Police Scotland

 

Overview

Police Scotland’s journey with the Scottish Digital Academy began when a number of senior staff attended an Agile for Leaders course. The ability to contextualise learning for the Police, by senior academy coaches delivering the course, helped to build key relationships and trust that have lasted.

Following the course, Police Scotland asked for support in the development of their thinking to roll out an approach more widely across appropriate areas of the organisation. As is often the case at this stage, the creation of value and working examples were needed to convince a much wider group of police staff of the benefits and applicability of agile working.

 

Approach

Following the development of an Implementation Plan by a senior academy coach, the Scottish Digital Academy team then began to work on site with Police Scotland. This was initially based on the delivery of a tailored course to a development group considering how to improve the intelligence available on the ground to front line Police Officers.

The multi-disciplinary team then set to work applying what they had learned on the real problem. Support on the ground was made available when senior academy coaches returned shortly afterwards to help the team and wider stakeholders to reflect on successes, and potential impediments in this initial developmental phase.

 

Results

This work resulted in practical improvements in the real time information available to Police Officers on the ground, and will now roll out as a Scotland wide product.

This initial group’s work, and conversations facilitated by senior academy coaches, have led to the engagement of other teams; one example being the important work around how to improve case management approaches. Senior officers have attended multiple leadership courses, and the tying together of the approach has helped to begin the growth of more efficient governance practices that reflect real user needs.

“The main advantage for Police Scotland from Agile was getting to see the product developed in quick time by engaging at the right time with end users on the ground. The Scottish Digital Academy were great to work with from the start, they didn’t just tell you things, but understood our public sector context, listened to our needs, and helped us to apply practical solutions. They understood the importance of teams, stuck with us through the development journey, and returned with ongoing support. By working on synchronised 2 week team based cycles we are much quicker in delivery, and in anticipating future challenges. Overall, our productivity has gone sky high, and staff feel greater ownership and empowerment in the developmental processes.”

Sergeant Shona Mackay, Product Owner, National Case Systems

 

“The Scottish Digital Academy’s support enabled us to get service users what they wanted quickly. It involved us working directly with them beyond simply developing code in a fun, enjoyable, and challenging way. The practical examples used in the training were incredibly valuable. The Scottish Digital Academy were great to work with from the start, they didn’t just tell you things, but understood our public sector context, listened to our needs, and helped us to apply practical solutions. They understood the importance of teams, stuck with us through the development journey, and returned with ongoing support. Overall, our productivity has gone sky high, and staff feel greater ownership and empowerment in the developmental processes.”

Ralph Wardlaw, Senior Developer