PMI-ACP Lesson 12 Knowledge and Skills Nugget 1

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PMI® & ACP are the registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc. Copyright 2014, Simplilearn, All rights reserved.
Knowledge and Skills: Part 1
PMI®—Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®

● Identify the key elements of active listening
● Define the Agile manifesto and principles
● List the Agile community and stakeholder values
● Explain brainstorming and the steps to conduct effective brainstorming
sessions
● Describe and use coaching and mentoring within Agile teams
After completing
this lesson, you will
be able to:
Objectives

Active listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret, and
evaluate what they hear. This is accomplished by the listeners giving a feedback to the speaker;
paraphrasing what they have heard to confirm the understanding of both parties.
Some of the practices that enhance active listening are as follows:
● Ask open-ended questions.
● Ask for more information.
● Ask for opinions and analysis.
● Do not interrupt; listen till the end.
Active Listening

The following elements help in becoming a better listener:
● Pay attention: Give the speaker your undivided attention, and acknowledge the message.
Recognize that non-verbal communication also "speaks" loudly.
● Show that you are listening: Use your body language and gestures to convey your attention like
nodding occasionally, using facial expressions, etc.
● Provide feedback: Understand what is being said and avoid using personal filters, assumptions,
judgments, and beliefs that can distort what we hear.
● Defer judgment: Defer judgment and don’t interrupt with counter arguments.
● Respond appropriately: Be candid, open, and honest in your response. Assert your opinions
respectfully.
Key Elements of Active Listening

Agile is about delivering value to the customer and delighting the customers and stakeholders.
Following are the PMI-Agile Community Values:
Assessing and Incorporating Community and Stakeholder Values

The four working or operating agreements of the PMI-Agile community are as follows:
Assessing and Incorporating Community and Stakeholder Values (contd.)
All work will be performed
against a set of program-wide
and team-specific acceptance
criteria.
All work teams will self-assign
volunteers to fill the
community's clearly defined
roles.
All work teams will deliver
value using Agile artifacts
and ceremonies.
All decisions will have team
consensus, where consensus
is defined as “I can live with
that decision”.

Brainstorming session is a tool to generate ideas from a
selected audience to solve a problem or stimulate
creativity. Brainstorming technique can be used by the
project teams to accomplish the following:
● Solving a process problem
● Inventing new products or product innovation
● Solving inter-group communication problems
● Improving customer service
● Budgeting exercises
● Project scheduling
Agile Brainstorming Session

Steps to set up an effective brainstorming session are as follows:
Setting up an Effective Brainstorming Session
Optimize the
environment for
brainstorming
Engage an
experienced
facilitator
Provide background
to the participants
ahead of time
Create a team with
people from diverse
groups
Conduct a creative
warm-up activity
Establish the ground
rules
Postpone criticism

Following points help in conducting an effective brainstorming session:
Effective Brainstorming Technique
Who wants to be the
lead?
Ready, set,
goal!
Got an idea?
Share it.
Put the puzzle
together.
Solve it as a
team.
● Designate an
individual to
facilitate the
session.
● Ensure that the
philosophy is
carried out
appropriately to
achieve the desired
outcome of the
meeting.
● The facilitator to
present a set of
specific questions
or goals to the
group to generate
ideas or feedback.
● Each member to
write one idea per
card and read it
out loud to the
group.
● Later, the card is
placed in the
middle of the
table.
● The group to
arrange the cards
on the table.
● Together,
determine which
ideas are the most
critical.
● Everyone gets to
voice their opinion.
● Discussion around
the most important
ideas take place.
● These are broken
down into
individual assigned
tasks, or general
consensus on the
desired course of
action is taken.

Empowered teams are those which can make the decisions that impact commitment. Agile
emphasizes on having a team which is motivated, empowered (self-managed), and which will take the
ownership of team’s success.
Building Empowered Teams
What Empowerment is What Empowerment is not
Empowerment is:
● responsibility and ownership;
● working independently towards
common objectives;
● understanding ‘Why’ to enable
decision making;
● weighing the impact of decisions
on all the stakeholders; and
● making more trade-offs.
Empowerment is not:
● throwing out the rule book;
● bypassing everyone who will say ‘No’;
● doing the fun parts of someone else’s job;
and
● freedom to unilaterally make
decisions that impact others.

