Agile Fundamentals for Civil Servants
A one-day introduction to agile for civil servants and public sector staff. Covers Scrum, Kanban and user stories in government. No experience needed.
About This Course
This is a one-day introduction to agile for civil servants and public sector staff who are joining an agile team, managing one or working alongside one. By the end of the day you’ll be able to explain how Scrum and Kanban work, describe how government teams write and prioritise user stories and show how agile fits with the GDS Service Standard.
You don’t need any agile experience. The course suits grades HEO to G7 and people moving into Government Digital and Data roles.
What You’ll Learn
By the end of the day you’ll be able to:
- Explain the agile values and principles and how a government team applies them
- Describe the roles, events and artefacts of the Scrum framework in plain words
- Put a team’s work on a Kanban board and manage how it flows
- Explain how government teams capture user needs as user stories and put them in priority order
- Show how agile lines up with the GDS Service Standard and the Capability Framework
You’ll practise in exercises built on realistic government scenarios.
Course Agenda
- Morning: Agile principles and values, the case for agile in government, Scrum framework fundamentals
- Afternoon: Kanban and flow, user stories and prioritisation, agile in the context of GDS standards, practical exercises and Q&A
Who This Is For
- Civil servants at any grade who need to understand agile delivery
- Policy professionals who work with delivery teams
- Business analysts moving into agile roles
- People joining an agile delivery team
- L&D managers who want to understand agile before they book specialist courses
This is an entry-level course. If you already work in an agile way and want specialist training, see our other courses.
What’s Included
- 7 hours of live virtual training with an experienced government practitioner
- Digital course materials and reference guides
- A Mural workspace with templates you can reuse
- Certificate of attendance
- Email support for 30 days after the course
GDaD Alignment
The course helps you build the foundation skills you need in several GDaD roles, including Delivery Manager, Product Manager, Business Analyst and User Researcher.
Format
We run open sessions live on Microsoft Teams and Mural. For a private group we can teach face to face at your premises. Open dates appear on this page when we set them, and we run the course for your team alone on a date we agree with you. A private cohort costs £4,500+VAT for up to 16 people.