Friday, November 29, 2024

Primavera P6 – Scheduling and Tracking A Level of Effort (LOE) Activity


Here’s is to the Engineers, brave and bold,

Here’s to the Planners, wise and old.

Here’s to the Architects, strong and proud,

Here’s to the Developers, good and loud.

Here’s to the Entrepreneurs, taking the risks,

Here’s to the Managers, making it tick.


The above one is a paraphrased poem, initially written by Todd Rundgren, as per the web (internet). I really liked the poem and used it in the context of real engineers, entrepreneurs, managers and others, who use a wide array of tools, frameworks, and concepts such as Level of Effort (LOE) activity. 

I wrote about the LOE activity earlier and informed how it’s planned. This raised some questions related to scheduling and tracking LOE activities, which some engineers and managers find difficult to use. In this post, we will check the scheduling and tracking aspect of LOE activities.

It’s a good time to remind you that the LOE activity is not like Task or Resource Dependent Activities

Planned LOE Activity

Below is the plan for the LOE activity. It’s a simple plan with few activities so that your understanding is easier. (Click on the image to enlarge)

As shown above, we have the following:

  • Two milestones – Start and Finish Milestones
  • Activity A – Duration of 5 days
  • LOE Activity – Duration of 5 days
  • The LOE Activity is hanging between the Start and Finish milestones. 

However, note that for the LOE Activity, the predecessor setting should include the Activity A, not just the Finish milestone. 

This also has been scheduled by going to Tools > Schedule … command in the menu. 

Enter the Data and Track

Next, we enter the data. Let’s say our status date is 2 days into the plan, i.e., 06-Oct-27. When I do that, we will have the following view.  

The Progress Spotlight can be seen by setting the Data Date using the Update Progress… command from the Tools toolbar. 

On this Data Date (06-Oct-27), we have the following updates:

  • Start milestone is 100% complete.
  • Activity A is 50% complete, with 3 days remaining.
  • LOE Activity is 50% complete, with 3 days remaining.
  • Finish milestone is yet to start.

This is shown below. 

As you can see the LOE Activity is 50% Complete, but the Schedule % Complete is 0%. This is because we have not scheduled. 

Schedule to Check the Progress

Next, we are going to schedule by going to Schedule … command from the Tools toolbar. 

As we schedule, we will get the update on the already entered data. The Schedule % Complete will be different from the Activity % Complete. The latter is dependent on the Duration % Complete, which has been set for all the activities. 

Below is the view for our schedule plan.  

As shown above, for the LOE Activity:

  • The Schedule % Complete is 40%, which is correct because 2 days have gone as on the Data Date.
  • The Activity % Complete is 50%, which is also correct as it maps to the Duration % Complete.

In addition, there are two important parts in the graphical side of the Gantt Chart. On the Tracked LOE Activity:

  • Left part of the activity is blue color coded.
  • Right part of the Activity bar is green color coded.

You can visualize this by double-clicking and enlarging the above image.

Video Demonstration

The below video [Duration: 4m, 32s] explains the above steps briefly and demonstrate the usage of a LOE activity. You can go full screen HD and plug-in your earphones for better experience. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wZwwsPShIo

Conclusion

It’s not that complicated to understand LOE activities. As noted earlier, these activities are quite useful when you go for the project management plan. Specifically, for management related work, you can have the LOE activity.  

Not all project-portfolio management software tools provide this capability, but Primavera P6 does. So, make good use of it.


References

[1] Article: Level of Effort Activity in Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Article: Primavera P6 – Understanding Various Activity Types, by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Course: Practical RMP with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis, by Satya Narayan Dash

[4] Course: Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash


Sunday, November 24, 2024

Level of Effort (LOE) Activity in Primavera P6


The Level of effort (LOE) is one of the activity types in Primavera P6. As noted in the earlier post, it is dependent on its predecessors and/or successors. It can be used in certain scenarios. In this article, we will explore this type of activity hands-on with Primavera P6, compare with the Hammock Activity and conclude with some key points.  

Definition

As per Primavera P6, a Level of Effort activity can be defined as follows:

“If activity's duration is dependent on its predecessor and/or successor activities, then you can indicate that activity to be a Level of Effort activity.”

