Hugo Smith, CTO at Broadbandchoices, presented at CIO Event, October 2014

1. IMPROVING THE AGILITY OF YOUR
BUSINESS THROUGH IT
Hugo Smith

2. What is Agile?
Agile
Better
engagement
with the
business
objectives
Improved
speed of
delivery

3. What does Agile mean to you?
• A different way of working
• An enabler
• Changing perceptions
• More engaged
• More aligned
• Delivered quicker
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4. Key Agile Principles
1. Active user involvement is imperative
2. The team must be empowered to make decisions
3. Requirements evolve but the timescale is fixed
4. Capture requirements at a high level; lightweight & visual
5. Develop small, incremental releases and iterate
6. Focus on frequent delivery of products
7. Complete each feature before moving on to the next
8. Apply the 80/20 rule
9. Testing is integrated throughout the project lifecycle – test early and often
10. A collaborative & cooperative approach between all stakeholders is essential -

5. Agile Manifesto
 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
 Working software over comprehensive documentation
 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 Responding to change over following a plan
Ah, But!

6.  Process and tools
 Dev Tools? Scrum boards? SCRUM is a process?
 Documentation
 Continuity and succession requirements?
 Contract Negotiation
 Follow a plan
 Dates are needed! Minimum Viable Product then iterate
 Internal or external, there is a commitment / contract

7. Where we’ve got to at broadbandchoices
 Last Year
 Releases took 56 man hours
 Just on AWS, but immature
 Releasing once a fortnight
 Experimenting with 2 week sprints
 Scrum-esk
 2 full time QA
 1 or 2 AB tests
 Product Managers working
independently
 Now
 Releases take 2 man hours
 All on AWS – Blue Green deploys
 Releasing 2-5 times a week
 No fixed sprints – TDD driven
checking into Master
 Scrumban (Scrum/Kanban)
 3 days/week part time QA
 3-4 concurrent A/B tests
 Product managers working in the
Dev teams

9. Medical student Foundation year Dr. Specialist trainee Consultant / GP Clinical Leader Retired consultant
Our users’ needs
`Develop career
`Pass exams
`Involve patients
`Improve quality
`Assess learning needs
`Continue medical education & professional development
` Get published
`Measure performance & variation
` Improve services
` Reduce cost
`Engage clinicians
`Recruit staff
`Commission effectively
`Keep abreast of news

10. Serving the entire international clinical community
• The BMJ - 4th most cited general medical journal in the world - is the most read medical journal
in the UK.
• BMJ Learning is available in 16 languages and Best Practice search is enabled for over 60
languages.
• 97% of delegates have improved their practice after attending a BMJ Masterclass.
• 96% of job seeking doctors in the UK use BMJ Careers.
• Print advertising read by GPs and hospital doctors in over 200 countries.
• Sponsored CPD modules completed by over 548,000 healthcare professionals per year around
the world.
• Over 167,000 doctors and health professionals from more than 100 countries access our
revision resources.
• 81.5% of respondents said that they had changed their medical practice as a result of something
they had learnt from a BMJ Learning module.
• Over 12 events hosted by BMJ each year attended by nearly 5,000 clinicians from 80 countries.

13. Thank You!
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