Are you a professional working in a project management role and curious about Agile Scrum? Or maybe you are already using Agile project management with Scrum training but want to get a refresher or expand your knowledge. Whether you are new to Agile or have been running sprints, Drexel’s Goodwin College of Professional Studies offers paths and courses to get up to speed about Agile Scrum:

• Professional Skill Tracks  – Be prepared for the hybrid job economy that demands professionals to have a blend of technical and essential “soft” skills. PSTs provide you the flexibility to choose a foundational or advanced tracks to advance your career in project management. Visit The Skills Hub for more information>
• Agile Scrum Courses (below) – These two-day workshops are designed for novice to experienced project management professionals who have limited to advanced knowledge and/or experience levels in Agile Scrum

Experience Levels

1. No prior knowledge, some knowledge and/or experience with Agile
   Recommended courses: Agile Team and User Stories
2. Moderate to advanced knowledge and/or experience with Agile 
   Recommended courses: Agile Team and User Stories
3. Moderate to advanced knowledge and/or experience with Agile
   Recommended courses: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Business Analyst and Agile Tester

Drexel's Agile courses are aligned with the goals of the Project Management Institute's Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® credential. By enrolling in these courses, you can prepare for the certification exam and earn the PDUs needed to maintain your status as an Agile pro. Along with the courses listed below, they also offer training in related areas like Lean Six Sigma, information technology and business analysis.

What is Agile? What is Scrum?

According to the State of Agile Survey, approximately 60 percent of projects are Agile—a project management approach based on delivering requirements iteratively and incrementally throughout the life cycle. Scrum is an Agile methodology that includes a simple set of principles and practices that help teams deliver products in short cycles, enabling fast feedback, continual improvement and rapid adaptation to change.

Scrum has the power to transform project management across every industry and every business. By using Scrum, you become more Agile, discovering how to react more quickly and respond more accurately to the inevitable change that is associated with projects.

When companies become Agile, they have a greater chance of project success. If your company is using waterfall and exploring adopting Agile, consider about Agile project management with Scrum training for your employees. Talk to us about getting a complimentary training skills gap analysis and their multiple employee discount.

Agile Scrum Course Offerings

For further details upcoming course dates and information, please contact: goodwin.ce@drexel.edu or call 215.895.2154

Agile Scrum career pathways:

There are many job opportunities for professionals with experience and certification in Agile Scrum. When you start as a Certified Product Owner, Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Developer, you can then move on to Certified Scrum Professional. Once you are that level, you then have teaching and coaching capabilities as a Certified Scrum Trainer, Certified Enterprise Coach or a Certified Team Coach.

Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

Agile processes are focused on the rapid and repeatable delivery of products or projects. Today, more and more companies across industries—including IT, manufacturing, marketing and communications, healthcare, and construction—are implementing Agile methodologies and development practices to help Strengthen project management skills and stay competitive. For Agile to be effective and to maximize business value, they depend on continuous iterative planning and feedback loops—and the Scrum process allows you to do so quickly and effectively.

Traditional waterfall project management assumes you will map everything from the beginning through one streamlined process. Agile reflects the changing nature of requirements and feedback throughout the process of project delivery. It is a methodology where you apply an iterative approach to project management. Instead of delivering a final product to a client at an end deadline, you are constantly consulting with the client and stakeholders throughout smaller deliveries and feedback sessions or “sprints.” Living up to its name, Agile project management allows you to be nimble and responsive to the changing needs of your client and your team.

Scrum is an implementation of the Agile methodology. A Scrum meeting is focused on how you organize team roles, update client feedback and the latest changes in requirements. During this process, teams regroup to make sure the project is on task, on time and on budget. During Scrum meetings, project leaders and teams identify the steps, resources and personnel needed to complete a task.

Why Use Agile Methodology & Scrum Processes?

• Faster results

  Agile allows you faster product releases and ability to adapt to customer response and client feedback. Agile has a greater ability to guarantee project completion on time and on budget. Rather than responding to bulk feedback or a change in client needs by the time of final delivery, Agile helps your team to adapt and deliver throughout the development process.