Re-read the previous line. It may not be a single predecessor and/or successor, but multiple predecessors and/or successors.

We go for LOE activities when we have on-going tasks, which depends on other activities

Now, let’s take an example for the creation of Level of Effort activity. 

Create the LOE Activity

To create a LOE activity, add an activity with Activity Type as “Level of Effort”. This is shown below. 

As shown above, we have created an activity:

  • Name = Management Work
  • Activity Type = Level of Effort
  • Duration = 5 days (default)

Set the Bar Style(s)

As you’d have noticed in the graphical side, we don’t have a visualization for the LOE activity. It’s empty. To visualize, we have to set the bar styles. This can be done by going to View menu > Bars command or Layout toolbars > Bars command. You can also put your cursor in the graphical side of the Gantt Chart, right click and choose Bars command.

As shown, we have set the bar for the LOE activity. Do note that there are two bars for LOE activities. 

  • Remaining Level of Effort
  • Actual Level of Effort

Both should be enabled if you want to track both the planned and actual data related to LOE activities. And all conditions, as shown above, should be properly set. Now it’ll be visible in the graphical side of the Gantt Chart. This is shown below.


Set the Predecessor(s) and Successor(s)

Next, we have to set the predecessor(s) and successor(s) of this activity. Our management work will span across the entire project. Hence, in our case:

  • Predecessor is the Start Milestone
  • Successor is the Finish Milestone

After you set the milestones, the LOE activity will look as follows.

As can be seen above, the LOE activity is now scheduled between the Start and Finish milestones. Like a Hammock, it looks to be handing between two milestone activities. The LOE activity has:

  • A Start-to-Start (SS) relationship with the Start Milestone
  • A Finish-to-Finish (FF) relationship with the Finish Milestone

Next, as you schedule with the Primavera P6 software, our LOE activity hangs between these milestones and spans across the entire project. Do note that a LOE activity is similar to Hammock Activity, but not exactly the same. 

Key Points to Note

Following are the key points to note when you go for LOE activities.

  • It’s used for on-going tasks such as project management, shift monitoring work, work related to security guards etc. 
  • While going for Resource Leveling, the LOE activities are not included!
  • Unlike Hammock Activities, the LOE activities use its assigned calendars to summarize the dates.

Conclusion

Specifically, in a project management plan, I'd recommend using the LOE activities for the project management work. Because a PM may not be working on a plan for the entire day, but will be working a few hours on each project. In such cases, you can assign the PM to the LOE activity at a reduced unit/time.


References

[1] Article: Primavera P6 – Understanding Various Activity Types, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Course: Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash



Thursday, November 21, 2024

Primavera P6 – Understanding Various Activity Types


The Primavera P6 software has a number of activity types considering various aspects of project or project-portfolio management. It covers areas such as milestones, WBS related, level of effort (LOE) and the normal ones. In this article, we will understand the activity types available.

The Fundamentals

Each activity (or task in simple terms) must be assigned an activity type. This is because a plan is basically activity driven and as the plan proceeds, we execute the activities. 

Activity types are important because they will control the duration and dates. Taking some examples: 

  • When you add more resources to an activity, the duration will be reduced. In project management parlance, it’s called crashing
  • When you have different calendar associated with an activity, the activity finish date will be impacted.
  • When you have resources with different calendars, agian the activity's duration and finish dare will be impacted.

Overall Information

There are six types of activities in Primavera P6:

  • Task Dependent activity
  • Resource Dependent activity
  • Start Milestone activity
  • Finish Milestone activity
  • Level of Effort (LOE) activity
  • WBS Summary activity

This can be seen by going to the bottom half of the Activities window > General tab > Activity Type drop-down menu. (click on the images to enlarge) 

As shown, we have a web-based Information Management System project. The default activity type chosen is the Task Dependent activity for the selected activity. Rest of the activity types are also seen in the drop-down list.

This is the default one because when we create and open a new project within the Primavera Enterprise Project Structure (EPS), we need to set the default activity type. This can be done by going to the bottom-half of the Projects window > Default tab > Activity Type drop-down menu.  

Based on this setting, when you create a new activity, that will be seen in the Activities window. 

Next, let’s see these activity types one by one.

Task Dependent Activity

As explained earlier, this is the default activity type in Primavera P6. 

