Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills

University System of Maryland and University of Maryland, College Park via edX

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Provider

edX
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

$249.00 Certificate Available
Duration & workload

4 weeks, 2-3 hours a week
Sessions

On-Demand
Level

Advanced
Subtitles

English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Portuguese, Swahili, Telugu, Turkish, Chinese

Found in

Part of

Agile Project Management

4.6

Overview

Innovative products and services change lives, and having the right innovative process creates an competitive advantage. Ultimately, innovation is about one thing: problem solving.

As an agile problem solver, you'll need to expand your critical thinking skills to address the key sources of risk in developing best solutions for your new products and business lines. The Problem-solving techniques covered begin with problem definition, beginning with job descriptions and applying the right soft skills to enhance requirements gathering. This ensures you're targeting a good problem to solve, and that you understand the business model. The course then moves on to practices such as "brainstorm and storm drain" to target new creative solutions. You will learn how innovation works on fast feedback cycles to test possible solutions and target root causes of defects. Creative thinking isn't a straight line, and neither should the problem-solving process be a straight line. Each course of action needs early and frequent testing.

Key lessons taught in this course are:

Delivering business value, not technical scope with User Stories
Why innovating is the key to risk management and gaining a competitive advantage
The best innovation process for startups in new markets or disruptive innovations, versus sustaining product and process innovations
How to employ an innovation process that fits your business model and situation
Using Cross-functional teams and user stories to gather accurate requirements
Leveraging constraints to apply tested solutions to new technology and new innovations
Applying Test-Driven Design (TDD) to deliver better designs with less designing

By following best practices of Agile, including timeboxes, constraint-based thinking processes, and empathetic problem solving, you'll learn how to provide a sustainable innovation environment for your teams.

While this course will not make you an agile certified practitioner (PMI-ACP), or certified scrum master (CSM), it offers a more fundamental agile certification based on agile principles and how agile innovation is accomplished in industry today. You'll finish this course more than ready to continue your agile journey, which we hope takes you to the next course in the series on “Agile Leadership Principles and Practices.”

Upon successful completion of this course, learners can earn 10 Professional Development Unit (PDU) credits, which are recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PDU credits are essential to those looking to maintain certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Syllabus

Week 1: The first week of Innovation revisits concepts of capability delivery from technical perspective; asking how do we achieve a project's purpose to innovate? What are the risks and methods to be successful in delivering a defined output under uncertain conditions? Here the Theory of Constraints (TOC) is used to target innovation for maximum impact.
Week 2: The second week dives into the requirements gathering and validation process, and the science behind the most powerful requirement tool, a User Story, and how it forms the basis for Test-Drive Development (TDD).
Week 3: The third week looks at how adding constraints to solutioning unleashes creativity, luck, and productivity towards solving hard, uncertain problems.
Week 4: The fourth week culminates with the application of the TOC Thinking Processes, User Stories, and Constraints along with the use of the powerful system engineering solutioning techniques (isolation, absorption, acceleration, etc.) and tools like TRIZ.

Taught by

John Johnson

Reviews

4.5 rating, based on 271 Class Central reviews

4.5 rating at edX based on 38 ratings

Start your review of Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills

Moises Cepeda @Mcepeda

The "Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills" course offered by the University System of Maryland via edX provides a solid foundation in agile principles and innovative problem-solving techniques. The course effectively combines theoretical conc…

The "Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills" course offered by the University System of Maryland via edX provides a solid foundation in agile principles and innovative problem-solving techniques. The course effectively combines theoretical concepts with practical applications, focusing on user stories, test-driven design, and leveraging constraints to foster creativity. The hands-on approach with real-world examples and the integration of tools like TRIZ and the Theory of Constraints enhance the learning experience.

However, the course could benefit from more interactive elements and deeper case studies to further illustrate complex concepts. Overall, it's a valuable resource for those looking to enhance their skills in agile environments and innovation.
Maria Labrada

This course has greatly enhanced my problem-solving skills within an Agile framework, blending theoretical knowledge with practical applications seamlessly. It is well-designed and has excellent content. Helped improve my knowledge in Agile. The videos were short, insightful and engaging. It was then followed up with key notes that were discussed in class. This was very helpful.