• Improved teamwork and communication

  The Agile methodology places a value on person-to-person interaction and is dependent on open, regular communication. In an Agile Scrum project, teams come together on a daily basis to work through changes and share updates on each team member’s progress. 

• Risk and waste aversion

  The frequent touch points throughout the Agile Scrum process ensures that client needs, even as they evolve, are met while still ensuring that project team time and resources are optimized. 

FAST FACTS ABOUT AGILE SCRUM

• 71 percent of companies are using Agile Scrum to Strengthen efficiency and increased product-to-market timeframes
• Agile is a methodology and Scrum is a process within Agile
• Agile frameworks help companies accelerate time to market, increase productivity and respond to changes in priorities 
• Agile Scrum is growing beyond IT and taking hold in diverse industries, such as:
  • Manufacturing
  • Media and communications
  • Healthcare
  • Construction and infrastructure

Ready to explore Agile Scrum training?

Drexel’s Goodwin College of Professional Studies offers professional pathways and courses to get up to speed about Agile Scrum. You can take two-day courses, ranging from beginner to advanced levels here on campus. Or, you can explore a professional skill track in Agile project management that includes on-campus courses and online essential skill training through The Skills Hub.

If your company is using waterfall and exploring adopting Agile, consider about Agile project management with Scrum training for your employees. Talk to us about getting a complimentary training skills gap analysis and their multiple employee discount.

Editorial Note: They earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect their editors' opinions or evaluations.

All students participating in a Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degree program must complete a thesis or dissertation proposal for approval by the members of the student's steering committee. The major professor and each of the graduate steering committee members must approve the proposal using the Graduate School's proposal approval form. MS thesis proposals should generally be completed two semesters prior to defense of the thesis; PhD dissertation proposals must be completed to achieve candidacy (in concert or in parallel with the candidacy examination process). Each Department/Program may have requirements that exceed those specified broadly in this policy; however, they must be consistent with the Graduate School's requirements. Departmental requirements beyond the minimum stated here must be specified in writing and submitted to the Graduate School as well as listed in departmental web pages. It is the responsibility of the student to be aware of, and comply with, all Graduate School and Departmental dissertation proposal requirements.

The objectives of this examination are to confirm the student's breadth and depth of knowledge in their chosen field of study as well as the student's understanding of the scientific process. The doctoral candidacy examination should be administered upon completion of the majority of coursework, and successful completion of the exam signifies readiness to undertake the research and dissertation component of the doctoral program. This examination must be taken within three years from the first date of matriculation, and at least one year prior to the dissertation defense.

Upon the recommendation of the appropriate Department Chairperson, the Associate Provost for Instruction and Office of the Graduate School appoints the doctoral candidacy examination committee consisting of the student's major professor, the student's steering committee and an additional faculty member from an appropriate area. Additionally, the Associate Provost for Instruction and Office of the Graduate School appoints a committee chair who is not from the department of the student's degree program. The role of the examination committee chair is to manage the examination, ensure its integrity and represent the interests of the faculty and student.

The examination must have both written and oral components, described below.

Written Examination

The purpose of the written exam is to assess the readiness of the student to move beyond the coursework stage of the doctoral program, into the development of a substantial research project and dissertation. Traditionally, questioning should verify sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge to successfully undertake such research, and then communicate the results in a scholarly manner appropriate to the discipline.

To initiate the examination process, the examining committee shall convene at a planning meeting with the student. During the first part of the planning meeting, the committee determines the form and schedule for the process and establishes the date for the oral component (reported on form 6E). The student is then excused from the meeting and the committee develops and discusses the exam content. There are three alternative forms for the written component, as follows:

• Form 1: Each member of the committee (excluding the chair) submits one distinct question, set of questions, or problem related to the objectives of the exam. The questions are discussed and agreed upon at the planning meeting. The major professor administers the written examination. Typically, each question or set of questions must be completed within a prescribed period of time, not to exceed approximately 8 hours each, with additional time permitted for reasonable breaks, meals, etc.. No more than one question or set of questions should be administered per 24 hours. Upon completion by the student, the examination questions are reviewed and graded by the committee members who prepared them. The committee then collectively reviews the entire examination.

