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Applying Professional Scrum™ (APS) is a hands-on, activity-based course where students experience how Professional Scrum and the Scrum framework enhance their ability to deliver value compared to traditional methods. Scrum offers a superior way of working by emphasizing experimentation, incremental delivery of customer value, frequent feedback loops, and fostering strong team dynamics.
This course provides an active learning environment for students to engage in discussions, team-based exercises, and individual reflection. Throughout the course, students work in Scrum Teams over a series of Sprints, learning Scrum while applying it.
Additionally, the course includes a free attempt at the globally recognized Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) certification exam.
Course Overview
The Applying Professional Scrum course is the perfect introduction, reboot or refresher to Scrum. It is excellent training for organizations, teams, and individuals wanting to experience the benefits of Scrum, or for those interested in continuing their learning with more advanced training.
Professionals who are part of a team that currently uses Scrum, but desire a refresher so that they get the most out of their use of Scrum.
Professionals who are joining a team that currently uses Scrum.
Professionals that don’t use Scrum directly but want to learn how to work with colleagues that do use Scrum.
Professionals that are investigating to see if Scrum makes sense for them and their colleagues.
Professionals that are part of an organization that intends to use Scrum in the near future.
Teams who are learning to use Scrum together in their organizations
The course also provides the foundational Scrum knowledge needed for those wishing to continue their education with role-focused (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer, Leader) training classes. APS is not recommended for advanced Scrum professionals. This course is designed to be domain-agnostic; it conveys the use of Scrum in any domain or industry with complex problems to solve. Trainers typically have experience in multiple industries and may be able to tailor the course to the needs of your team. Students and teams building software products may want to consider our domain-specific course: Applying Professional Scrum for Software Development.
Course Outcomes
Agility as a new way of working
Exploring the Scrum Framework
Planning and forecasting with Scrum
Getting started with Scrum
Course Objectives
Learn about Agility and how Scrum differs from traditional plan-driven work models
Develop an Agile mindset by focusing on professionalism, experimentation, and outcomes
Learn (or relearn) the fundamentals of Scrum and how to apply them correctly
Develop an understanding of what it is like to use Scrum and if it is right for your team
Learn how to be a great Scrum Team member, or how to support a great Scrum Team
Leave the class with ways to identify common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Students use a set of proven practices throughout the class that can be used to enhance their application of Scrum
Leave with tools that help Identify the first steps in applying Professional Scrum with your team
Who Should Attend this class?
The Applying Professional Scrum course is the ideal starting point for anyone involved in or curious about using Scrum. It is particularly suited for professionals looking to experience the benefits of Scrum firsthand, or those planning to expand their understanding of Scrum with advanced role-specific training. This course is relevant for:
Professionals currently working in a Scrum environment who need a refresher.
New team members joining a Scrum team.
Individuals not directly using Scrum but needing insight into Scrum practices for effective collaboration.
Professionals assessing whether Scrum is suitable for them or their organization.
Teams adopting Scrum in their upcoming projects.
The course is designed for a wide range of industries and is domain-agnostic, providing essential knowledge for continuing education in various Scrum roles, while staying focused on NKD Agility’s core values of competence, engineering excellence, and directness.
For those affiliated with the Project Management Institute (PMI), we’re delighted to inform you that our courses are eligible for PDU credit. Specifically, you can claim 14 PDUs after attending our two-day Professional Scrum Master (PSM) course. Please be aware that PMI PDUs are awarded for course attendance, not for passing a Scrum.org assessment.
To claim your PDUs, you can do so under PMI’s “Education courses provided by other third party providers” category. Simply visit
https://ccrs.pmi.org
to register your PDUs. We’re excited to be part of your Scrum and Agile journey, and we’re committed to providing you with the knowledge, skills, and credentials you need to excel in this dynamic field.
Why Learn With NKD Agility?
We are 4.8-star rated on Trustpilot!
We have helped 2,600+ people learn Scrum since 2010.
We are not trainers, we are consultants that are still in the trenches.
All participants get self-paced learning support.
Receive regular chances to attend another course at no cost.
Syllabus
Our comprehensive syllabus is designed to accommodate various learning styles, whether you prefer a traditional in-depth session, a flexible immersive experience, or a structured mentor program. Each module can be delivered in the following formats:
Traditional Learning Experience: Engage in full-day or half-day sessions led by expert trainers in an interactive classroom setting. Perfect for those seeking an intensive, focused learning experience.
Immersive Learning Experience: Enjoy a multi-week program that breaks down full-day sessions into shorter, more manageable classes, integrating real-world applications and reflections for continuous improvement. Assignments are only
available as part of this format, encouraging participants to apply their learning practically.
