Workshop 14 - Embedding Agile Coaches into Policy Teams Wednesday 25th February 2-4pm

‘Agile in Policy’: thoughts and experiments from MOJ Digital

Session Summary MOJ is currently experimenting with embedding agile methodologies into policy making. They have tried interactive workshops and embedded coaching programmes. The session will be spent demonstrating the tactics they have used and the benefits they have observed. The premise is to get attendees to work in groups, using agile methodologies, to solve a user need. The workshop facilitators will perform the role as an embedded coach to demonstrate the benefits to attendees first hand.

Agenda Introduction - Hannah and Tim (2)

● Talk about the rest of the week, other sessions and some logistics - i.e. some filming, keen to get blog content etc.

Introduction - Nupur (3)

● Introduce the team ● Outline what the session will be covering and explain that it will be interactive. Detail

exactly what we will be doing and how the interactive exercise will work. ● Brief background:

○ Agile is now well known in the world of tech, digital, IT and was born from these areas. It is currently being used successfully in government to deliver digital projects and there is appetite to use it in other areas such as policy and strategy which have traditionally used waterfall project management techniques.

○ At MOJ, we’re experimenting with embedding Agile methodologies into policy making. We have tried interactive workshops and embedded coaching programmes, and we want to spend this session demonstrating the tactics we have used and benefits we have observed. We teach Agile by doing Agile - so lets get to it (handover to Jess).

Exercise (Part 1): User needs gathering (10)

● Ask the individual groups to discuss what user needs/pain points they would like to address using an agile methodology. Ideally to be user needs that group members have already identified in their specific work areas.

● Note - Facilitators to offer support and suggestions to guide the groups to pick appropriate user needs that can be addressed using agile methods.

Agile Basics - Jess (10)

● What is Agile (This will be a narrative, instead of an Agile Course) ○ user needs research and prioritisation

○ the hypothesis ○ minimising scope ○ iterative delivery ○ focus on delivering something

● What does it mean to have an Agile Culture ● What does it mean to use Agile Routines

Exercise (Part 2): User needs prioritisation + conversion of user story into a hypothesis (20) Agile in Policy: our thoughts - Nupur (10)

● The context of Government - diverse stakeholders, working to Ministers vs working to the public, risks + leaks, controversy + politics, transparency, delivery to published milestones. Policy roles are sometimes external facing, but they’re sometimes internal facing/strategic. Civil servants aren’t always in control over the problems they’re trying to solve. Who are our users in this context? How can we work in an Agile way?

● BUT ○ government wants to focus on delivery ○ wants a culture of innovation and empowerment and intrinsic motivation - self-

organising teams ○ social policy operates in conditions of complexity and/or uncertainty - our

thoughts can only be the hypotheses you’ve got in front of you at this stage ○ government wants to focus on the user

● So there must be potential for Agile in policy, with benefits for business productivity and citizen outcomes.

● Case study: MOJ Digital Policy and Performance team - writing strategy in sprints, using kanban/scrum; non-digital products being developed iteratively (Digital Capability Project, which we’ll talk about later - also across Government [OPG/LAA] + in the private sector + other Governments?)

Exercise (Part 3) : Sketch a solution (15) Agile in Policy: our experiments - Nupur (10)

● Background to the Digital Capability project: we are prototyping interventions to introduce user needs focus and iterative/incremental development into Policy and the Legal Aid Agency

○ Case Study 1: Embedding an Agile coach in a policy team ○ Case Study 2: ‘Learning Agile by doing Agile’ workshop series with policy ○ Case Study 3: Embedding an Agile coach in a Legal Aid Agency team ○ Our approach/principles - empowerment to do things yourself, we don’t want to

be ‘training providers’ but we want to make ourselves redundant. Train the trainers. Culture shift to self-motivation and innovation.

● What we learned over the course of the project: Moving from resistance to positive feedback. Actual research outcomes of the Digital Capability project. Our impact - some indications but still tbc; we need to train teams not individuals. Demystifying jargon.

● Some challenges - measuring capability and long-term impact, scaling

Exercise (Part 4) : Conduct “user” research + agree on the impact to your project (20) Agile in Policy: the future - Nupur (5)

● Where could using an Agile methodology be most useful? ○ There are so many frameworks and methodologies out there, e.g. Continuous

Improvement, Lean, Prince 2, behavioural insights. ○ We are working with them to present to participants the range of options on offer

to tackle their problems (upcoming collaborations with CI and BI) ○ The digital context - the digital transformation of government means agile is

becoming more and more important. ■ Awareness of agile working practices is fundamental to support digital

product teams. ■ The digitisation of government will be end to end. Parallel with the

Guardian. ● Where else could Agile apply:

○ Could we use Agile Methodologies to transform procurement? Exercise (Part 5): Retrospective on perceptions of Agile in policy (10)

● Area where you can apply agile in your work area ● Further information about agile that you’d like to have (i.e. next steps) ● Report back

Close (2)

● Thanks for coming ● Hope we have given you some insight into the advantages of embedding Agile coaches. ● If anyone is interested in being interviewed after this session then please let us know

because we value your feedback. Stationary Needed:

● A3 paper ● Sharpies ● Post its ● [we might do a ‘jargon wall’ - i.e. simple visual glossary stuck up on the wall] ● [we’ll have a think about takeaway products - can certainly point in the direction of

material where participants can find out more]

hannah.freeman� 19/2/15 09:48Comment [1]: FCO weren't keen to have things stuck on the wall - is there a way we could do this on a table or flip chart? nupur.takwale� 19/2/15 09:48Comment [2]: Ah ok. We can just skip the jargon wall idea, but for the exercises it would be very useful to be able to at least stick up post-its (they're only post-its...)?