Course Overview

Applying Professional Scrum (APS) is a 2-day course that provides the foundational knowledge needed to work with Scrum in a highly practical way. Students experience real-life Scrum while working in teams during a series of Sprints to build a realistic product. They are introduced to the mechanics of Scrum, gaining insights into overcoming complexity, dealing with team collaboration and self-management. It is the perfect choice to introduce, reboot or refresh Scrum in your teams and organizations and can be taught either as a public or as a private course for teams within a company.

Course Objectives

What You Will Learn

Students self-organize in Scrum Teams at the beginning of the course and are presented with a real-life case study. During the course, they practice the Scrum Framework in multiple realistic Sprints, during which they are gradually introduced to Scrum mechanics, accountabilities, and principles. The trainer acts as a stakeholder by defining requirements before each Sprint and attending Sprint Reviews.

By the end of day 2, teams become familiar with all Scrum elements and rules: they define and enact Scrum accountabilities (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers), work with Scrum artifacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Increment), learn how to fulfill commitments to Scrum artifacts (Product Goal, Sprint Goal and the Definition of Done), run all Scrum events (Sprint Planning, Sprint, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective), practice estimation techniques, refine their backlog, learn about Scrum Values and empiricism, experience common challenges of working in teams, etc. A class retrospective is done after each Sprint to enforce learning objectives. Discussions are encouraged throughout the entire duration of the course.

The course is designed to be industry and domain agnostic and the trainer will select one of several case studies to best meet the specific learning needs of the class.

Downloadable Course Descriptions

Find further info about the course in PDF format at the following links:

• Applying Professional Scrum (APS) 1 Pager
• Applying Professional Scrum (APS) Detailed Description
• Applying Professional Scrum (APS) Official Datasheet

Who Should Attend

Applying Professional Scrum is an excellent foundational course about Scrum for teams and anyone wanting to experience the way of working in Scrum. All team members and stakeholders can benefit from the course since it is aimed at the entire Scrum team and all Scrum accountabilities. It is a perfect introduction for those new to the Scrum Framework. At the same time, it can help you reboot or refresh your Scrum knowledge and gain a better understanding of the practical appliance of Scrum accountabilities, events, artifacts, and rules. When attending the course with your entire team, you can inspect your current Scrum practices and adapt your way of work.

Learning Paths

Explore ways to learn about Scrum. Find info on suggested learning paths for Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Developers, and Agile Leaders. This course provides the foundational knowledge needed for specialized training for Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Developers, and Leaders.

Prerequisites

No particular knowledge is required, although you will make the most out of this course if you study the Scrum Guide in advance (last updated in November 2020).

This is a hands-on course, so please have your own computer at your disposal.

How to Prepare

• Please read the Scrum Guide.
• Please follow these guidelines to prepare for the course.
• You might want to browse our list of suggested resources for Scrum practitioners.
• Familiarize yourself with foundational Scrum subject areas.
• Take the Scrum Open free online assessment.

Public Classes

Public workshops are open to the general public and run when a minimum attendance threshold is met. Because participants come from different organizations, industries, and roles, the discussions might cover a wide range of topics and scenarios. Attendees benefit from seeing how the same workflow patterns apply across different contexts.

No public dates are currently scheduled. Register your interest — new dates are announced once the minimum group size is reached, and registered participants are notified first.

Private Classes

Private delivery is the preferred option when an organization wants to align a team or multiple teams around the same AI-assisted backlog workflow. When participants work together regularly and attend together, they leave with shared vocabulary, shared governance expectations, and a workflow pattern they have already practiced.

The discussion and examples can be tailored to the organization's existing conventions and processes. Private classes are also useful when leadership wants teams to agree on practical AI working agreements before scaling adoption.

What Is Included

Why is this Approach Relevant Now?

AI in software delivery is moving beyond isolated prompts toward reusable, governed workflows: AI that works with real context, follows a defined sequence, pauses for validation, and asks for human approval before changing connected systems. GitHub describes this shift through agentic primitives, context engineering, MCP tool composition, and validation gates.

That shift matters directly for backlog management. Backlog items increasingly become input for AI-assisted delivery, implementation planning, test generation, and pull request creation. Microsoft notes that vague or overly verbose work items can reduce Copilot’s effectiveness.

In other words, backlog quality is affecting AI development readiness.

This workshop helps your team turn backlog management into a repeatable, human-controlled AI-assisted workflow in a concrete Azure DevOps environment.