• Form 2: The student prepares a written report on a subject or problem assigned collectively by the examining committee as a whole. The subject or problem must meet the objectives of the examination and its content cannot be directly related to the student's dissertation research topic. The student has approximately one month to develop a thorough understanding of the assigned subject and prepare a written report. The report is reviewed by the committee members and committee chair.

• Form 3: The student prepares and defends a written proposal of future research likely to be carried out during their Ph.D. project. This research prospectus must be presented to the examining committee two weeks prior to the oral candidacy exam and should include preliminary studies supporting the feasibility of the proposed research. The exam will test the candidate's understanding of concepts directly related to his or her immediate area of research, knowledge of prior related research that has been conducted by others, their ability to design and interpret experiments in this area, and capacity to think and write independently and to present work plans orally in a clear and rational manner. The report is reviewed by the committee members and committee chair. Form 3 is available only to doctoral students in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Resources Engineering.

At least 3 business days prior to the oral exam, the major professor shall confirm with the chair of the examining committee that the oral examination should proceed as scheduled. The written exam is thus considered to be "provisionally successful." If the written examination component does not meet the standards established for the candidacy exam, the committee has two options.

1. If the deficiencies are relatively minor, or in the case of Form 1, limited to a minority of the written questions, the oral exam may be postponed by the Office of the Graduate School at the recommendation of the chair of the exam committee. The student may then be provided with an additional time period, the length of which should be determined by the full examination committee in consultation with the chair, to address deficiencies identified in the written examination. This time period should be no less than 8 hours (typically for Form 1), and may extend up to 5 business days for Forms 2 and 3. This action is treated as a suspension and extension of the written exam "in progress," and, if ultimately successful, does not constitute a failure of the entire exam, nor count toward the limited number of attempts prescribed by Graduate School policy below.

2. If the deficiencies are severe, the major professor, in consultation with the examination committee may decide to fail the candidate without performing the oral component. This latter action does constitute a failure of the candidacy exam in its entirety, and does count toward the limited number of attempts prescribed by Graduate School policy below.

Oral Examination

The purpose of the oral examination is to further confirm the fitness of the student to apply the skills and knowledge acquired to date toward a successful and significant research project. The oral examination provides the opportunity for the student to demonstrate their ability to think synthetically and critically in a manner conveying their readiness to commence the dissertation project.

The oral component of the candidacy examination is typically scheduled for a period of approximately two hours, and is broken in to two distinct rounds of questioning. The first round, lasting approximately 60 minutes, consists of questions from each of the members of the examination committee, including the chair should they choose to contribute questions. Time should be shared equitably among the questioners, with interjections or interruptions by other questioners prohibited during the first round. The second round of questions may be more flexibly structured, with broader discussion and interchange among questioners is encouraged.

Any member of the faculty may be a silent observer for the oral component. The candidate may also invite a silent student observer to attend the oral examination. At the completion of the oral examination, the candidate and observers are excused from the room and the examination committee determines whether the student has successfully completed the oral component of the exam and achieved the status of "doctoral candidate." The committee chair has the option to vote. Unanimous agreement is required to pass the student on the first attempt. If less than unanimous agreement is reached, the student is considered to have failed the first candidacy examination. A student who fails the first candidacy exam may request a second exam, which must take place no more than one year from the date of the first examination. The second candidacy examination may, or may not include a new written component, at the discretion of the student's major professor and examination committee, in consultation with the examination chair. At the second exam, the student has passed if there is not more than one negative vote. A student who is determined to have failed the second candidacy examination is terminated from the doctoral program.

Scheduling the Candidacy Exam

To schedule a doctoral candidacy examination, the student should complete the following steps:

1. In consultation with your major professor, complete Form 6B for your Department Chairperson to review, sign, and forward to the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies. Form 6B should be submitted according to the academic year deadlines for defense exams.

