New Agile Courses 2022

 

Building digital capability means understanding where we are now, as well as where we need to be in the future

 

Nurturing digital skills and building capability

Last year, to enable us to build a detailed overview of digital capability, we commissioned a skills gap analysis across the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession, one of the Scottish Government’s largest professional groups, which currently has circa 1000 members and spans a vast breadth of roles. In response to our findings, the new and refreshed courses outlined in this article reflect the need for more support in agile methodology and practice. Later in the year, we will begin to introduce an enhanced offer to further support digital skills in data, cloud and cyber security. A follow-up survey will be launched in 2023 to track the progress that has been made in closing our skills gaps and improving capability. You can read more about the survey via a blog article by Yorath Turner, Deputy Director for Digital People, Strategy and Corporate Services.

Our team has been working over the past six months, to design a series of new courses that support agile transformation across the Scottish public and third sectors. Our ambition was set out in our Strategic Business Plan which included refreshment and growth of our offer of professional learning. As we continue to explore a post-Covid landscape and support economic recovery, the transformation of services continues to remain a priority for Scottish Government.

In April 2022, we began to evolve our operating model by seeking to offer more free and low cost professional learning opportunities. Our new model is based on the provision of core courses, a scalable agile coaching service and a series of courses on data, cloud and cyber security.

• Core courses are delivered by our team with support from contracted training partners. These are either provided at no cost or at a subsidised rate and remain in our prospectus throughout the year. They are designed to support agile transformation.
• Agile coaching is an on-demand service and will differ to meet requirements from one organisation to the next. We work with organisations to break down barriers to progress and to seek opportunities for continuous improvement.
• The enhanced offer is delivered via routes to procurement and is offered at a subsidised rate. This is an on-demand service and will change over time, to address skills gaps and capability.

It’s our aim to provide a coherent offer which remains concurrent, whilst introducing cost savings through efficient and effective procurement. Our approach not only provides the best value, it also supports SMEs and other businesses seeking to work with the public sector.

 

An illustration of our professional learning offer from 2022

 

Our new and refreshed courses

We’re now piloting new courses, with the expectation that they’ll be available via our website from the Autumn. These courses are free and can either be provided as a closed offer upon request or to individuals registering for a scheduled course via our website.

• SCRUM
• Kanban
• Product Vision and Road Mapping
• User Story Mapping
• Sizing and Estimating

In the past, the majority of courses have been scheduled over a full day or over multiple days. Typically, courses aimed at working, practitioner and expert levels are more in-depth and require more time for theoretical grounding. We’ve been asked by past delegates to consider shorter courses at an awareness and working level with a specific focus on themes where needed. As such, the new courses listed here are all less than half a day in duration.

In addition and following the success of the Digital Scotland Service Standard Awareness course, we are now piloting a Digital Scotland Service Standard Assessment course, providing progression and more focus on evidence building for submission. Again, this is a direct result of an ‘ask’ from previous delegates and our Stakeholder Forum.

Our practitioner courses are also in development, building upon the past success of the Delivery Manager, Product Manager and Business Analyst sessions, continually reflecting and building upon the latest theories, examples and strategies. We are now piloting a new leadership course, Agile Leadership in Practice with registration available from August. These courses will be subsidised by the Scottish Digital Academy, offering value and high quality learning experiences.

The table below illustrates our new and refreshed offer.

Course	Skill Level	Cost
Agile Mindsets *new Why Agile? *new Introduction to Scrum *new Kanban *new Product Vision and Road Mapping *new User Story Mapping *new Sizing and Estimating *new DSSS Awareness DSSS Assessment *new Product Manager Practitioner Delivery Manager Practitioner Business Analyst Practitioner Agile Leadership in Practice *new Leading in a Digital World *new	Awareness Awareness Working Working Working Working Working Awareness Working Practitioner Practitioner Practitioner Practitioner Expert	Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Subsidised £610 Subsidised £610 Subsidised £610 Subsidised £610 Free (via application)

Those courses listed but not yet featured on our website will be available from Autumn 2022.