Highly recommend
Serena Bonini @serenabonini

I really enjoyed this course. The videos, real-life examples, and test cases were interesting and stimulating. It was interesting to see how different skill sets were pulled into the process of innovation. Overall, it was very enjoyable and informative.
Anonymous

The Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills training went above and beyond what I expected. Through concrete examples and real-world situations John made difficult topics understandable. The course's hands-on methodology, which included interactive exercises enabled me to apply what I had learned from day one. A great learning experience was guaranteed by the thorough materials and good facilitation. I've gained useful agile problem-solving abilities from this training and as a transformational investment in one's future, I wholeheartedly endorse it.
Anonymous

I really enjoyed this course and would recommend. The videos were short, insightful and engaging. It was then followed up with key notes that were discussed in class. This was very helpful. I gained a lot of interesting information that I'm sure will apply at my work.
Anonymous

I enjoyed and learned a lot from this course. I recommend this course to anyone interested in Agile Methodologies and Project Management. I am planning on taking the next two courses to finish my certification in Agile Project Management.
Anonymous

Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills gave me new insights on how to approach limitations and problems. I learned new techniques and perspectives. I feel this will be beneficial to my project work going forward.
Anonymous

I'm very happy to have taken this course! It was a great experience, I had gained an in depth understanding in the subject and I can't wait to to apply those methods in a real project!
Anonymous

Short, straight-to-the-point videos, nice reference materials...got me thinking about doing the courses before and after to address some grey areas
Anonymous

Excellent. The course is well-designed and has excellent content. Perfect course to improve your knowledge in Agile. I gained a lot of interesting and valuable information that I'm sure I will apply at my work. I would highly recommend the five course Agile Project Management program.
Anonymous

I liked this course, well done! Exams were designed well for the structure of the vdeos and summaries were very helpful.
Arkar Htet

The "Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills" course available through the University System of Maryland via edX is a wonderfully crafted online resource. The video lessons are engaging and filled with expert insights that make complex concepts easily understandable. This course has greatly enhanced my problem-solving skills within an Agile framework, blending theoretical knowledge with practical applications seamlessly. The instructors bring a wealth of experience and a clear passion for teaching, which resonates through their enthusiastic delivery. This course has been an excellent tool for me, boosting both my creativity and efficiency in professional settings.
Anonymous

This 4 week course on Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills is full of information with good contents. It started with well defined means of various terms with focus on innovation, how to search solutions against various project uncertainties, how to get closely requirements (i.e. get perspective approach against take perspective approach and most importantly indulge in verbal communication to the extent possible), to know power of constraints and to solve these uncertainties with various well defines means like use of TRIZ and MBSE. At the end, course also covered useful topics that how to lead and control innovation. These have been explained with many case studies.
Dimitar Pavlov Ganchev

I found the course to be very enlightening, all of the lectures had information that could be applied in business, government and even every day personal life decision making. That for me, meant that I have made the right decision to sign up for a verified certificate. The lecturer does e very great job in explaining the material and provides real life examples which makes it easier to understand the subject of the matter. Even if a person does not particularly work in a field directly connected to engineering or project management, I am sure that everybody would be able to gain something from signing up for the course.
Anonymous

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. The real-life examples assisted me in understanding the concepts of Agile and the process of solving problems. I will definitely recommend this to friends.
RAM DHAN R KUMHAR

It is the excellent Couse to understanding the problem and solving it by testing driven development techniques. it improves my skill and knowledge to handle project.
Elvio Paschoal Chufuli Junior

I really appreciate this course ! I can learn a lot about agile methodology ! Now I can use in day and share with knowledge.
Anonymous

Top-tier Agile course! Clear, concise, and practical. Highly recommended for mastering Agile methodologies.
Anonymous

It was nice and i a gree xcellent course!, i'm a systems engineer and it answered the doubts i was having about my startup, its a breath of fresh air about business and project management considerations for those aiming at innovation, it continues a series of other courses focused on agile management concepts relatable to everyone with a business. I highly recommend it to everyone on the startup path.
Anonymous

Well designed course with great content. The course teaches evidence-based approaches to agile project management, and shows an understanding of what drives teams to understand the client context, perform, and deliver with a high success rate. I'm a project manager with an Australian university, and I'm already applying many of the principles and practices to improve our performance in education projects. Well done!