What is Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship?

Plan, run and finish a real project with predictive tools, Scrum and Kanban, and build one complete Project Plan Pack as you learn. By the end you will have a complete, written plan for a real project of your own: its charter, scope, schedule, budget, risks, Agile backlog, communication plan and closing checklist. You will also know how to track that plan, report on it and close the project using predictive, Scrum and Kanban methods.

Open the Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship course page

Beginners who need to organize a real project at work, in a small business, at school or at home: new team leads, coordinators, small business owners, freelancers and career changers. No project experience is needed. This course teaches project management concepts and skills only. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any certifying body, and it does not prepare you for, or promise a pass on, any exam.

These are the prerequisites the course lists:

• None. You do not need any project management experience.
• Comfort with basic arithmetic: adding, multiplying, dividing and averaging.
• A real project you can influence, with a clear end and a few weeks or months of work. It can be small, such as an event, a launch, a move or a website.

These are the tools and materials the course lists:

• A word processor or spreadsheet to build the Project Plan Pack. Free options include LibreOffice, and the free versions of Google Docs and Google Sheets. Check their current features.
• Pen and paper or sticky notes. A Kanban board can be a wall of notes. You can also use a free online board tool, but check its current features and pricing. Nothing in the core lessons requires a paid tool.
• Ten minutes each with two or three people who care about your project, such as a sponsor, a helper or a user, so you can ask them questions.
• A calculator or a spreadsheet for the estimating, schedule and budget calculations.

Your Project Plan Pack: A Full Project Plan for a Real Project. Across the six modules you build one document of 24 pages plus a one-page summary. It is a complete, consistent plan for a real project of your own. It covers how the work starts, what it includes, when it finishes, what it costs, what could go wrong, how the Agile and ongoing parts run, how you report, and how you close. In the last lesson you check the whole Pack for gaps, ask another person to read it, and get the sponsor's approval. The finished deliverables are:

• Pages 1 to 4: your one-sentence project with the fixed, firm and flexible ranking, a one-page charter with an approval line, a stakeholder register, and an approach note
• Pages 5 to 8: a ranked requirements list, a work breakdown structure, work package sheets with yes-or-no acceptance criteria, and a change control rule with a request form and log
• Pages 9 to 12: an activity list with predecessors and estimates, a forward and backward pass table with the critical path, a record of how you made the schedule fit your date, and a milestone list with real dates
• Pages 13 to 16: a bottom-up cost estimate and cost baseline with reserves, a scored risk register, a response plan with a contingency built from expected costs, and a tracking sheet with planned value, earned value and actual cost
• Pages 17 to 20: for the Agile-leaning part, roles and a Product Goal, an ordered product backlog of user stories with Given, When and Then criteria, story point sizes with a Sprint Goal and a Sprint 1 backlog, and a Definition of Done with event times and a burndown table
• Pages 21 to 24: a Kanban board with limits and cycle time numbers, a hybrid table with five rules and an updated approach note, a communication plan with a filled-in status report, and a closure checklist with your consistency checks and the sponsor's approval
• A one-page summary at the front of the Pack

Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship has 24 lessons in 6 modules, a workbook of 10 items and a capstone project. It is planned at about 6 hours in total. The lesson text runs to roughly 17,200 words.

Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship has 6 modules:

• Module 1: Start Right: What a Project Is and How to Begin. Learn what makes something a project, set its boundaries in a one-page charter, list the people who matter, and choose predictive, Agile or mixed ways of working. You also pick the real project you will plan for the whole course.
• Module 2: Define the Work: Requirements, Breakdown, Done and Change. Turn wishes into ranked requirements, split the project into pieces you can manage, say what done means for each piece, and set up a simple way to handle change. These pages fix your scope so that time, money and risk can be planned in the next modules.
• Module 3: Build a Schedule: Sequence, Estimate and Find the Critical Path. Turn your work packages into ordered activities, estimate how long each takes, find the longest chain that sets your finish date, and fix the plan when it does not fit. You end with a schedule baseline that you can defend and track.
• Module 4: Money and Risk: Budget, Reserves, Trouble Plans and Tracking. Price each piece of work, set a budget baseline with honest reserves, list and score what could go wrong, plan responses, and learn a simple way to track cost and schedule while the work runs. Your plan now has a fixed scope, a schedule and a budget.
• Module 5: Agile in Practice: Scrum, Stories and Sprints. Learn the ideas behind Agile and how Scrum organizes work into short cycles. You write user stories, order a product backlog, size the stories, plan a sprint, and learn how to run it and improve after it. You apply all of this to the part of your project that leans Agile.
• Module 6: Bring It Together: Kanban, Hybrid Plans, Reporting and Closing. Learn Kanban for steady flows of work, combine predictive and Agile parts into one hybrid plan, set up communication and a one-page status report, and close a project well. Then assemble your full Project Plan Pack, which is your capstone.

