No matter if someone just got familiar with agile software development or an experienced developer with experience on waterfall methodology, agile is something that will cross their path. And for all the good reasons! It not only brings more productivity to your development team, but also a better and fast alternative for your customers, vendors, and associated professionals. This is the reason why Agile adoption is spreading like fire. Do you need more convincing? Check out this Gartner research, saying that 87% of the participants utilize Agile in their software development. It also has so much data and study that explains the efficacy of this methodology. First, you must understand Agile in software development before delving further to know about the best Agile certifications for you. Let’s start!
What do you mean by Agile in software development?
Agile was launched formally in 2001 by 17 technological luminaries who introduced the Agile Manifesto, intending to develop better applications and software that could:
Help people interact over tools and processes.Respond to quick plan changesFacilitate customer collaborationIncorporate comprehensive documentation
In simple terms, it implies that Agile gives you the ability to make changes and respond to them quickly. It is a method to deal with an uncertain environment and then succeeding at it nonetheless. The word “Agile” was chosen to represent the adaptiveness and response to important changes in their approach to software development. Agile software development means a set of methodologies based upon iterative development and align with the Agile Manifesto. Here, the requirements, as well as their solutions, evolve via collaboration between cross-functional teams. It promotes a highly disciplined project management process that encourages self-organization, accountability, teamwork, and best practices to facilitate rapid, high-quality software delivery. Agile is an effective business approach, matching the developmental process with the company goals and customer needs.
What are Agile Methodologies?
Before we understand the Agile methodologies, you need to make sure you follow these 12 principles of Agile Manifesto to make your software development Agile:
Customer satisfaction with quick delivery of a high-quality productAddress the required changes, even though you are late in your development cycleEnsure you deliver the products frequently and concentrate on shorter timescalesYour development team and business decision-makers must work together throughout the project.Trust your team members and motivate them for the successful completion of the project on time.Conduct face to face interactions to avoid confusions and miscommunicationsWorking software to indicate progressConstant speed to promote sustainable development to avoid the last-minute rushFocus on technical excellence plus good design to improve agilityReduce time spent where work is not being doneBest designs, architectures, and requirements for better self-organizationRegular monitoring on the work and making modifications to improve the team effectiveness
Now, let’s understand some of the Agile methodologies.
Scrum: It is a lightweight framework for project management that you can use to manage different types of incremental and iterative projects. Here, the work gets divided into 2-4 “Sprints” or iterations and executed by a team of 7-9 members. It is one of the most popular methodologies globally for its proven productivity, simplicity, and flexibility of incorporating other framework practices upon the requirements.Extreme programming: This framework enables a team to build high-quality software in addition to suitable engineering practices. Extreme programming is applied to handle changing software needs.Lean: It involves a set of principles and tools that focus on detecting and removing inefficiencies to boost process development speed and maximize the delivering value.Kanban: This method is utilized to design, improve, and manage workflows by visualizing how the work is done and its pattern. This method comes in handy when work arrives suddenly and requires immediate deployments.Crystal emphasizes team members and how they interact with each other instead of processes and tools. Every project is dynamic and unique; Crystal ensures the project completes with better collaboration from every member. It strengthens communications and improves engagement.Feature Driven Development: Or, FDD is a short-iteration and model-driven process built around software development’s best practices. It includes object modeling, code ownership, feature development, planning, and designing.Dynamic System Development: Or, DSD provides a comprehensive approach for planning, executing, scaling, and managing software development. DSD is based on eight principles, including on-time delivery, aligning with business needs, effective collaboration, quality-driven, integrated testing, clear communication, demonstrating control, and developing iteratively.
What’s the benefit of Agile in Software Development?
Super-quality products
Agile methodologies help you find issues faster and also solve them efficiently and quickly. Its flexibility allows your team to address customer reactions and improve your product constantly promptly.
High customer satisfaction
Better collaboration between your project team members helps them work immediately on the customer feedback to improve the software quality. As a result, it creates high customer satisfaction and trust in your brand.
Streamlined work and better productivity
Because of being incremental, iterative in nature, Agile enables you to complete projects in short sprints that make them easily manageable. In this way, you can also roll out products in less time and make quick changes if needed during any development process phase.
More control over the project
As work gets broken into parts, you can conduct rapid, iterative cycles. Agile enables you to conduct regular meetings to showcase the progress made, discuss issues, and work on the solutions. It also brings greater transparency in the entire development cycle for better control and helps you gain your customers’ trust.