Mentor Programs with Immersive Experiences: Participate in a series of immersive learning sessions as part of our mentor programs, combining structured learning with personalized guidance and continuous feedback over time. For more
information, visit our Mentor Programs page.
Our immersive programs empower growth through incremental learning, outcome-based assignments, and facilitated reflections, ensuring that the skills you gain are practical, applicable, and ready to be used in your work environment. Facilitated
Reflections are a cornerstone of our immersive approach, allowing participants to engage deeply with the material. In each session, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your learning, discuss challenges and successes with peers, and gain
actionable feedback from professional trainers. These reflective sessions enhance understanding, foster continuous improvement, and support your growth in a collaborative environment.
Kickoff & Sprint 1
Module190+
Participants are able to experience building complex products within a timebox, which emphasizes the challenges of self-management, team formation, and norming. Through this exercise, they gain insights into the importance of “Getting to Done,” the potential for self-management anywhere (with supportive guidelines), and how the Scrum framework aids in managing complex product development.
AskFacilitate a discussion within your organization about your current process and practices used for product development and create an explicit description of them.
Have a conversation with people from your organization about the current challenges you are experiencing in your team.
Have a conversation with people from your organization and create a visualization of your value stream from requirements gathering to product delivery.
Have a conversation with people from your organization and create a visualization of various teams and groups involved in the steps for building the product.
Describe the different roles/accountabilities in your current team.
Describe how you currently decide what should be built next in the context of your product.
Describe which meetings / events people involved in the product development process will typically attend.
Describe how you currently ensure building the right quality of your product.
Fundamentals of Scrum
Module290+
Students understand the concept of Agile and Scrum, its benefits for managing complexity, and being able to identify and explain how their organization could benefit from applying those principles.
AskIdentify improvement in your current process based on your understanding on how the principles of Agile and Scrum can benefit the team in addressing complexities in product development and apply at least one change to validate its feasibility.
Have a conversation with people in your organization about problems and challenges with product development with your current process.
Have a conversation with people in your organization about the benefits of Agile and Scrum and how the principles and values can be applied to improve the way of working in your current team.
Discuss with others how the Scrum values could enable or inhibit empiricism
Try to identify in which areas on the Stacey Chart, the Cynefin Framework or another model explaining complexity most of your activities fall.
Describe what is the product your team is working on.
Review the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and identify areas where you would improve regarding your current product development.
Visualize your current process in regards of Visibility, Ability to Change, Business Value and risk over time and compare it to Scrum and describe the impact on your team.
Exploring the Scrum Framework
Module3120+
By analyzing the Scrum Framework, demonstrate an understanding of how each element serves a specific purpose, and apply this knowledge to create a practical implementation plan that fully utilizes the Scrum Framework.
assignment Examples forScrum exists only in its entirety
Have a conversation with people in your organization on how the elements of the Scrum Framework serve transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
Facilitate a discussion with your peers on validating if you are using all Scrum Events and if you follow the rules related to these.
Facilitate a discussion with your peers on validating if you are using all Scrum Artifacts and if you follow the rules related to these.
Facilitate a discussion with your peers on validating if you are using all Scrum Commitments and if you follow the rules related to these.
Facilitate a discussion with your peers on validating if all Scrum Accountabilities are present in the team and if they provide the services described in the Scrum Guide.
Have a conversation with people in your organization whether there is enough transparency created by the Scrum elements to support inspection and adaptation for all relevant stakeholders.
Sprint Two
Module475+
By understanding that self-management requires boundaries in the form of a minimal set of rules students will be able to improve their work by applying the Scrum Framework.
AskThrough an evaluation of the current Scrum implementation, identify opportunities for improvement, demonstrate how establishing boundaries aligned with the Scrum Framework can enhance self-management, and implement changes that enable the team to work more empirically and achieve their goals more effectively.
assignment Examples forBoundaries are important for self-management
Have a conversation with people in your organization on how the Scrum Framework can help to create more clarity about accountabilities, artifacts and events.
Facilitate a discussion with your peers about how well self-management works in your team(s) and how this can be improved.
Apply at least one additional element from the Scrum Framework to your current process and evaluate if this increases the ability of the team to self-manage.
Have a conversation with your peers on how you can use goals for creating focus in product development.
Facilitate a discussion about clarity of goals and how to improve them to help the team(s) to work towards these goals more effectively.
Facilitate a discussion with your team(s) about how the current planning approach is supporting empirical development and what could be improved.