2. The Associate Provost for Instruction and Office of the Graduate School will assign a faculty member outside of your degree program to serve as chair of your examination committee. When you receive a copy of Form 6C which officially appoints your examination committee, you must consult with all members of your committee (major professor, steering committee, additional examiner, and defense chair) to arrange a mutually convenient date, time, and location for a planning meeting.

3. You must inform the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies of the agreed upon date, time, and location for your planning meeting at least two weeks in advance of the date. This Office will confirm in Form 6D these arrangements with all concerned individuals.

4. At the planning meeting, your exam chair and the committee complete Form 6E, the committee chair will sign it and return it to the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies, which will distribute copies to you and the committee.

5. If you are using Form 1 of the examination, you and your major professor should arrange for a time and location to administer the questions.

6. The last step is to meet with your committee and complete the oral examination at the designated date. At the end of the oral examination, your committee will ask you and any observers to leave the room while it determines if you have satisfactorily completed the doctoral candidacy examination. You will be invited back to receive the decision of the committee which will also be reported on Form 6F and returned by the exam chair to the Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies.

PMP® exam Preparation is an in-depth, live, virtual course offered by Purdue University Online. This course follows their Project Management Essentials course. Some learners also complete the Agile Certificate Online Course before taking this exam preparation course.

This course offering assumes you qualify to take the PMP exam according to Project Management Institute (PMI) criteria, which includes being an experienced project manager (minimum 36 months of experience leading projects within the past eight years, with a four-year degree).

The PMP exam also requires you to have 35 hours of project management education, which this course fulfills.

You should already be familiar with the content of the PMBOK® Guide before enrolling. If you feel like you need a refresher on the content of the PMBOK® Guide, taking the Project Management Essentials course first is strongly suggested.

Course Overview

PMP exam Preparation is a live, virtual course based on the PMBOK® Guide.

Enrollment includes 90-day access to all of the course material, which is 100% aligned to the Project Management Institute’s PMP® exam Prep content. Purdue also provides complimentary 90-day access to the PMtraining^™ online VCE exam website (a $59 value).

Certification

PMI’s PMP exam consists of 180 multiple-choice, multiple response, matching, hotspot and limited fill-in-the-blank questions. The exam is demanding and learners must engage in independent study following the course to pass.

Only individuals who pass PMI’s PMP exam are officially certified as a Project Management Professional®. A certificate of achievement from Purdue University, however, is awarded to learners who successfully complete the PMP exam prep course.

An exam proctor will begin reading exam instructions approximately 15 minutes before the exam start time. Students must be in the exam room with their exam at this time. If taking the exam on a laptop, it must be booted up and have passed the security check. Hand writers must not have a laptop with them in an exam room, unless otherwise allowed according to the professor’s instructions. A student entering the exam room after the proctor begins reading instructions will not receive additional time for booting up their laptop, passing the security check, and/or reading exam instructions.

When instructed by the proctor, write your exam number on the cover page of your exam, bluebooks, and any scratch paper you turn in as part of your exam. Handwritten exam answers must be written in blue books in blue or black ink. Number the bluebooks you use (1 of 1, 1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc.). Proctors will allow time to read the professor’s instructions. Other than counting the number of pages of the exam, students are not permitted to turn the page of an exam past the instructions page until the proctor instructs them to do so.

When taking a closed-book exam, no books, outlines, book bags, purses, or scratch paper (other than the scratch paper provided) may be at your seat during the exam. These items must be left outside of the exam room or in the front or sides of the exam room. Students may not begin to write anything, including on scratch paper, before the proctor begins a closed-book exam.

Students taking in-class exams are prohibited from having any electronic communication device, other than a laptop as allowed per the professor's instructions, during the exam. Cell phones and smart watches must be turned off during the exam and placed in a bag or backpack. Violations of this rule may be considered an Honor Code violation. A clock in each exam room will be the official timekeeper for the exam.

Non-alcoholic beverages are permitted in exam rooms; however, the container must have a lid.