Improved ROI
As a result of quick deliverability, your customers would be happy and satisfied. Hence, you get better ROI due to reduced time and costs and stay ahead in the market. You see how much beneficial Agile could be for your software development; hence, obtaining an Agile Certification can now make good sense to you. Don’t be surprised if I say there’s a greater demand for professionals possessing Agile approach knowledge. It will help you achieve better career scopes and is also great if you want to expand software development knowledge or improve project management.
Some of the top Agile certifications:
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner or PMI-ACP – Great for professionals working on a team utilizing Agile or an organization seeking more AgilityAgilePM or APMG International Agile Project management certification – Great for project managers with limited knowledge of Agile or foundation-level certification.CSPO or Scrum Alliance Certified Product Owner – Great for professional familiar with ScrumCEC or Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach – Great for business leaders who have a good understanding of Scrum principles and enterprise transformation.CDA or DAC Certified Disciplined Agilist – Great for professionals who are new or have little experience in software development
So, are you ready to know about some of the best learning resources for Agile certification? Your wait is over!
Agile Methodology
This video by Edureka on YouTube discusses Agile and its frameworks, using the Agile methodology. Other topics covered in it are – the top reasons you need Agile, its advantages, and how to implement it effectively. The certification training spans 4-16 weeks, and they have one-on-one live 24×7 technical support that helps you in case of any issues. When the training finishes, you will work on a real-time project they will assign you. For this, you get a grade along with a verifiable certificate.
Agile Crash Course
Get Agile Crash Course by Udemy on project management and agile delivery. They will help you become an Agile certified professional and teach you the essential concepts, along with tools for Scrum and other Agile methodologies. At the end of the course, you will differentiate between traditional and Agile product delivery, process, and guidelines to follow, and how to focus on Minimum Viable Product (MVP). They will teach you the real meaning of end-user stories, retrospectives, daily stand-ups, along Kanban dashboards. It will help you launch your products and online courses with better speed. On successful completion of the course, you will get a certification from Udemy. To start the course, you don’t need to possess any prior knowledge or experience in Agile software development. The course is pretty affordable.
Certified Scrum Master
Another resource in the list by Edureka is the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Training. It provides you with a comprehensive understanding of the Scrum framework in Agile project management. This training will help you be a certified ScrumMaster. They will teach you the Scrum basics along with its lifecycle, organize a team effectively, set up your projects, and implement Scrum from sprints and release to enterprise transformation. It will be a 2-day classroom training that can open new and exciting career opportunities for you. The course includes three complementary courses, as well:
Cloud fundamentalsSix Sigma Green Belt Certification TrainingMicrosoft project training
If you take CSM, the exam fee is included, and you get Scrum Alliance’s 2-year membership.
Software Development
Learn the best practices in an Agile framework and create better products efficiently and faster by enrolling in Udacity’s Agile Software Development Nanodegree Program. This course’s estimated time is 3 months, 5-10 hours per week. If you want to get started, you need no prior experience for that. Here, you will learn how to create value-driven products through an Agile approach in Software development. They will teach you the difference between Scrum, XP, and Kanban while creating an environment to promote productive teams and iteration management. Apart from that, you will learn how to progress and organize projects and conduct effective team communications. The program includes real-world projects under the supervision of industry experts and guided technical mentoring. You can access resume support, reviews for Github portfolio, and LinkedIn profile that will help advance your professional career and get a high-paying job.
Project Management
The Agile Project Management (APM) certification by edX is another one you can give your serious thoughts to. Here, you will learn the Scrum mechanics, plus how to translate Agile frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, and Disciplined. You will gain a deep insight into Agile principles and their application in any industry easily, be it software, finance, construction, or aerospace. Teaching you how to adopt Agile controls in your projects will help you reduce the risks associated with project failure. Apart from that, you will increase delivery speed via Lean work management methods and can improve projects with a leadership approach and innovation, unlocking your full team potential. This certification process will be under five skill-building courses under expert instruction and take 5 months for completion. An exciting thing about their course is you can try it before you make the payment. The course fee is $905.
Whizlabs
Whizlabs provides a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner course (PMI-ACP). This course is one of the most popular and fastest certifications for Agile project management. Here, they will teach and validate your knowledge and assess your expertise in Scrum and other Agile methodologies such as Kanban, Lean, and XP. The course prepares professionals for the PMI-ACP exam, and its materials are in-line with the Agile Practice Guide of PMI. There are also three things Whizlabs offers:
Free online test, 120 questions with reportsExam simulator, 600 questions with reportsSelf-study training, 6+ hours, 600 questions with reports
The course materials of Whizlabs are updated and verified by experts and promote focused training with an effective course curriculum in addition to practicing questions. You are free to choose how you want to learn, either in practice mode or exam mode, and start the test or course whenever you wish.