All 24 lesson titles, module by module:

• Module 1: Start Right: What a Project Is and How to Begin. 1.1 What a Project Is, and the Three Limits That Shape It; 1.2 The Project Charter: One Page That Sets the Boundaries; 1.3 Stakeholders: Who Can Help or Hurt Your Project; 1.4 Predictive, Agile or Mixed: Choose How You Will Work.
• Module 2: Define the Work: Requirements, Breakdown, Done and Change. 2.1 Requirements: Turn Wishes Into Needs You Can Check and Rank; 2.2 The Work Breakdown Structure: Split the Project Into Pieces You Can Manage; 2.3 Say What Done Means: Acceptance Criteria and the Work Package Sheet; 2.4 Change Control: Handle New Requests Without Losing the Plan.
• Module 3: Build a Schedule: Sequence, Estimate and Find the Critical Path. 3.1 Sequence the Work: Activities and Dependencies; 3.2 Estimate How Long Each Activity Takes; 3.3 Find the Critical Path and the Float; 3.4 Make the Schedule Fit the Date, Then Baseline It.
• Module 4: Money and Risk: Budget, Reserves, Trouble Plans and Tracking. 4.1 Estimate Costs and Set the Budget Baseline; 4.2 Find and Score Risks: Build the Risk Register; 4.3 Respond to Risks and Size Your Contingency; 4.4 Track Progress with Planned Value, Earned Value and Actual Cost.
• Module 5: Agile in Practice: Scrum, Stories and Sprints. 5.1 Agile Values and the Scrum Frame at a Glance; 5.2 The Product Backlog and User Stories; 5.3 Size the Stories and Plan a Sprint; 5.4 Run the Sprint and Learn from It.
• Module 6: Bring It Together: Kanban, Hybrid Plans, Reporting and Closing. 6.1 Kanban: Show the Work and Limit What Is in Progress; 6.2 Hybrid Plans: One Frame, Several Ways of Working; 6.3 Communicate: The Plan for Who Hears What and the One-Page Status Report; 6.4 Close the Project and Assemble Your Project Plan Pack.

The course is listed at beginner level and planned at about 6 hours in total. It has 24 lessons, each with objectives you can check yourself against.

Lesson 1 is "What a Project Is, and the Three Limits That Shape It" (Module 1, Start Right: What a Project Is and How to Begin). By the end of it the course says you will be able to:

• Tell a project from routine work
• Name the three limits of a project: scope, time and cost
• Choose your own project and rank the three limits for it

Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship defines 32 terms in plain words: Project, Scope, Triple constraint, Project charter, Sponsor, Stakeholder, Requirement, MoSCoW, Work breakdown structure (WBS), Work package, Acceptance criteria, Baseline, Change request, Dependency, Critical path, Float, Three-point estimate, Contingency reserve, Management reserve, Risk, Expected monetary value (EMV), Earned value, Agile, Scrum, Sprint, Product backlog, User story, Story points, Velocity, Kanban, WIP limit and Cycle time.

ProjectScopeTriple constraintProject charterSponsorStakeholderRequirementMoSCoWWork breakdown structure (WBS)Work packageAcceptance criteriaBaselineChange requestDependencyCritical pathFloatThree-point estimateContingency reserveManagement reserveRiskExpected monetary value (EMV)Earned valueAgileScrumSprintProduct backlogUser storyStory pointsVelocityKanbanWIP limitCycle time

Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship lists 20 official sources that were opened and checked while it was written, from 12 websites.

• scrumguides.org
• agilemanifesto.org
• kanbanguides.org
• agilebusiness.org
• en.wikipedia.org
• projectmanager.com
• galorath.com
• projectengineer.net
• parallelprojecttraining.com
• mountaingoatsoftware.com
• xp123.com
• cucumber.io

Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship costs $39 (USD) as The Codex, the full written course with its workbook and templates. Studio (narrated video lessons) and the Full Operator path are not on sale yet.

How much do courses cost?

Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship was prepared by Apex Flow Labs with AI assistance and checked before it was published. Every code sample, formula and command the course includes was run before it went in, the course records 16 verification checks, and it lists 20 official sources it checked. Do not take the label on trust: open the sources and run the examples yourself.

How Apex Flow Academy checks its courses

Yes for the core lessons, according to the course's own requirements list: "Nothing in the core lessons requires a paid tool." Tool plans and prices change, so check each tool's current terms before you sign up.

Yes. The course lists this prerequisite: "None. You do not need any project management experience." It is listed at beginner level. It also asks for:

• Comfort with basic arithmetic: adding, multiplying, dividing and averaging.
• A real project you can influence, with a clear end and a few weeks or months of work. It can be small, such as an event, a launch, a move or a website.

No. Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship teaches and checks a skill, but it cannot promise an outcome. The course's own disclosure reads: "Created by Apex Flow Academy with AI assistance. For education only; not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Results depend on your effort and circumstances."

Yes. Project Management and Agile: Run Projects That Ship includes a verifiable Certificate of Completion, issued by Apex Flow Academy when you finish every lesson, resolve every quiz question with at least 50% right on the first try, and tick the capstone checklist. It has a unique ID and a public verification page. It is a completion certificate, not a degree, licence, accreditation or exam result. The Full Operator path, with a final exam and capstone review, opens later with its own separate, stronger credential.

Is there a certificate?