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Agility ManagementLaajuus (3 cr)

Code: YH00BI62

Credits

3 op

Teaching language

  • English

Responsible person

  • Risto Korkia-Aho
  • Jesus Belle

Objective

COURSE DESCRIPTION/LEARNING OBJECTIVES
During the coming years, all industries will become agile. Non-agile organizations will either disappear or be assimilated. Learning agility is a must-do for any student targeting a high-growth career, since the demand for these skills will be tremendous in the upcoming years.

"Agile" consists on a set of intuitive and practical management frameworks, designed to respond to the extremely dynamic and incessantly changing adaptations that most companies must deal with. Agility tools are based on minimal planning, project actionability, extremely fast activation, interactivity, design for flexibility, small working cycles, modularity/easy integration, and joint development with customers/end users. These tools are truly unique and clearly differentiated from the frameworks that management courses cover.

The first part of the course will show how agility is implemented into the "big picture" strategy of companies and teams. “Vision / Long term team strategies” are ancient history. These will be replaced by a dynamic portfolio of micro-projects, reinventing itself continuously, to adapt to customer and competition demands. The tools provided will be highly visual and intuitive, through which agile leaders will be able to quickly design, adjust, delegate and follow-up all team micro-projects and initiatives.

Later on, the course will focus on a practical coverage of the main team agile frameworks, placing special emphasis on Scrum (and its variations), Kanban, XP, Scaled Agile and Lean Development, plus the key aspects of the remaining methods. In addition, the course will provide the latest trends in "agile team integration tools", such as DevOps, BizDevOps and Microservices design and management.

The last part of the course will present a clear set of dynamic network structures to implement larger scale agile projects requiring several/multiple partners, such as multi-partner joint ventures, agile network design and management, dynamic innovation alliances and others.

Content

COURSE CONTENTS
• AGILE PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: Bottom-Up and Top-Bottom Agile Multi-Project Mapping, Project Portfolio Design and Assessment Tools
• AGILE TEAM FRAMEWORKS: Overview of the main team agile management tools, such as Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, XP Tools, Scaled Agile, Lean Agile, and Key aspects of the Remaining Agile Methods
• FUNCTIONAL AGILITY IN DYNAMIC ORGANIZATIONS: Integrating cross-functional DevOps/BizDevOps teams, Microservices activity management
• HIGH-PRODUCTIVITY TEAM TOOLS: Rapid Design Objectives, Heijunka Team Capacity Management, Express Stand-Up
Meetings, Quick-Reaction Crisis Interventions, High-Impact Feedback, Team Velocity, Continuous Integration Process Management, Iterative Task Management Tools, and similar frameworks.
• AGILE FAILURES, MISTAKES AND TRANSITIONS: Agile readiness, agile proper use and wrong utilization. Lessons to learn
• DESIGNING AGILE COMPANY NETWORKS: Building multi-partner joint ventures, designing inter-company networks, creating project alliances, hybrid structures

Qualifications

2 years of studies at higher education institutions

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

Sufficient (1) Knowledge and Understanding: The student demonstrates basic conceptual knowledge. The fundamental course frameworks have been generally understood. The student demonstrates passable command of the essential aspects of the Agility Management field.

Satisfactory (2) Knowledge and Understanding: The student demonstrates acceptable conceptual knowledge. The central course frameworks have been generally understood. The student demonstrates sufficient command of the Agility Management field.
Intellectual Skills: The student is able to interpret Team Agility issues at a superficial level. The student possesses limited analytical skills, assessing uncomplicated challenges, and incorporating limited perspectives. The student reviews relevant academic literature satisfactorily.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

Good (3) Knowledge and Understanding: The student demonstrates fairly good conceptual knowledge. The central course frameworks have been considerably well understood. The student displays a reasonable command of the Agility Management field.
Intellectual Skills: The student is able to interpret and analyse properly Team Agility issues and challenges arising from several perspectives. The student reviews relevant academic literature moderately well.
Very good (4) Knowledge and Understanding: The student demonstrates substantial conceptual knowledge. The central course frameworks have been understood thoroughly. The student displays high command of the Agility Management field.
Intellectual Skills: The student is able to interpret and analyse with considerable depth Team Agility issues and challenges arising from multiple perspectives. The student reviews skillfully relevant academic literature.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Excellent (5) Knowledge and Understanding: The student demonstrates solid conceptual knowledge in the area. The central course frameworks have been understood with great clarity and precision. The student displays a very high command of the Agility Management field.
Intellectual Skills: The student is able to interpret and analyse in depth Team Agility issues and challenges arising from multiple perspectives. The student reviews relevant academic literature with excellence.

Further information

Will be shared in the first online lecture by the visiting lecturer Mr Jesús Bellé