Coaching and mentoring is an approach to management and a set of skills to nurture the team and
deliver results. In the context of Agile teams, coaching takes on the dual flavor of coaching and
mentoring.
Coaching and Mentoring within Teams
A coach helps the team
members to accomplish
specific tasks and goals.
A mentor shares the Agile
experiences and ideas to
guide the team members
to grow and develop.

Agile coaching could be done by an internal or an external coach. However, following are some
important points to be considered:
● Maintain balanced perspective while working with different teams. Each one will progress at a
different pace and will have constraints and impediments that may require help to overcome.
● Stay true to the individual values.
● Understand the social, psychological aspects, and complexity of the team.
● Use an approach which makes sense to the people; understand the process by which people give
meaning to experiences, for analyzing teams and situations.
● Develop methods for designing non-intrusive interventions for changing team dynamics.
● Learn what’s really needed to get people to work together as teams.
Agile Coaching

Coaching occurs in different ways through a sprint
or iteration:
● Coaching at the beginning focused on the
team
● Coaching in the middle focused on the
individual
● Coaching at the end focused on the team
● Coaching at the release level focused on the
team
Coaching at Levels

The three primary skills that an Agile coach must possess are as follows:
Skills of an Agile Coach
Work with people
● Listening
● Giving feedback
● Asking questions
● Building trust and
rapport
Facilitate change Systems thinking
● Enlisting support
● Reaching agreement
● Spreading success
● Learning from failure
● Seeing the big picture
● Identifying levers for
change
● Communicating
danger signals

Quiz

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Which of the following is not a technique of active listening?
1
Ask for more information
Ask for opinions and analysis
Timebox the conversation to ensure it stays focused
Use open-ended questions that can’t be answered by only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
1
Answer: d.
Explanation: Active listening should not have a time constraint.
Which of the following is not a technique of active listening?
Ask for more information
Ask for opinions and analysis
Timebox the conversation to ensure it stays focused
Use open-ended questions that can’t be answered by only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
Complete the following: Agile manifesto states, “Responding to change _______ ?
2
over following a plan
over dictating a solution
over comprehensive documentation
over contract negotiation

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
2
Answer: b.
Explanation: The four principle of Agile Manifesto states “Responding to change over
following a plan.”
Complete the following: Agile manifesto states, “Responding to change _______ ?
over following a plan
over dictating a solution
over comprehensive documentation
over contract negotiation

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
When is individual coaching most effective?
3
During the middle of the sprint
At the start and end of the sprint
At the start of the sprint
Throughout the entire sprint

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
3
Answer: b.
Explanation: Individual coaching is most effective during the middle of the sprint. Whole
team coaching occurs at the beginning and end of the sprint.
When is individual coaching most effective?
During the middle of the sprint
At the start and end of the sprint
At the start of the sprint
Throughout the entire sprint

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
What is the purpose of brainstorming?
4
To identify a solution
To engage participation
To address a problem
To generate ideas

QUIZ
a.
b.
c.
d.
4
Answer: a.
Explanation: The primary purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas.
What is the purpose of brainstorming?
To identify a solution
To engage participation
To address a problem
To generate ideas

● Active listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to
understand, interpret, and evaluate what they hear.
● Agile ensures customer delight and delivering value to stakeholders.
● Brainstorming session is a tool to generate ideas from a selected audience
to solve a problem or stimulate creativity.
● Agile emphasizes on having a team which is motivated, empowered, and
which will take ownership of the team’s success.
● In Agile, team coaching happens at the beginning and end of the sprint or
iteration while individual coaching is done in the middle of the iteration or
sprint.
Summary
Here is a quick
recap of what was
covered in this
lesson:

PMI-ACP Lesson 12 Knowledge and Skills Nugget 1

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