After the exam instructions have been read and the exam begins, the proctor will remain in the room. Any student who has a question or problem during an exam should see the proctor.

Students may use the restroom or take a break during an exam. However, all exam materials must be left in the exam room and no additional time will be given. Students must sign in and out at the front of the room with the proctor.

As a licensed Professional Engineer, or PE, you can expect many more benefits when compared to other engineers; most employers offer higher salaries and greater opportunities for advancement to PE's. Only PE's can consult in private practice, and seal company documents to be sent to the government. PEs also have more credibility as expert witnesses in court than most engineers.

Steps in obtaining a PE license:

• Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam.
• Graduate with a bachelor's degree from an ABET accredited engineering curriculum (all Engineering curricula at Michigan Tech except Robotics Engineering).
• Gain four years of engineering experience under the supervision of a registered professional engineer.
• Pass the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Exam.

During your senior year you should take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, which is required prior to sitting for the Professional Engineers (PE) Exam. Some requirements vary by state.

Skip to main contentSkip to main navigationSkip to footer content

Despite Agile’s wide adoption, businesses are still struggling to adopt the mindset, structure and practice of the software development approach. Agile Transformation and the Business Agility Institute announced the first Business Agility Report at the Agile 2018 conference in San Diego this week, which found a majority of organizations still rate their business agility maturity as low, and are struggling with culture and processes.  However, despite the challenges, businesses noted they are experiencing tangible benefits from business agility such as speed to market, customer satisfaction, collaboration, and increased employee and customer satisfaction.

The report looked at business agility fluency to understand what organizations are doing and how they are performing, top competencies, lowest competencies, how company size correlates to business agility, and perception of business agility.

Other announcements from the conference included:

Scrum.org latest Scrum training course
Scrum.org announced the Professional Scrum Master II training course at the conference, its latest and more advanced Scrum Master Course. The 2-day course is designed for Scrum Master with at least a year of experience and the understanding how of to use Scrum for value, quality, productivity and user satisfaction.

The course is meant to Strengthen knowledge, skill and ability to support teams with new experiences and capabilities.

“Taking on the role of the Scrum Master is a challenging one,” said Ken Schwaber, Scrum co-creator and Scrum.org founder. “We have spent years training people to become better Scrum Masters, and now it’s time to take what we’ve learned to help them continue improving. They are always inspecting and adapting with Scrum, and Scrum Masters do the same, gaining new techniques, insights and ideas. There is always room to grow as both individuals and Scrum Masters, and it is part of their mission to help them do so successfully.”

CollabNet VersionOne announced 13th annual State of Agile Survey
CollabNet VersionOne is officially opening up withs State of Agile survey, designed to gain insight on agile software development and adoption. The survey will be open until December 1, 2018.

“Technology professionals world round look to the State of Agile Report each year for insights and perspective on software development, methodologies and practices surrounding agile as well as understanding of the challenges faced by organizations,” said Flint Brenton, CEO at CollabNet VersionOne. “This resource adds incredible value to the industry. They invite individuals to share their experiences and by doing so, help contribute to the software development community.”

The Scrum@Scale Guide
Scrum@Scale showcased its guide to transforming every aspect of an organization. Scrum@Scale is a new framework that is meant to scale the core of the originally Scrum framework and extend it to tens of teams, hundreds of teams to even thousands of teams.

“Scrum@Scale is really designed for business agility. It is designed to go across the entire organization. It is the way the venture group I work with builds scaling into their business and into every investment that they work in,” Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, in a video.

Zoho highlights Zoho Sprints
Zoho revealed the latest addition to its platform, Zoho Sprints. This addition is meant to be a agile project management tool for Scrum teams to plan work, track progress and build products.

Features include a backlog, board, epics, timesheets, dashboard, reports, meetings and feed. “Create new sprints and backlog items with a fluid drag-and-drop planning center. Break down the nuances of each user story through epics, estimation points, priority listing, and user assignments. Set durations and timely reminders make releasing after every sprint that much easier,” the company wrote on its website.