APMG Agile Change Agent

Become an agent for change in an Agile environment!

The APMG Agile Change Agent course delivers a practical approach to scope, plan and manage change initiatives, with the emphasis on learning techniques that can be applied to the projects and change initiatives that you are involved in.

Based on the 2nd edition of the successful book “Agile Change Management – a practical framework for successful change planning and implementation” The course leads you through the application of agile planning techniques to create a roadmap that defines what outcomes will be achieved and when these will be implemented. These outcomes are prioritised by the value that they deliver to the business area which is experiencing the change.

During this two-day course you will develop your ability to build trusted, empathetic relationships with those impacted by change, through the application of techniques based on neuroscience and emotional intelligence. The purpose of this training is for you to build your capability, focusing on relevance and usefulness. The course is full of opportunities to 'see, do, learn' so that you gain ability as you practice the content using tools and techniques that you can tailor to your own situation.

During the course you will explore the following core topics:

1. Concepts: these bring together agile principles and change management best practice
2. Roadmap: a simple, effective agile planning technique for defining how and when work will be completed, and benefits will be realized
3. Business Need: a range of techniques to identify the benefits for our change, used to prioritize the work and motivate ourselves and others to adopt the new ways of working
4. Relationship Building: designing your engagement with others including what information you share, how you share it and what opportunities you give to others to make change happen
5. Environment: techniques to create an atmosphere that reassures, encourages and motivates those that have to adopt new ways of working

Concepts - Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Describe what agility means, and how it applies to managing a change initiative
• Understand the origin of the 5 concepts that are the foundation for the agile change approach
• Identify the benefits of collaboration and organise your own approach to achieving it
• Explain the link between on-time delivery and return on investment and appreciate the impact of frequent versions of change on the realization of benefits
• Recognise the importance of the end goal to creating an evolving solution and how an evolving solution reduces risk
• Understand how business need drives what is changed, ensuring the most valuable changes are deployed first

Roadmap - Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Explain the benefits of the roadmap as an agile planning technique and how it can be tailored for use on any type of change initiative
• Define what a good roadmap contains and be able to create your own roadmap, identifying the outcomes for each iteration
• Understand how to break your end goal into outcomes and allocate them to each iteration
• Describe the contribution of each process and how time is used to ensure outcomes are delivered for each iteration
• Apply the definitions that form the MoSCoW prioritization technique and understand how prioritization links to the concept of on-time delivery
• Define the success criteria for iteration 1 and identify the sources of information you will need to complete this iteration for your work
• Create the 5 elements from iteration 1 for your work

Business Need - Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Describe requirements and benefits led change; understand the differences between them and describe the value of a benefits led approach
• Understand the 3 elements of business need and how their importance in ensuring we deliver value to the business areas impacted by our change initiatives
• Appreciate the importance of looking broadly for the business need for your change
• Understand how to communicate the benefits to generate participation in your change
• Identify your stakeholders using the Community Map
• Create your own Benefits Table and use the Benefits Dependency Network to identify the benefits of your change
• Create a User Story and design your prioritized requirements list

Relationship Building - Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Describe the importance of relationship building to the delivery of agile change
• Understand what work you like to do and what work you prefer to avoid and how you like to view situations and how your stakeholders might view the same situation differently
• Appreciate the impact your emotions have on your work and how others perceive you
• Develop and apply emotional resilience throughout your change initiative and be able to demonstrate empathy with those impacted by change
• Create situations where people want to build relationships with you and follow your lead
• Apply a structured approach for building your own network of change agents

Environment - Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Appreciate the link between establishing an environment that supports change and the Change Management Strategy created in Iteration 1 of the roadmap
• Know what questions to ask to work collaboratively with those impacted by change to build a supportive working environment
• Understand the 3 elements that comprise the environment and apply techniques for establishing the level of empowerment that those working on the change have for deciding the content of the change and the schedule and priority of the work
• Create the psychological safety that reassures those impacted by change
• Know how to use techniques for creating resilience and a positive environment for change
• Understand the importance of intrinsic motivation in delivering agile change and use techniques from this course to build this motivation in those impacted by your change

This course assumes no prior knowledge of change management or agile approaches so is suitable for all. The course is suitable for everyone who is involved in creating new ways of working, whatever your previous experience.

Proof of identity:

Delegates must bring signed photo ID APMG examinations (e.g. passport, driving license, student card) as they will be asked by the invigilator to produce it prior to the exam. Delegates must also be familiar with the APMG Terms and Conditions of Certification which can be found on the APMG International website.

Pre-Course Work:

Learners will be provided with a digital copy of the ‘Agile Change Management - 2nd edition’ by Melanie Franklin, and the QA Agile Change Management Pre-Course Study Guide.

In order to get the most out of your learning experience we recommend up to ten hours of preparation using the Pre-Course Study Guide before attending the course.

Target Audience

This course and certification are designed for anyone who has to; plan, manage and participate in creating change at work. The course does not assume any prior knowledge of change management or agile approaches so is suitable for all.

Typical roles include; project, programme and portfolio management roles, business analysts, change leaders, change implementers, change support, change agents, operational line managers and BAU staff.

Day 1

Course Introduction

Concept:

• Understanding agile change
• Agile change management concepts:
  • Collaboration
  • On time delivery
  • Evolving solutions
  • Business need
  • Iterative approach

Roadmap:

• Understanding, developing and using a roadmap
• Dividing the change in iterations
• Applying the roadmap to your change

Business Need:

• Understanding business need
• The three elements of business need
• Developing business understanding
• Community mapping
• Identifying and breaking down benefits

Day 2

Business Need (continued)

Relationship Building

• Understanding yourself
• Personal awareness
• Personal leadership
• Building relationships with others

Environment

• Setting the scene
• What an environment needs to provide

Agile Change Agent Exam:

• 40-minute exam
• 50 questions
• Multiple choice
• Closed book
• 50% pass mark

Certification

Globally recognised qualification from APMG-International, an ISO accredited examining body specialising in qualifications for business professionals.

The Agile Change Agent examination is taken online, the exam is:

• 40 minutes in duration
• Includes 50 simple, multiple-choice questions
• Closed book
• Pass mark: 25 marks out of 50