Agile Across the GDS Service Standard
For your team
We run it on a date we agree with you. £4,500+VAT for up to 16 people.
For:
Delivery teams preparing for service assessments, Delivery Managers who present at assessments
Courses by role
Training for service owners in government
Five Government Agile Training courses go with things the Government Digital and Data profession asks of a service owner in UK government: service assessments, using metrics to manage delivery, team culture, deciding from evidence and prioritising. We have no course written only for service owners. For your team alone, a course costs £2,750+VAT for a half day, £4,500+VAT for one day and £6,950+VAT for two days. A place on an open course costs £345+VAT to £895+VAT, and your department can buy through RM6219 or by purchase order.
Ask for dates and a price
We reply with dates and a price, and we aim to reply within one working day. If you want one or two places, choose "Ask about an open date" under the course below.
Trusted by UK Government teams:
- RM6219 Approved Supplier
- GDaD Framework Aligned
- 180+ Government Professionals Trained and Coached
What the profession asks of a service owner
The Government Digital and Data profession writes that "A service owner is accountable for the quality, performance, benefits and outcomes of a service." In its capability framework the role has one level, most often filled at Grade 7 or Grade 6, and nine skills.
The profession rewrote the role on 30th May 2025 and took four skills out of it, agile working and product ownership among them. If your role profile or development plan still lists those, check it against the current page before you choose training.
Problems you may recognise
- "The assessment is booked and I have to be in the room"
GDS recommends that the service owner attends a service assessment, and the Government Digital and Data profession expects you to "guide teams through governance and assurance processes, such as service assessments, to ensure standards are met".
On Agile Across the GDS Service Standard we go through the 14 points of the Service Standard and what assessors look for, and you finish the day with a mock assessment exercise. We say on the course page that it is most relevant to delivery managers and service owners.
1 Day (7 hours). £595+VAT a person on an open course, or £4,500+VAT for your team alone, up to 16 people.
- "Everyone above me wants a date"
Your team can forecast a date as a probability, such as "an 85% chance of finishing by 6th March". You then choose how much risk to carry when you give a date to anyone else. The profession expects you to "ensure metrics are used to monitor, manage and prioritise delivery and inform decision making".
On Kanban and Flow Management for Government you learn to read cycle time and throughput and to forecast delivery from your team's own data with Monte Carlo simulation. We wrote it for delivery managers, team leads and service managers responsible for live services, and for anyone who needs to forecast delivery from real data. We do not name service owners on the course page.
1 Day (7 hours). £695+VAT a person on an open course, or £4,500+VAT for your team alone, up to 12 people.
- "The team is busy and I can't tell whether it is working well"
The profession asks a service owner to "create the culture and environment for the team to do their best work".
On Agile Team Performance in the Public Sector we teach how a team forms, how to build psychological safety, how to run retrospectives and how to keep a remote or hybrid team performing. We wrote it for delivery managers, Scrum Masters and team leads, and for product managers and service owners who want to understand what makes a delivery team work well.
1 Day (7 hours). £595+VAT a person on an open course, or £4,500+VAT for your team alone, up to 16 people.
- "Nobody can tell me the right answer and I still have to decide"
The profession expects a service owner to "use evidence to decide when a team should continue, change direction or stop".
On Navigating Complexity in Government you use the Cynefin framework to work out what kind of problem you are dealing with and choose a way of deciding that suits it. We wrote it for anyone in government who makes decisions in ambiguous situations. We do not name service owners on the course page.
Half Day (3.5 hours). £345+VAT a person on an open course, or £2,750+VAT for your team alone, up to 16 people.
- "Users, the business and policy each want something different first"
The profession asks a service owner to "prioritise areas of development, balancing user needs, business requirements and policy".
On Government Product Manager Training you learn to put a backlog in priority order, to build a roadmap that ministers and delivery teams can follow and to measure success with KPIs, OKRs and outcome-based delivery. We wrote it for product managers at associate to senior level, and for service owners who want product management skills. The profession's product manager role shares four of the service owner's nine skills.
2 Days (14 hours). £895+VAT a person on an open course, or £6,950+VAT for your team alone, up to 12 people.
We have no course on business cases, funding or supplier relationships, which the profession puts under financial ownership.
The five courses
None of these was written only for service owners. Each card shows who we wrote the course for, how long it is and what a place costs.
Kanban and Flow Management for Government
For your team
We run it on a date we agree with you. £4,500+VAT for up to 12 people.
For:
Delivery Managers and Delivery Leads, Team leads managing several workstreams
Agile Team Performance in the Public Sector
For your team
We run it on a date we agree with you. £4,500+VAT for up to 16 people.
For:
Delivery Managers and Scrum Masters, Team leads who are responsible for how their team performs
Navigating Complexity in Government
For your team
We run it on a date we agree with you. £2,750+VAT for up to 16 people.
For:
Delivery Managers and Product Managers, Policy professionals dealing with uncertainty
Government Product Manager Training
For your team
We run it on a date we agree with you. £6,950+VAT for up to 12 people.
For:
Product Managers and people who want to become one, Product Owners in government
Guides to read next
- How to prepare for a service assessment
When to book, who sits on the panel, who to bring and what each result leads to.
- The 14 points of the Service Standard and what to show a panel
Each point in GDS's own wording, with what a team shows the panel.
- Flow metrics and forecasting for government teams
How a team forecasts a date as a probability from its own board.
Questions people ask
Do you have a training course for service owners?
We have no course written only for service owners. Government Agile Training teaches five courses that go with parts of the role, and we name service owners on three of the course pages: Agile Across the GDS Service Standard, Agile Team Performance in the Public Sector and Government Product Manager Training.
Which course should a service owner take before a service assessment?
Agile Across the GDS Service Standard. In one day we go through the 14 points of the Service Standard and what assessors look for, and you finish with a mock assessment exercise. A place costs £595+VAT on an open course.
What skills does a service owner need in the civil service?
The Government Digital and Data profession lists nine: adapting to delivery methodologies, applying user-centred insights, financial ownership, governance and assurance, leading performance and benefits, life cycle management, operational management, stakeholder relationship management and strategic ownership. It sets life cycle management at practitioner level and the other eight at expert level. The role is most often filled at Grade 7 or Grade 6.
Can you train all the service owners in our department together?
Yes. We run any of our courses for one team or department, for up to 12 or 16 people depending on the course. The price for the group is £2,750+VAT for a half day, £4,500+VAT for one day and £6,950+VAT for two days. We fit the exercises, case studies and discussion points to your department's governance, its problems and the terms your people use.
How does a department pay for the training?
Omnicomplexity Ltd, which trades as Government Agile Training, is an approved supplier on RM6219, the Learning and Training Services DPS that Government Commercial Agency runs. We accept purchase orders. When we run a course for your team, public sector clients pay no deposit: we invoice after the course against your purchase order, payable within 30 days.
Is there an open course I can join on my own?
Only when a course has an open date. Open dates appear on each course page when we set them. Where a course shows no date, ask us to tell you when we set one, or ask us to run the course for your team on a date we agree with you. We aim to reply within one working day.
Run a course for your team
Tell us which course, how many people and roughly when. We reply with dates and a price, and we aim to reply within one working day.
Ask for dates and a price