Agile Manchester 2018

1. NHS Business Services Authority –
Our agile placement year
Mateusz Dziedzic
Wallis Senior
Joe Hutchinson

2. Who we are
• Mateusz Dziedzic
– Course: Business Management
– University: Teesside University
– Primary role: Delivery Manager
• Wallis Senior
– Course: Business with Marketing
Management
– University: Northumbria University
– Primary role: User Researcher
• Joe Hutchinson
– Course: Web and Multimedia
– University: Teesside University
– Primary role: Content Designer

3. NHS Business Services Authority
• Arm’s Length Body of the Department of Health and Social Care

4. Agile environment
• Implemented in 2015
• Digi hub for our co-located teams
• 13 agile projects currently

5. Government Digital Service (GDS)
• All public facing sectors must comply with a set of 18 standards
• Public sectors carrying out digital projects will have four stages:
discovery, alpha, beta and live
• A GDS assessment will have to be completed for every stage apart from
discovery as this is usually a very short time period
• If the service does not pass, it will have to complete the assessment again
before it can progress onto the next stage

6. Agile at university
Format:
• 7 week projects
• Flexible sprint lengths
Similarities:
• Task backlog
• Iterative production
• Sprint planning
Differences:
• Heavy documentation
• Where were the post-it-notes?
• No stand-up or retrospective meetings
University project backlog

7. Adjusting to an Agile environment
• “Sometimes Agile can be flexible in order to
achieve an outcome” – Mateusz
• “No visible hierarchy allowed me to
transition from a student to a professional
quickly” – Wallis
• “Collaboration amongst team members
allowed conversations that would quickly
develop understandings” - Joe

8. User Research Interview
with user
Review
Penalty
Charge
Notice
Test
prototype
Review
outcomes
as a team
Iterate
• Discover who our users are, what their needs are
and deliver a service that meets those needs
• Aim to speak to 5-10 users per sprint
• In-depth interviews, pop up sessions,
workplace observations, telephone interviews,
workshops, usability tests, focus groups
• Sharing findings with scrum team
2 week
sprint
94%
success rate for users
completing the end to
end challenge journey

9. Content Design
• Clear, clean, crisp content
• Taking complex language and
simplifying for users to understand
• Proactively identifying ways to improve
content
• Iterating on content alongside user
testing
• Content critiques

10. Delivery Manager
• Build a self-organising team
• Facilitate agile ceremonies
• Medical Exemption (MEdex) digitisation
Start of
discovery
Medex
findings
End of
discovery

11. Sitting down at a stand-up meeting

12. Our thoughts on how Agile has benefited our experience
Motivation
Prioritisation
Tangible outputs
Achievements
Rotation
Self-determined
ConfidencePizza party
Creative environment
Teamwork
Conversations

13. Any Questions?

14. “Working for the NHSBSA has been a brilliant experience. It has helped me develop
my skills in a business environment to be a more rounded employee” – Joe
“Being a part of the NHSBSA has increased my professionalism in a work environment
and my development and understanding of organisational practices has enlightened
my expectations for the future” - Mateusz
“My role at the NHSBSA has enabled me to make useful connections, helping build my
professional profile which will be extremely valuable for future opportunities” - Wallis
@NHSBSA