencies, this includes the taking of mock exams to build confidence.

The Bank was looking for a low-cost training course and option of a Scrum Master qualification as an alternative to higher cost options available to them at the time.

The Bank was also keen to ensure instructors with good interpersonal skills who could engage the audience and get delegates to “buy into” the Agile mindset.

JBI proposed Agile training solutions which had industry standard content at very low cost, and that also gave the Bank the option of persuing the Professional Scrum Master PSM I qualification if necessary by integrating practice exams into the course.

JBI chose a knowledgeable and personable instructor to deliver the  courses – the Instructor was very well received by the audience and made a huge difference to uptake of both the Agile courses and furthermore as a technology within the teams.

We consider the main success factor for this course as having attendees leave the course with a degree of enthusiasm, knowledge and confidence in their ability to implement Scrum within their workplace. 

As well as attendees having a good pass rate in the exams, we get very good feedback from the end of course forms.

The Bank use agile/scrum for development of products that are not software, we therefore changed some of the exercises to take that into account.

Teams who try to implement scrum will sometimes do so without understanding why they are doing certain practices, because of this they sometimes miss out vital parts of the process and then become discouraged when scrum does not give them the results they expect. 

We overcome this issue by always encouraging attendees to ask questions about implementation and to share their own experiences of implementing scrum in their current or previous workplaces.  We will discuss what happened and try to work out if the problem was with the process practice or with trying to apply scrum to projects where it was not best suited.

Workshops, puzzles and kit to demonstrate Agile practice and get delegates working as an Agile team.

We can deliver these courses onsite at the client premises or at out training offices in North London. 

The trainer will bring a laptop and all the items necessary to run the practicals, all that is needed in the classroom is a projector and a flipchart and enough room to break the attendees into small teams of 4 or 5 people.

For more information - See our Agile/Scrum Master course outline