Scrum.org
Professional Scrum experts instruct the training classes by Scrum.org to facilitate experimental learning, exercises, discussions and real-world examples, and group activities based on Scrum competencies. They have trained 239k+ students worldwide and bring up-to-date materials to align with the latest Agile practices. Here, you will understand the importance of adaptation, inspection, and quick feedback cycles. The new thing – you can attempt a certification assessment just within 14-days, but in case you fail to score 85% or above, you will have to appear for the second attempt with no extra charges. Scrum.org provides certifications for:
Professional Scrum Foundations: It is a two-day course where you will learn how to deliver a product utilizing Scrum. You will encounter simulation for real-life problems, work in Sprints, break into a Team, and learn how to fulfill your assigned role.Professional Scrum Master: This two-day course teaches you to use Scrum effectively to optimize the productivity, cost, and value of the product ownerships. You will be given tools to align with behavioral shifts, collaborate with teams and members, facilitate and guide methods.Professional Scrum Master II: This is the advanced Scrum master course Scrum Masters can avail for two days and learn how to face the changes during Agile software development and implement Scrum value and principles to solve them.Professional Scrum Product Owner: The two-day course teaches Product managers, owners, and other responsible professionals to maximize product and system value through instructional and team-based exercises.Professional Scrum Product Owner – Advanced: The 2-day course helps experienced Agile practitioners to expand their abilities and establish a firm vision, validate hypotheses, and deliver maximum value.Professional Scrum Developer: The three-day course teaches team members to create high-quality software utilizing Scrum, and work in Sprints, promote collaboration, apply the latest engineering practices.Scaled Professional Scrum with Nexus: The two-day course helps professionals build products and scale delivery using Scrum through hands-on case studies on the Nexus framework plus more than 50 practices that reduce dependencies.Professional Agile Leadership Essentials: The two-day workshop uses instructions and exercises to help business leaders and managers work with Agile software development teams directly and how-to guide, support, and coach them for better productivity.Professional Scrum with Kanban: It’s a two-day course that Scrum practitioners can take-up to understand the application of Kanban practices without modifying Scrum through case studies, theories, and exercises.Professional Scrum with User Experience: The 2-day courses teach experienced professionals to integrate modern user experience practices into the Scrum framework effectively.
Google Digital Garage
Learn Agile software development principles and discover how to plan sprints, create retrospectives, hold daily meetings, and build feedback cycles with Google Digital Garage. This is a 15-hour course divided into 3 modules, requires intermediate subject knowledge, and is completely FREE of cost. You can learn the skills with short video tutorials and test your understanding with activities and quizzes. Besides, you can also track progress all by yourself through the page: My Learning Plan.
Agile Development
With the Agile Development Specialization course by Coursera, you can deliver value using Agile methods. This course is offered by none other than the University of Virginia, and you can enroll in it for FREE. Here, you will learn to determine what will be valuable to users in the early stage of the project by creating strong shared perspectives and testable narratives. They will teach you how to implement test-driven and result-driven agile approaches. Apart from that, you will learn how to focus and charter on analytics to improve core objectives, and find the right agile practice and test it. Coursera will help you gain skills like hypothesis-driven development, lean start-up, UX design, agile user stories, and design thinking. The course will take 4 months to complete and is helpful if you have some software development familiarity; however, it will not be required.
The Epic Guide to Agile
It will help you discover anecdotes and examples to solve issues, effective ways to implement Scrum and Agile, plan sprint sessions, test, control techniques, and tricks to accelerate production.
The Agile Coach
The Agile Coach is a comprehensive guide by Atlassian to Agile software development. It covers almost everything you need to know about Agile. It guides you with the meaning of Agile and compares it with the Waterfall approach to understanding why Agile was created in the first place. Next, you will read about the benefits of choosing Agile in your software development and its relevance in the present and future. You can also cover topics like Agile manifesto and different Agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Agile project management, product management, Agile at scale, and others.
Conclusion
I hope you find the information on Agile software development along with its frameworks and benefits useful. As we witness high adoption of Agile in the market, there can’t be a better time than now to take up a course on it and expand your knowledge. It will also help you land high-paying jobs, or if you are an experienced professional, you can manage your team better and drive productivity. Along with Agile, you should also check out learning cloud computing resources.
