Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills

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
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 277 Class Central reviews

4.5 rating at edX based on 43 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.
Serena Bonini @serenabonini
5

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

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.
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!
Anonymous

Great course to understand agile methodologies to drive innovation in the team. Very insightful. The videos can be better and more informative.
Maria Labrada
1

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
Daniel Romero A.
2

Excellent 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

Definitely worth while. Offer new perspectives that gave me a better way to handle innovations at work.
Anonymous

The courses was interesting.
I think you must use
simple words to explain
a technical material. In general I learned a lot with this course and I hope will apply this knowledge in the future.
Thank you!
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

Simples, pratico e muito instrutivo. Recomendo não pensava que aprender fosse tão facil.
Achei que fosse mais um curso mais foi surpreendido pela Positiva.
Anonymous

This course has enriched my Agile theory and used practical examples that were powerful tools in demonstrating the theory. I learned a few new models which I cannot wait to use in practice!
Anonymous

This class went over the core methods used for agile methodologies and covered several tools that can be used to resolve conflict. I recommend this course because it provides real-world examples that really drive home the concepts. I also appreciated that the course presented models with multiple different example scenarios so I could better understand the applications.
Tshepo Thlaku

This course has been incredibly engaging and has significantly deepened my understanding of Agile. It offered valuable insights into leveraging Agile for innovation, problem-solving, and risk management. I particularly appreciated exploring the various frameworks presented and analysing the case studies, which were instrumental in clarifying the concepts.
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

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

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.
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.
Venkatesh Ganpatrao Hegde
1

The course has been very useful in setting the tone and mind set for innovative and out of the box thinking required to be a successful leader. A must for every person who aspires to be an effective leader
Skender Dega
1

Excellent. The course is well-designed and has excellent content. The course provides evidence-based approaches to agile project management and demonstrates an awareness of what motivates teams to understand the customer context, perform well, and deliver on time.