Agile Learning Development: Wins, Fails & Lessons Learned Brock Vaughn Suzanne Mulder

What size of Agile are you? Suzanne: Explanation: We all are here with varied levels of experience with Agile. One of the hallmarks of Agile is sizing the work correctly. We’ll take a cue from that and size the experience in the room. Grab one of the post-it notes in front of you in the color that represents your experience level. Post it so that your table mates can see where you are in the journey. We’ll ask that you ensure your table is nicely colored – we don’t want an all blue or all yellow table, so if you need to rearrange yourselves please do so. LARGE MEDIUM SMALL

What is Your Experience with Agile? A quick level-setting on Agile Project Management Approach Flexibility Iterative Processes Deliver Minimal Viable Product (MVP) Suzanne: Transition from previous overview of my work at Bloomberg to a brief description of Agile Learning Development. (bullet points). Agile is a project management approach, with a set of values, principles and practices that often associated with software development agile describes a state of flexibility - willingness and ability to change direction quickly – as work is being performed Product development often creates learning needs for employees or customers Conflict has resulted between Agile groups responsible for product development and Waterfall teams responsible for learning solutions

What are some best practices to consider about Agile and Learning? Thinking about the work of Learning: Determining needs and planning Creating Solutions Measuring Outcomes People, Process & Technology Suzanne: There are two main use cases for Agile and Learning Development of learning solutions using Agile methods, especially when a product development team that is driving some change is working Agile Overall operation of your learning team using Agile Brock: It’s time for more discussion. At each table, grab a Post-It Pad and jot your ideas about what you know to have been successful in your learning organization by using Agile. We’ll ask that someone at each table act as facilitator and perhaps one person will volunteer to keep track of the notes. We’ll take about 10 minutes for this exercise. After time is up, have microphone runners circulate and call on tables to share a best practice or two.

What risks might you face with Agile and Learning? Suzanne: It’s time to look at this from another angle. This time, we want to look at some of the pitfalls of Agile and learning. What’s not worked well in your organizations? What risks did you face? How did you mitigate those risks? Brock: Feel free to change facilitators and scribes or keep the ones you had before. We’ll take about 10 minutes for this exercise. After time is up, have microphone runners circulate and call on tables to share a best practice or two. The journey is not always easy.

Questions? Now that we’ve compiled some best practices and pitfalls, let’s prioritized and curate the results. At each table, pick your two best practices and your two pitfalls to avoid and have someone bring them to the front. We’ll review and then curate these to share with conference participants. (alternative, use polls everywhere!)