In this activity, when you assign resources, the scheduling engine of Primavera does NOT consider the resource calendars. Rather, it considers the activity calendar. 

For example: A resource is assigned to work on an activity. The resource calendar informs that the assigned resource will not be available on the coming Monday, but the activity calendar (separate one) informs of no holiday on Monday. 

This activity calendar will override the resource calendar. The duration of the activity will be determined by the activity calendar.   

Resource Dependent Activity

This, in a way, is the opposite of the Task Dependent activity. In this case, the resource calendar will be the driver of the activity. 

Here, the resources assigned to an activity will be scheduled on the resources’ calendars, not the activity’s calendar. 

Start Milestone Activity

Milestone, in formal project management terms, is a significant event in a project, program or portfolio. It’s not considered to be an activity. It's of zero duration. 

However, Primavera 6 software considers Start Milestone as an activity with zero duration. You can also call it a “Zero Duration Activity". As the duration is zero, there is no impact of resource assignment on this activity. However, you can have expenses associated with it!

Finish Milestone Activity

Like the Start Milestone, Primavera 6 also considers Finish Milestone as an activity with zero duration. As the duration is zero, there is no impact of resource assignment on this activity. Here too, you can have expenses associated.

The figure shows both Start and Finish milestones for the Information Management System project.  

As you can see in the “Start” and “Finish” column of the table in the left-side:

  • The Start Milestone has the Start date set, not the Finish date.
  • The Finish Milestone has the Finish date set, not the Start date.
  • Both are of zero days duration. 

Level of Effort (LOE) Activity

This is an activity type that confuses many. But it’s actually simple. It’s like a hammock activity, but not exactly the same.  

The LOE activity’s duration is dependent on its predecessors and/or successors. In fact, it's linked to them, but its behavior is based on the predecessor and/or successor activities. Do note that while leveling resources, these activities are ignored.

The below figure shows a LOE activity associated with Management Work. 


WBS Summary Activity

This is another one which is considered to be complicated, but it’s not. To use this activity, you need to understand the basics of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

As the name tells, the WBS Summary Activity summarizes at a WBS level. One example is shown below. 

As shown above, under the Requirements and Analysis phase (WBS level is WEB 2.5.2), we have added a WBS Summary Activity:

  • Summarizes the activities of the Requirements and Analysis Phases WBS and its elements.
  • Has the same Start and Finish dates.
  • Has the same duration.

This can be reconfirmed with the following view, where I’ve added:

  • WBS Name, and
  • WBS 


As shown the WBS activity summarizes all elements at a WBS level, which is WEB 2.5.2.

Video Demonstration: P6 Activity Types  

The below video explains various activity types used in Primavera P6. The duration is around 5 minutes [5m:40s]. Put your earphones and go full HD in order to have a better experience. 

In Summary 

When you go for scheduling with Primavera P6, you’ll find various types of activities. They are complex, or even complicated. However, you need to have the right material and proper content to understand and visualize them practically.

When you understand the activity types, you can effectively apply them into your project management plan.

References

[1] Article: WBS Level – 0 (L0) Vs. Level – 1 (L1) with Oracle Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Course: Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Article: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Traditional and Agile Life Cycles with MS Project,  by Satya Narayan Dash

[4] Article: Level of Effort Activity in Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash



Thursday, November 14, 2024

Management Yogi's Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Certification: 15 Free Questions and Answers (Part - 2)


This is in continuation of the earlier series of questions for Management Yogi's Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) certification exam. 

I'll definitely suggest that you take both the question parts together, when you attempt the questions. This way you will have continuation in your learning and get a better understanding on what kind of questions may come in your CIPSA exam. 

Also, as mentioned in the previous series, to answer these questions, you need to have: 
  • Solid understanding of Scaled Agile Management practices scaling both team-level Scrum and team-level Kanban. 
  • Excellent grasp of the CIPSA framework,  because the CIPSA certification course follows this framework. 
  • Sound understanding on MS Project Scaled Agile features
  • Good understanding of traditional (waterfall), team-level Scrum and team-level Kanban management.
  • Critical thinking, logical reasoning, and ability to think out of the box. 