Facilitate a discussion with your team(s) if they are managing the future value and vision of the work enough to be prepared for the upcoming Sprint.
Facilitate a discussion about the value the Scrum Master is adding currently to the team(s) and how you could improve the way how the Scrum Master supports the team(s) in achieving their goals and in growing self-management.
Deeper into the Scrum Framework
Module575+
Being able to apply improvements to the conduct of Scrum Events by utilizing the transparency provided by Scrum Artifacts to enhance inspection and adaptation, demonstrating the ability to identify and implement changes that enable the team to work more effectively towards achieving their goals.
AskEvaluate how you are currently using transparency in your Scrum Events to inspect and adapt and apply at least one improvement to increase transparency or improve the flow of the Scrum Event.
assignment Examples forImproving the conduct of Scrum Events
Have a conversation with your team to discuss the desired outcome of each event and evaluate if your team is achieving it.
Identify and apply improvements to create transparency in one of the Scrum Events to help better achieve the desired outcome.
Identify and apply improvements to the flow of one of the Scrum Events to achieve the desired outcome.
Have a conversation with your team(s) if during their Sprint Planning they are actively creating the plan on what the team will work on during the Sprint and how they plan on achieving the Sprint Goal.
Have a conversation with the developers in your team(s) if during the Daily Scrum they are actively inspecting and adapting the plan for Sprint to help them achieve the Sprint Goal.
Have a conversation with the stakeholders and your team(s) if during their Sprint Review they are actively inspecting the outcome of the Sprint and adapting the Product Backlog based on feedback and insights shared to improve the value of the product.
Have a conversation with people in your organization on action items identified at the Sprint Retrospective and assess if the team is actively adapting towards the identified improvements.
Demonstrate a course of action on a challenge that your team experienced this week.
Talk with your colleagues / team members about the impediments that get in the way of being a self-managing team, identify a few actions that you could take to remove these impediments and proactively reach out to stakeholders who can take action that creates an environment where self-managing teams are feasible.
Have a conversation with your team and find out how frequently they are not able to complete the forecasted Product Backlog Items, and if they should adapt their forecasting approach for the succeeding Sprints.
Have a conversation with your team(s) if there are challenges related to dependencies to people outside the team and identify points for improvement.
Sprint Three
Module690+
Effective collaboration is enabled through positive behavior of team members and by living the Scrum Values. When these values are embodied by the Scrum Team and the people they work with, the empirical Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation come to life building trust. Teams that master collaboration are more likely to achieve their goals and deliver value to their customers. Great collaboration needs continuous attention of team members and courage and openness to hold each other accountable.
AskEvaluate together with your team(s) how good they are collaborating and if there are any behaviors in the team that are impacting their ability to achieve their goals. Identify and apply at least one improvement that helps the team to collaborate better and acquire feedback on the impact of this change.
assignment Examples forCollaboration is key in a self-managing team
Facilitate a discussion with your team(s) to evaluate the current level of collaboration, to identify challenging behaviors and their impact and how the team(s) can improve.
Observe the conversation of your team(s) during the Daily Scrum evaluate if they are interested in the work of other team members.
Lean into the courage value to help the team navigate through an impediment that is outside their control.
Have a conversation with your team to evaluate how they collaborate towards achieving their Sprint Goal during the Scrum Events and even outside the formal Scrum Events.
Approach a random team member and ask about the team’s current progress towards the Sprint Goal. If they can only explain their own progress, facilitate a discussion how collaboration and transparency could be improved so every team member is aware of the progress of the whole team.
Evaluate if communication happens between all team members and facilitate a discussion if the size of the team is supporting communication.
Evaluate how frequently the Product Owner is collaborating with the team(s) and if developers are frequently sharing and collecting feedback of their progress. Facilitate a discussion on how the team(s) could benefit from a more intense collaboration with the Product Owner and if that would impact the Product Owner’s ability to collaborate with stakeholders.
Facilitate a discussion with your team to discuss how your team(s) could benefit from the Scrum values to deal with challenging situations that your team(s) experienced recently.
Facilitate a discussion to identify situations where team members could have held each other accountable to solve a challenging situation earlier instead of waiting for someone else to step in.
Planning With Scrum
Module790+
Students will be able to evaluate their current process and assess how it affects their ability to work in an empirical way to develop a plan to enhance agile planning.
AskBy evaluating your team’s current process, identify how it affects the ability to work in an empirical way and develop a plan to apply at least one improvement to enhance agile planning to assess the impact of this change.
assignment Examples forAgile planning in working empirically
Facilitate a discussion with your team(s) to evaluate how much everyone is aligned on “Why?”, “What?” and “How?” by the end of each Sprint Planning.
