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Education and Skills Funding Agency

Why in a time when change is constant is it so important to create stability for our users?

Agile cycle. Requirements, design, develop, test, deploy, review

Why in a time when change is constant is it so important to create stability for our users?

Making accurate payments to providers and employers is a key aim of the Apprenticeship Service and a key user need to address. Gary Tucker, Deputy Director at the Apprenticeship Service, talks about how the Service has created very accurate payments and built a capability to ensure apprentices are given the opportunities they deserve.

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Testing in Agile: Security

Posted by: Mark Winspear, Posted on: 21 October 2015 - Categories: Agile, Testing
An tab on a computer screen labelled 'security' with the cursor about to click on it

...are published online and exploited very quickly and this punishes any company which is too slow to act. Using the example of a ‘traditional’ waterfall project, it might be common...

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What do users need from a digital careers service?

Posted by: Helen Cassidy, Posted on: 19 October 2015 - Categories: Citizen digital service, User research
someone holding a pink post it note and writing on it with a pen

...cyclical user journeys As User Researcher I continued in my quest to understand the wider needs of the service users. I interviewed over 80 people - current users of the...

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Running a giant retrospective

Posted by: Karl Morgan, Posted on: 15 September 2015 - Categories: Agile

...everyone to add sticky notes with what they Liked and Loathed from the organisation over the last year and what they Longed For going forward. Once everyone had added their...

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It’s worse than that…It’s an Alpha, Jim!

Posted by: Chris Thompson, Posted on: 11 September 2015 - Categories: Agile, Solution Design and Innovation

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/life-size-replica-of-the-bridge-from-the-uss-enterprise-news-photo/483247592 My colleagues know that I’m a bit of a Star Trek fan. People who remember the show will tell you that you could usually tell who was going to...

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Becoming a Certified Scrum Master

Posted by: Piers Dunstall, Posted on: 28 August 2015 - Categories: Agile, Delivery Management
Agile word art cloud using the words; product, right, items, tasks, ceremonies, progress, struggles, value, dynamic, work, scrum, team, owner, chart, backlog, three, terminology, form, done, meets, agile, complete, sprint, refined, productive, retrospective, time, artifacts, ways, deliver, share, manifesto, look, negotiation, planning, broken, roles, understand, framework, priority, prioritised, day, set, comprehensive and process

...now, so not everything on the course was new to me, but it was still great to firm up on what I thought was right. The course was also provided...

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Yammer time!

Posted by: Stuart Vickers, Posted on: 17 August 2015 - Categories: Change delivery
ipad showing a random Yammer page

...The teams are also “working out loud” - making their work more transparent. Anyone interested in a team's work, can join the group to stay up to date, participate in...

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Help us design a new apprenticeships service for employers

Posted by: Vanessa Clynes, Posted on: 28 July 2015 - Categories: Apprenticeships exemplar, Employer Digital Service, User research
A lady sitting with a tablet device on her lap looking at the Apprenticeship survey for employers online

The Skills Funding Agency is designing a new service to help employers engage with apprenticeships online. When the service is live, it will help employers find out more about apprenticeships,...

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From the Private Sector to the Skills Funding Agency: 3 Months in

Posted by: Parvesh Shivshanker, Posted on: 27 July 2015 - Categories: Agile, Citizen digital service, Jobs and careers

...website. The site provides users with information, advice and guidance to help them make decisions on learning, training and work opportunities. I look after the site both from a business-as-usual...

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When did you last take an exam?

Posted by: Tim Marlow, Posted on: 21 July 2015 - Categories: Solution Design and Innovation
Laptop, Post-It notes and a blank notepad on a table

...and services, many of which are based on uncustomised out-of-the-box products. In principle this should make for a system that is much quicker and cheaper to change than the current...

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Slightly behind schedule, but can Agile always be 100% on track?

Posted by: Piers Dunstall, Posted on: 16 July 2015 - Categories: Agile, Delivery Management

...a project may finished early in the eyes of the business, but that could just be a way of sugar coating the actual truth? I've read about calculating the best...

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