These questions are taken from the course: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA)  

Again, I hope you enjoy doing these questions and it helps in your preparation for the CIPSA exam.


[This series - Part - 1]


*********

Question – 9: A new Principal Scrum Master has joined your CIPSA team. She is a good performer and learning quickly on the job, but new to the CIPSA framework. A number of activities are conducted by her and you’re guiding her as a CIPSA certified professional. But which one of the following you’d advise her not to do?

A Improve the effectiveness of the Scaled Scrum such as higher quality, lesser number of bugs and lower cost.
B Take the customer feedback, assess them, and when needed, adjust the Product Backlog.
C Ensure cross-team collaboration and communication.
D Facilitate the removal of impediments, mitigation of risks and resolution of issues, with focus on cross-team dependencies.


Question – 10: As the Chief Product Owner (CPO) first presented the Product Backlog and Product Goal, the CIPSA Scrum Team has decided on the product backlog items to be taken-up for the upcoming Sprint. Then the individual Scrum teams took the backlog items and broke them down into individual tasks. Next the team proceeded with the execution of those tasks. Which important step did the CIPSA Scrum team miss?
A The team did not check if the Product Goal is achievable. 
B The team has not refined the cross-team backlog refinement.
C The team did not build the CIPSA Sprint Goal 
D The team missed to validate the Product Goal


Question – 11: For a networking project, a CIPSA Scrum team is going with the first meta-event. They have taken the high-ordered requirements and decided which of these requirements can be fulfilled in the upcoming iteration. The initial set of the dependencies are also noted. As the team closes this event, what are the likely outputs?

A Product backlog with a product goal
B An integrated increment that can be demonstrated 
C Individual Team Sprint Goals with Team Sprint Backlogs
D CIPSA Sprint goal with a CIPSA Sprint Backlog
 

Question – 12: For an ongoing Scaled Scrum project, the CIPSA team has completed a number of backlog items taken from the Product Backlog. As another Sprint approaches, one of the Team Product Owners disagrees with having another CIPSA Sprint Goal and says not to have more such goals. How many CIPSA Sprint Goals can be there?
A Three 
B Not more than five
C As many CIPSA Sprint Backlogs
D As many backlog items taken


Question – 13: Your Scaled Scrum project is in Sprint 5, you have prepared the Product Backlog, CIPSA Sprint 5 Backlog and Team Sprint 5 Backlog for all the Scrum teams. Now you want to visualize these goals in the cards of the Scrum Board. Current Cards are showing these fields.

Which field can be added into the cards to see these goals?

A Product Goal field
B Goal field
C Notes field
D Sprint field


Question – 14: Who is accountable for the items which will give the highest return on investment (ROI) when the Product Backlog is cross-team refined?

A CIPSA Team
B Principal Flow Master
C Chief Product Owner 
D Individual Team Product Owner


Question – 15: For a Scaled Scrum project, the Task Burndown Chart for the entire CIPSA team is shown below. Based on it, what can be correctly said about the progress?


A The CIPSA team is well ahead of schedule and likely to complete all the work items
B Few individual Scrum teams within the CIPSA team are not performing
C The CIPSA team is behind schedule and may miss some of the tasks at the end of the Sprint
D Sufficient planning has not taken place for the CIPSA team




*********

The question set is available in the embedded document below. The answers are also part of this document.

For all answers, subscribe to this site and send a mail (from your GMail id) to managementyogi@gmail.com.




Monday, November 11, 2024

Management Yogi's Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Certification: 15 Free Questions and Answers (Part - 1)

 

The 
Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) certification is a unique and powerful certification. With this certification, you'll learn scaling multiple Scrum or Kanban teams. It's hands-on and practical. 

It uses the latest release of MS Project software (MS Project Online Desktop Client) and is prepared with the inputs, feedback and suggestions from Scaled Agile practitioners



These questions are taken from the course: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA)

As noted earlier, the course is prepared with feedback from many Scaled Agile practitioners, around the world. Many have informed that the CIPSA certification course is comprehensive and very diffierent from other Scaled Agile certifications.

