Turn needs into a backlog that works.
The Certified Agile Requirements Practitioner track — for Product Owners, Business Analysts, Developers and Testers who live in the Product Backlog. Master user stories, acceptance criteria, story splitting and vertical slicing, prioritisation, refinement, and rock-solid Definitions of Ready and Done.
Writing Powerful Acceptance Criteria
Learn to define exactly when a user story is "done" by writing testable, unambiguous acceptance criteria. Master the Given/When/Then (Gherkin) structure, choose between scenario and rule-based styles, and build a reusable template that ends the "but that's not what I meant" argument.
Writing Effective User Stories
Learn to write user stories that actually work — capturing intent as a placeholder for a conversation, structuring it with role, want and benefit, and checking every story against INVEST. Rewrite messy backlog items into small, valuable, testable stories and build a reusable template that makes the method a reflex.
Vertical Slicing for IT Teams
Learn to split work into thin vertical slices — cuts through UI, business logic and data that a user can actually see and use — instead of horizontal, technical-layer slices that deliver nothing on their own. Make every story a demoable piece of real value.
Splitting Large User Stories
Learn why oversized stories — epics masquerading as stories — create delivery risk, and how to break them into thin, vertical, independently valuable slices. Master the proven splitting patterns and build a reusable Story-Splitting Worksheet with an INVEST re-check.
Product Backlog Management
Master the Product Backlog as an emergent, ordered list — the single source of work for the Scrum Team. Learn the Product Owner's accountability for content and ordering, run a weekly health-check across age, size and clarity, and build a simple scorecard that keeps the backlog usable.
Prioritisation Techniques for Product Backlogs
Move backlog ordering away from "who shouted loudest" and towards value and cost of delay. Learn MoSCoW, the Kano model and Weighted Shortest Job First, and build a scoring sheet that makes your order transparent and defensible.
Epics, Features, Stories & Tasks
Master the backlog hierarchy — Epics, Features, Stories and Tasks — and how each level serves a different planning horizon and audience. Learn to trace a single Epic down to Tasks and back up so progress rolls up honestly, and avoid the over-deep hierarchies and mislabelled items that break the trace.
Building a Powerful Definition of Done
Turn a vague, everyone-means-something-different idea of "done" into a shared, transparent commitment. Learn what the Definition of Done really is in Scrum, what belongs in a strong one, and how to build, enforce and strengthen it as a team.
Building a Definition of Ready
Learn why unclear, oversized stories stall Sprint Planning, and build a lightweight, team-owned Definition of Ready that catches problems in refinement — without turning Ready into a rigid stage-gate that blocks flow.
Backlog Refinement Masterclass
Turn backlog refinement from a dreaded pre-planning marathon into a calm, ongoing activity. Learn a rolling cadence that keeps the top of the backlog Ready, so Sprint Planning is fast and mid-Sprint surprises fade away.