Empowering world-class
digital services teams.

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Our experts teach your team mastery of agile software development within the unique environment of a government context.

How We Help

 

What if my team is interested in agile but doesn't know how to begin?

We cover the core skills needed to launch and execute your first agile sprint in as little as one hour.  We also provide recommendations on projects that may be a good fit for teams who are getting started with agile for the first time.

 

What types of courses do you offer?

We have a wide-range of courses available that cover everything from the essence of agile for executives in as little as an hour all the way through two-day bootcamps for entire teams. Our online courses are arranged by topic and in order of sequence, so you can learn at your own pace or as you need to do deeper dives into particular topics when you're ready.

 

What if we're practicing agile but want to take it to the next level?

Our trainers offer refresher courses that help existing agile teams tighten up their processes and reinforce the basics but we also offer coaching and facilitation to diagnose common agile problems and help teams accelerate their usage of agile.

 

What makes you different than other industry agile training providers?

Our team has a proven track record of delivering high performing products at the highest levels of government--both as former leaders in government and now as expert consultants and trainers.  We combine our unique perspective and experience from our time in government with a wide-array of best practices across other bodies of knowledge to produce what we believe is the best combination of this subject matter for government teams who want to become phenomenal product teams.

Led by Industry Experts

Mix and Match Training Topics

On-site Bootcamps or Virtual Sessions

Public Sector Context and Focus

  • Cindy M.
    Cindy M., Senior Manager for Products and Partnerships, Commercial Client

    Exploring the relationships between the product management roles was extremely helpful!

  • Erik B.
    Erik B., Vice President of Technology and Innovations, Commercial Client

    The emphasis on roadmapping, user stories, and acceptance criteria was well-received and highly valuable information.

  • Rising Senior
    Rising Senior, Computer Science Department, East Central University

    As my very first virtual class, I got to learn how we work on a remote team in the real world job market.

  • Rising Junior
    Rising Junior, Computer Science Department, East Central University

    I think everything was amazingly done, this class was so much fun and informative that I might consider taking some other software development courses in the future.

  • Undergraduate Student
    Undergraduate Student, Computer Science Department, East Central University

    The way of managing a product team and representing the concepts of agile frameworks was really an excellent job done.

  • Undergraduate Student
    Undergraduate Student, Computer Science Department, East Central University

    I really love the emphasis on Sprint Demonstrations to keep everyone engaged.

  • Cindy M.
    Cindy M., Senior Manager for Products and Partnerships, Commercial Client

    Understanding the differences between agile frameworks and how they contrast to the waterfall approach was done really well in a concise but still thorough way.

About Us

Embarking upon a digital transformation journey in government can be daunting, but our curriculum led by industry experts will equip your team with fluency in user centered design, agile software development, and DevSecOps practices -- empowering them as product owners with full command of the skills needed to lead a world-class digital services product team.
  • Rusty D. Pickens

    Rusty D. Pickens

    Founder and Principal Trainer

    About Rusty D. Pickens

    Rusty D. Pickens is the Founder of 580 Strategies, former Senior Advisor for Digital Platforms at the U.S. Department of State, and former Acting Director for New Media Technologies at the White House, where he led teams who operated cloud platforms for the Obama Administration to increase public engagement, improve user experience, enhance staff productivity, and heighten security posture. During this time, Rusty created new systems for and built new teams to lead Whitehouse.gov, the White House email outreach services, the Presidential correspondence system, the We The People petitions system, the White House Appointment Center, and the U.S. Embassy contact management systems.

    Rusty’s two decades of leadership experience aligning organizational vision with technology strategy across top federal agencies and start-up environments included the Federal Salesforce Community of Excellence, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, Obama for America 2008, and the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. He currently advises clients on unlocking the potential of cloud computing and agile software delivery to vastly improve their digital presence and citizen experience.

    EXPERTISE / Executive Digital Strategy and Operations | Organizational Development | Budget/Contract Management | Agile Software Delivery | Infrastructure Architect | Large Scale Cloud Deployments

  • Peter Herr

    Peter Herr

    Product Leader and Agile Delivery Expert

    About Peter Herr

    Product Leader, Agile Delivery Expert, and Consultant. Peter manages complex technology products across healthcare, music, travel, and government for both start-ups and enterprise. Peter is adept at scaling technology products and operations improving both margin and top-line growth.

    EXPERTISE / Product management, agile software delivery, Kanban methods, Salesforce administration, data analytics

    TECHNICAL SKILLS / Python, SQL, Machine Learning (sci-kit learn, Keras, RNNs/CNNs), Natural Language Processing (nltk, gensim, spacy), flask, plotly/Dash, R, Splunk, CSS, XML, Git, Salesforce, Drupal, WordPress, SquareSpace, Agile, Atlassian, Azure Devops, Kanban, Kaizen, Scrum

Our Training Packages

Choose the right level of training for your team. From short, self-paced learning videos to full bootcamp experiences, we offer a wide range of curriculum and styles to meet the needs of any team at any point in their digital transformation journey.

Introduction

Digital Foundations for Product Teams

$350/class

  • Why cloud and agile?
  • Cloud approaches: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
  • Agile Software Development Processes
  • Critical Team Roles and How They Work Together
  • What is FedRAMP and how to achieve ATO
  • What is UCD and DevOps
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Introduction

Introduction to Agile for Executives

$600/class

  • Unlocking Product Teams with Cloud and Agile
  • Cloud Approaches: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
  • Critical Team Roles and How They Work Together
  • Agile Software Development and Key Ceremonies
  • What is FedRAMP and how to achieve ATO
  • What is UCD and DevOps
  • Performance Management and Metrics
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Bootcamp

Product Owner Bootcamp

$3,000/day

  • Project versus Product Management
  • Product Team Composition, Key Roles, and Balance
  • Managing Product Backlogs
  • Using Scaled Agile (SAFe) Principles
  • Defining Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  • Understanding the Sprint Cycle
  • Managing Team and Contract Performance
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Introduction

User-Centered Design

$300/class

  • Introduction into Design Thinking
  • Aligning with the U.S. Digital Service Playbook
  • Understanding through User Research
  • Building empathy
  • Design synthesis
  • Defining Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  • User Research Board and Discovery Sprints
  • Testing Hypothesis and Measuring Outcomes
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Our course offerings will equip your team with fluency in all aspects of modern software development within a government context.

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