To answer these questions, you need to have:
  • Solid understanding of Scaled Agile Management practices scaling both team-level Scrum and team-level Kanban. 
  • Excellent grasp of the CIPSA framework. The CIPSA certification course follows this framework. Practical, hands-on applicability is almost always overlooked in certification courses. In that sense, the CIPSA certification is radically different. 
  • Sound understanding on MS Project Scaled Agile features. Other software tools can also be used as the fundamentals remain the same. As you proceed with the course, you'll have mastery over such Scaled Agile features.
  • Good understanding of traditional (waterfall), team-level Scrum and team-level Kanban management.
  • Critical thinking, logical reasoning, ability to think out of the box and also answering questions with speed and accuracy.  
This first series has 8 questions and answers. The next part has another set of 7 questions with answers.

I hope you enjoy doing these questions and it helps in your preparation for the CIPSA certification exam.



*********

Question – 1: You’ve been planning for the Sprints for the individual Scrum teams and the CIPSA Team as a  whole. The Sprint length has been kept at two weeks for all. However, one of the teams wants only its Sprint length to three weeks. What should you do?
A Change the specific Scrum team’s Sprint length to 3 weeks.
B Modify all Scrum teams Sprint length to 3 weeks.
C Inform that in the CIPSA Framework, the Sprints are synchronized.
D Inform that it’s not possible with MS Project Agile software.


Question – 2: In your CIPSA Scrum Team, there are five individual Scrum teams – Scrum Team A, B, C, D and E. You, the Principal Scrum Master, is now checking the progress with the individual Scrum Master of Team A with the help of Team A Sprint Planning Board, which is shown below. The Team Scrum Master being new is unable to know what the No Sprint column is empty. 

What should be your explanation? (click on the image to expand)


A There are not sufficient items in the Product Backlog.
B Some of the items are not properly refined.
C All items for all Sprints, i.e., Sprint 1, Sprint 2 and Sprint 3 for Team A, are associated.
D The board view is incorrect and No Sprint column should not be there.


Question – 3: For a Scaled Kanban project, you have scaled the Kanban teams who will work their respective work items. Next, you applied the Team Group Task filter and chose the condition of ‘All Teams’. This is shown below. What work items will be shown in the view when it’s applied? Choose the MOST correct answer.


A All Teams’ work items, i.e., work items from Team A, Team B and Team C.
B Only the work items associated with All Teams, but not from some teams.
C The work items associated with the ‘All Teams’ field.
D Some of the work items from the CIPSA team.


Question – 4:  In individual Team Sprint Planning events for the CIPSA team, the Scrum Teams took the backlog items and broke them down to individual tasks and added the team-level events. The resources were identified, who will be working on the tasks.  What should happen next?
A Conduct the Team Daily Scrums
B Go for Team Daily Scrums, followed with CIPSA Daily Scrum 
C Go for CIPSA Daily Scrum, followed with Team Daily Scrums
D Proceed to the CIPSA Sprint Review 


Question – 5: For the CIPSA team, the Scrum Board is shown below. What should you do to visualize only the items applicable to the entire CIPSA Team? (click on the image to expand)


A Use the Sprint Planning filter to get the items
B Apply the CIPSA Planning filter
C Search the CIPSA related items with the filter icon in the board
D Switch to the Sprint Planning Sheet view


Question – 6: Your Scaled Scrum team is building a large-language model (LLM), which is deployed to check anomalies in patient data in big hospitals. While doing so, the CIPSA Scrum Team is giving integrated increments in every Sprint. The CIPSA Integrated Increment is:
A Sum of all integrated work completed by all the individual Scrum teams
B Combination of work delivered by the key Scrum Teams
C Used directly in the CIPSA Sprint Review meta-event
D Built by developers and designed by the Chief Product Owner 


Question – 7: There are multiple key artifacts in the CIPSA framework. Which one of the following helps a CIPSA team to move closer to the Product Goal? 
A Product Backlog
B CIPSA Backlog 
C CIPSA Backlog and Team Backlog 
D CIPSA Integrated Increment 


Question – 8: A three-team (Team A, Team B and Team C) Scaled Kanban project has the below Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD). This shows the Actual Tasks for each Kanban team. What can be correctly said about work in progress (WIP) with respect to the individual Kanban teams from this integrated CIPSA team report?


A This chart cannot show the work in progress for any team
B There are 5 items in progress as of 16th of October 
C In the beginning there are 45 work items in progress
D Cannot be conclusively said


*********


The question set is available in the embedded document below. The answers are also part of this document.

