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Agile Estimation, Planning & Forecasting

Master the art of Agile estimation and planning.

Delivering on time and within budget is no accident. Learn how to transform your team's estimation and planning capability with advanced techniques that improve predictability, stakeholder confidence and team morale.

Explore Topics

Estimation should build confidence, not create commitment theatre.

Organisations often struggle to estimate accurately, resulting in damaged stakeholder expectations, late delivery and demotivated teams.

This course may require you to unlearn some of what you have been taught in the past. We start with the basics, then take you through an interactive and highly engaging journey of relearning how estimation, planning and forecasting can actually work.

What you'll gain

Practical techniques to answer difficult planning questions with more confidence and less theatre.

Actionable skills

Learn advanced estimation methods including Monte Carlo simulation, burn-up charts, reference class forecasting and constraint-driven estimation.

Planning confidence

Answer questions like "How long will it take?" and "How much will it cost?" with more data-backed confidence.

Stakeholder trust

Build plans that stakeholders can understand while avoiding common traps such as overcommitting or underdelivering.

Improved team dynamics

Reduce the burden of estimation with techniques that make planning more useful, less stressful and less performative.

The questions this course helps you answer

Once you have completed the course modules, you will be better equipped to handle the planning questions teams and stakeholders ask every day.

How many work items can we complete by a fixed date?
When will this feature or project be completed?
When will my work request be done?
How do we stop estimates from becoming commitments?
How long will a new product take to bring to market?
How do we deal with "your estimates are too high"?
Do we estimate epics in the same way as user stories?
How do we forecast across multiple different teams?
How do we estimate large projects before we have started?
How do we make delivery rate more predictable?

Topics covered

A broad, practical curriculum covering estimation fundamentals, flow metrics, forecasting, risk and portfolio-level planning.

  • The cone of uncertainty
  • The language of estimation
  • Absolute vs relative estimation
  • Sizing vs estimating
  • Sizing user stories
  • Sizing epics and features
  • Agile story points
  • Burn-up and burn-down charts
  • Cycle time and lead time distribution
  • Story points vs cycle time
  • Common causes of variation
  • Exploiting levers to reduce variation
  • Little's Law: cycle time, work in progress and throughput
  • Constraint-driven estimation
  • Reference class forecasting
  • Probabilistic forecasting
  • Monte Carlo simulation
  • Planning in a dependency-rich landscape
  • Risk management and its influence on forecasting
  • Portfolio-level planning and tracking

Hands-on, interactive and grounded in real delivery.

All course modules are hands-on and highly interactive, incorporating estimation games, forecasting tools and flow simulators.

The goal is not to memorise theory. The goal is to improve the quality of planning conversations, reduce false certainty and help teams forecast with greater confidence.

What past participants say

Feedback from practitioners who have completed the course.

"Finally, a course that makes estimation practical and effective. Our teams feel more confident, and our stakeholders couldn't be happier."

Sarah M., Head of Delivery, Financial Services

"The blend of theory and interactive sessions was perfect. I've walked away with techniques I can implement immediately."

Chris B., Software Engineer, Automotive

"I now understand how to present plans that stakeholders actually trust. It's a game-changer for our organisation."

Rachel P., Product Owner, Retail

"Ian's expertise and real-world examples made even the most advanced topics accessible. Highly recommended for any Agile practitioner."

Steve W., Scrum Master, Government

"The course helped us shift from guessing to data-driven planning. The results speak for themselves!"

Lucy K., Business Analyst, Aerospace

"Our planning sessions are now shorter, more accurate, and far less stressful. This course exceeded all expectations."

James H., IT Director, Education

Certification & policies

All attendees receive a Certificate of Attendance accredited by Solutioneers, acknowledging completion of this training.

We offer an 80% refund if you cancel your place no less than 15 working days before the first day of the course. For cancellations less than 15 working days before the course, refunds are not available, but substitutions are accepted up to the start of the course.

Solutioneers reserves the right to postpone or cancel the event if there are insufficient registrations or presenters are unable to attend. In these circumstances, you will be notified no later than 7 days before the event with a full refund.

Meet your trainer

Ian Carroll

Brickell Key Award winner Ian Carroll is a consultant, coach and speaker on Lean, Kanban and Agile software development. Using 30 years of hands-on experience, Ian helps teams transform their ways of working using Kanban and other Lean and Agile techniques to lower costs while increasing their ability to respond to changing market demands and outperform competitors. Ian has trained and coached hundreds of software development teams in Agile, Lean and Kanban techniques.

Ready to take your Agile estimation skills to the next level?

Transform how your team plans and delivers projects with proven techniques, hands-on exercises and expert guidance.