Equipping Alberta Public Servants with Agile Foundations
Alberta Digital Innovation Office Hosted First Agile Product Owner Course
24 Alberta public servants gathered together for a two day course on Agile Product Ownership earlier this month. The Digital Innovation Office brought Christina Hartikainen in to create Agile foundations for our first exemplar project teams.
Our top takeaways are:
Alberta public servants are excited to dig into the gritty details of digital service development.
Agile can work for regular government things too, from day to day teamwork in our own office to policy and strategy.
The right combination of program area experience, Agile software development, and human-centred design supercharges government service innovation.
Our focus of this course was on supporting public servants to have the tools for success when they work with vendor partners. The Digital Innovation Office and Service Alberta will continue to work with these teams throughout their digital service journey to support public servants and vendors collaborating in an Agile rhythm.
We combined theory and practice to look at how Agile principles and the Agile manifesto work in day-to-day project delivery.
Over the two days, our learning outcomes included:
List the Agile Values and Principles;
Describe the Scrum Framework;
Describe the responsibilities of the Product Owner;
Design a Product Vision;
List ways to test product assumptions;
Use a Story Map to create a Release Strategy; and
Demonstrate how to manage a product backlog.
By understanding the foundations of Agile, the practices of Scrum, and tips and tools for product ownership, our program area colleagues are set to be active contributors to their exemplar projects. We will work together to understand user needs, map stories, and keep the team’s work pipeline fuelled with a regular backlog of prioritized work.
Some of our participants said:
“Great session, enabled a deeper perspective on key area of product development. Amazing!”
“Product ownership is greater than just giving a big list of requirements — they are part of the team.”
“Very worthwhile and an effective use of time.”
We’re excited to host this first Agile course, and look forward to ongoing professional development for Alberta public servants who will help us deliver better digital services faster.