For all answers, subscribe to this site and send a mail (from your GMail id) to managementyogi@gmail.com.




Friday, November 08, 2024

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – ManagementYogi’s Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Online Course

  



This is in continuation of the following post:

Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Online Course

There are a number of questions raised by Scaled Agile practitioners on the new Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Online Course, from ManagementYogi. Here, I’ve tried to address as many top and important questions as I can. 

If you have any other questions, please send a mail to managementyogi@gmail.com

--

Question – 1: What are the applicability and validity of this course?

Answer: This course has a duration of 3 or 6 months, from the date of purchase. The price of the course is $119 USD (or Rs 9,549) for 3 months access and $219 USD (or Rs 17,549) for 6 months access. 

This is one of the lowest priced Scaled Agile certification courses in the world. You can make your search. And the course comes with high quality. 

This course also comes with a full money-back guarantee, without any tricky terms and conditions (T&C). These T&Cs are mostly useless to you.


Question – 2: What is full money-back guarantee for the CIPSA certification course?

Answer: The premise is simple for the full money-back guarantee.

You have six (or three) months and two attempts, both free of cost, to clear the CIPSA exam. Give the exam and clear the exam. Be a CIPSA. You WIN. 

If you can’t, I’ll refund your full money. You still WIN because you’ve the entire content free of cost for 6 (or 3) months! This is another WIN for you. 

It's also not mandatory to give the exam. But it's a good idea to give it. 

In effect, the guarantee is for the entire course duration. You've literally nothing to lose with the CIPSA course, but only to gain.

Full Money-Back Guarantee Video (No T&C!): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoBd-vHOlR8


Question – 3: What is the total duration of the CIPSA course?

Answer: The course is over 11 hours of video duration. The course is primarily in video format. It also has a number of .MPP files and quizzes. It has been divided into 11 (+1) individual lessons. In total, there are 153 videos and 82 exercise files.

Considering all the files and one full length Q&A set, the duration will be over 20 hours.  You can complete in 6 or 3 months with your own revisions and practices.

For more details: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Online Course


Question – 4: What is the certification offered by the CIPSA course?

Answer: This course comes with an end-exam with a set of 40 questions, which covers both theory and practical areas of Scaled Agile Management. To clear the CIPSA exam, you need at least an 80% score. Questions’ standard will be high and high-quality. Most of the questions will be real-world scenario driven.

The exam will be online and your score will be shown to you immediately. The detailed answers (both correct and incorrect) will be also be available to you.

With completion of the course and clearing of the end course exam, you will receive the unique and powerful credential: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA).


Question – 5: What are the pre-requisites for this certification course?

Answer: There are two prerequisites for this certification course:

  • Basic understanding of Scrum and Kanban. Basics of Project Management
  • Basic understanding of MS Project with its Agile features

There are no pre-requisites with respect to Scaling in Agile.  You need not have any experience with Scaled Agile. This course covers the CIPSA framework in detail. It also covers the needed team-level Scrum and Kanban, and then goes for full-fledged scaling. 

This course is about Scaled Scrum and Scaled Kanban management. You will learn in-depth what they are about. 

There is also no pre-requisite to learn scaling features of MS Project Agile. You’ll learn with the course.


Question – 6: CIPSA certification uses MS Project Agile software tool. Can any other software tool be used?

Answer: Yes. The fundamental concepts remain the same with respect to the CIPSA framework, which is a very simple framework. Any software which supports Scaling features such as Scrum or Kanban Team Scaling, Scrum Board Scaling, Cross-team Backlog Management, Single or Multi-Sprint or Multi-Release Management, Integrated Burndown/Burnup Charts, Multi-Team Tracking etc. can be used. 

More scaling features: https://www.managementyogi.com/p/certified-in-practical-scaled-agile.html 


Question – 7: Why should I go for the CIPSA certification course? What are the benefits? 

Answer: To know more on the key benefits of this course, you can watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UexaPI20Jhw 

The above video outlines a number of course benefits.


Question – 8: How is it different from other Scaled Agile certifications?

