Do you want to be at the center of high-performing teams? Do you want to learn to develop products that can offer continuous value to your customers? If you feel that driving process efficiency and building great products is your thing, then here’s news for you. We’re excited to launch our all-new Agile Software Development Nanodegree program.
This Nanodegree program will help students understand the Agile mindset, what problems it solves, and how to apply Agile frameworks to software development. Udacity is excited to offer this program in collaboration with ThoughtWorks, a software consultancy with 25+ years of experience helping companies solve complex business problems where technology is the differentiator.
What’s Agile Software Development
Agile is the ability to evaluate and understand your environment, identify the uncertainties, and figure out how you create adaptable solutions.
Agile software development is about finding a better process for developing software. In software development, agile is used as an umbrella term to describe iterative planning, flexible development, fast delivery, and continual product improvement in response to customer feedback. This approach to software development emphasizes collaborative, cross-functional, and self-organizing teams working to deliver value to the customer that’s also in support of business goals.
This doesn’t mean that there are no managers in this approach to software development. It just means that teams have the capability to figure out how they are going to approach a project. A manager’s job is to ensure that the teams have the right skills, to remove roadblocks along the way, and track and report on project progress.
Agile Software Development Jobs are Growing
Agile development roles are on the move. Jobs that involve Agile development skills will grow more than 7% in the next 10 years, according to Burning Glass. LinkedIn’s 2020 Emerging Jobs Report states that Product Owners — with a knowledge of Agile Methodologies — have witnessed 24% annual growth rate which is one of the highest in 2020.
What’s more, a report by KPMG states that, for more than 68% of organizations, the key driver for Agile adoption is faster product delivery. Such trends will result in an increased demand for skilled professionals.
The Agile Software Development Nanodegree program teaches students how to apply Agile approaches to product development that can speed time to delivery and improve quality.
How Can Agile Software Development Nanodegree Program Prepare You For Present & Future Jobs?
By the end of this program, you will be able to differentiate between the popular Agile frameworks, Scrum, Kanban and XP, create an environment that fosters high-performing teams, and manage iteration planning using Agile techniques.
You will also be able to create a release plan for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), create metrics that show project status, and effectively communicate progress both within and outside of the development team.
If you’re someone who likes to identify and solve problems so your team can focus on execution, or someone who likes to create and refine the structures and processes that enable a team to succeed, or someone who is interested in learning how to add more rigor and organization to your project management, then this program is a great fit for you.
Built in collaboration with top industry leaders, the program comes with three real-world hands-on projects that provide practical learning experience to our learners in areas like managing a product launch, creating an MVP release plan and project management.
PROJECT 1: WorldVisitz Mobile App Agile Delivery Launch
In this project, you will step in as an Agile consultant to help launch WorldVisitz’s Agile journey. You will recommend and define an Agile delivery solution for WorldVisitz executives to replace their current inefficient traditional product development processes.
Additionally, you will prepare an Agile onboarding presentation to get the team started on their Agile journey.
PROJECT 2: Create an MVP Release Plan
Create a plan to develop a software product for the Centers for Disease Control that will help prevent the spread of a deadly virus. Students will be given a specific set of criteria to create a plan for the customer.
PROJECT 3: Report Agile Project Status with a Big Visual Information Radiator
In this project, you will learn how to plan, organize, monitor, and display project information at a glance.
You’ll also create a Big Visual Information Radiator (BVIR) that can be used by anyone involved in an Agile project to review project goals, work completion status, metrics, risks, and target completion date.
You will learn how to use techniques such as appropriate use of burn-up and burn-down charts, prioritization of user stories, identifying risks, and calculating velocity.
You will also learn how to effectively communicate project status and appropriate key metrics to a senior management audience within a corporation.
Enroll Now!
Agile team leaders are critical to many high performing development operations – they plan and prioritize work, protect the team from obstacles, and ensure consistent delivery. So, if you’re interested in managing the development of high quality products, creating and streamlining processes for top-notch teams, and want to be in demand for Agile software development roles, then check out our latest Agile Software Development Nanodegree program today.