Have a conversation with your team(s) to assess how the Daily Scrum helps create transparency on the progress towards achieving your goals .
Facilitate a discussion within your team(s) about how much Developers feel empowered to make suggestions about the Product Backlog and how to deliver value to your customers (Product Owner still will have the final say about the Product Backlog).
Have a conversation with your team(s) to discuss how you could improve the way you describe Product Backlog Items by either adding, improving, or removing information.
Work with your colleagues to refine PBIs that would help move you closer to achieving your goal(s) and determine which 2-3 items might be at the top of your ordered Product Backlog.
Explore Product Backlog sizing techniques and experiment with the developers in your teams and assess with the team if it feels differently compared to how you normally do sizing.
Facilitate a discussion with your stakeholders and Product Owner to assess relative business value for several Product Backlog Items to see if it is helpful in increasing the value of your product.
Facilitate a discussion with your Product Owner to describe the aspects that are currently considered for ordering the Product Backlog and discuss how the order of your Product Backlog could be improved to maximize the value of your product.
Sprint Four
Module890+
Students will be able to analyze the interactions between their Scrum Team(s) and external individuals or groups, identify challenges at these interfaces, design and implement an improvement strategy, and evaluate its impact on the team’s ability to work empirically and achieve their goals.
AskAssess the interactions between your Scrum Team(s) and external individuals or groups to pinpoint any challenges at these interfaces. Then, implement at least one improvement and measure its impact on the team’s ability to work empirically and achieve their goals.
assignment Examples forContinuous improvement in a Scrum Team
Facilitate a discussion with your team(s) to identify impediments, and categorize them based on whether they can be resolved internally within the Scrum Team or require involvement from external individuals or groups.
Facilitate a conversation with people in your organization on how they can support the Scrum Team in creating an environment where teams can grow.
Assess the amount of unplanned work and distractions for members of your team(s) and identify improvements that allow team members to better focus.
Facilitate a discussion with your team(s) to assess how much team(s) can focus on collaborating on a Sprint Goal and Product Goal and apply one improvement to assess how this helps increasing the focus.
Have a conversation with your team(s) to identify one improvement point to enhance their ability to plan and improve the value delivered to customers.
Getting Started
Module945+
Students will be able to assess their current implementation of Scrum, analyze potential improvements, and develop a vision for what it could look like in the future. Additionally, they will be able to plan first steps that bring them closer to this vision.
AskAssess your current implementation of Scrum, and develop a vision for what it could look like six months from now. Create a 15% solution to start the journey towards this vision.
assignment Examples forApplying Professional Scrum as the next step
Have a discussion with your team and envision how the future would look like in the next 6 months as you apply the mindset of agility and Professional Scrum.
Facilitate a conversation to create / continue an Agile Transition Backlog where you can manage potential improvements and define a Product Owner who will be accountable for managing this Product Backlog as well as people involved in implementing those changes.
Define regular inspection opportunities in your journey towards organizational agility that span a broader perspective than you cover in your Sprint Retrospectives.
Facilitate a discussion with people in your organization and identify first steps in introducing organizational change to a more empirical way of delivering value.
Facilitate a community of agile enthusiasts within your organization to share ideas and collectively continue your agile transition journey.
Create a reading / watch list, try to connect with a community of agile practitioners outside your organization and identify other ways to get inspiration and to reenergize your agile mindset.
Take assessments on Scrum and Agile to inspect and adapt your theoretical knowledge.
Closing
Module1030+
As we conclude the Applying Professional Scrum course, this final session is designed to reflect on your learning journey, consolidate key concepts, and prepare you to apply your new skills confidently within your team. We’ll revisit the course highlights, address any remaining questions, and provide guidance on the next steps to continue your growth as a Scrum Master.
Passwords have no expiration date, but are valid for one attempt only
Lifetime certification - no annual renewal fee required
Catchup & After
Two weeks after completion, participants are invited to join a follow-up catch-up session designed to address any remaining questions, ideas, or challenges that have emerged since the training. This session provides an opportunity to reflect
on your experiences applying the concepts learned in the course, share insights, and receive additional support.
* Assignments are part of our Immersive Training Programs, encouraging participants to apply their learning practically between sessions for a more hands-on experience.
For those looking for a more guided, continuous learning journey, explore our Mentor Programs, where you can engage in a series of immersive learning sessions combined with ongoing mentorship.
Connect with Martin Hinshelwood
If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.
Schedule a Teams Call with Martin Hinshelwood
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