Answer: There are two key areas:

  • Hands-on and practical (70%) with theory (30%)
  • Scales both team-level Scrum and team-level Kanban

Other Scaled Agile certifications do not have these two. Not even a single one of them. They are theory and more theory. And most of them use just one team-level framework, e.g., Scrum, which is unlike CIPSA which uses both Scrum and Kanban.


Question – 9: The CIPSA certification is not very well-known like other Scaled Agile certifications. Why should I go for it?

Answer: Here is a question to you:

Will you prefer a doctor who has a degree in theory but lacks practical experience, or a doctor who is involved in real-time practices and has practical experience?

You know the answer! 

All Scaled Agile certifications (yes, all of them!) are theoretical in nature. You’ll find theory, theory and more theory. The CIPSA certification course, on the other hand, is in-depth, both in theory and practical. You’ll know various aspects of Scaled Scrum or Scaled Kanban management in a practical, hands-on manner. 

For your career prospects and new opportunities imagine telling your prospective employers that you know scaling in a hands-on manner. Not only that, you can demonstrate those aspects to them, too!

In addition, you’re productive in your organization using scaling from the very beginning.


Question – 10: Are there any continuing certification requirements like earning more professional units, or making payments every few years?

Answer: No. There is no renewal fee for this course. There are also no perpetual payment schemes. Also, as noted the CIPSA end course exams (both attempts) are free of cost. 

You will get the credential one-time and it’ll continue to remain valid. 


Question – 11: Are there any PDUs or SEUs offered by this course?

Answer: Yes. You can claim up-to 16 PDUs (in different PDU categories) or SEUs with the completion of this course and earning the Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) credential. You can claim an equivalent number of SEUs as well. These can help you to maintain your other credentials such as PfMP, PMP, RMP, ACP, Scrum Master or Product Owner certifications.


Question - 12: Is there any detailed course index for this course? Not just a few lines, but the entire course index. 

Answer: Yes. You can see the entire course index. To see the complete course content and index, you can refer the below link:

Certified In Practical Scaled Agile with MS Project Online Course 

You can also directly check the content in below link:

Course Content for CIPSA Certification

Note: You can not only check the complete index, you can also check 20 videos before purchasing the course. 


Question - 13: Why I should opt for this online course, instead of classroom Scaled Agile training?

Answer: As a matter of fact, there is no such practical course worldwide, which combines both theory and practical. Hence, no one can provide this training to you.

The other aspect is online learning. Online learning is having the following positive aspects:

  • Convenient - you can learn at your own time at your own pace. You can watch the content as many times as you want. 
  • Longer duration – 3 or 6 months of duration (not just 2 or 4 days of training)
  • Low cost - much lower than classroom training

In fact, most don’t know how to perform Scaling in Agile with a real-world hands-on tool. So again, they can’t provide such training, learning, and certification. 


Question - 14: Why should I go with Management Yogi, compared to others?

Answer: Indeed, there are many providers who provide Scaled Agile certifications and training. Each of them also claims to preparing:

Agilist in Scaling, Master in Scaled Agile, Master in Scaled Scrum and so on. 

But the reality is no one becomes an “Agilist” or a “Master” in anything in just 2- or 4-days of training. 

As you would know, it takes time to learn and get mastery. More importantly, you should have the ability to apply your theoretical understanding with a hands-on, practical tool. Few providers, if at all, can claim to provide that. Many, in fact, don’t know how to do scaling in the real-world.

This course is of long-duration, has needed theory, in-depth and hands-on practical with respect to Scaling. It’s followed by an end-course exam, which thoroughly evaluates your understanding. Hence, with the CIPSA certification, you have a much deeper learning. 


Question - 15: Will there be any support if any questions arise during the learning of CIPSA certification course? 

Answer: Yes, definitely. Please send an email to managementyogi@gmail.com and your questions will be answered within 3 working days or 72 hours. 

You also have a chance to meet me face-to-face on many occasions. In fact, for ManagementYogi’s CHAMP certification, I meet most of the CHAMP aspirants face-to-face and it’s based on their needs. I take and address all their questions.

--

If you have any other questions or clarifications, please send a mail to managementyogi@gmail.com. If this course has those features, I’ll inform you with all the details. If it does not, then also, you will be clearly informed. There won’t be any round-about answers or marketing gimmicks.