Use agile ways of working
This guidance will help you apply standard point 7 (opens in a new tab).
Everyone is responsible for meeting the Service Standard. This standard point is most relevant to:
Delivery managers Product managersSummary
Agile is a way of working that encourages teams to build quickly, test what they've built and iterate their work based on regular feedback and other useful data.
Use agile principles and tools (for example, Trello, Lucid and Jira) and have processes in place that follow the governance principles for service delivery.
Why it's important
By getting your service in front of real users as soon as possible, you can get insights on how they use it and iterate based on what you learn.
Working this way means you're not specifying everything up front before you've developed an understanding of what users need, reducing the risk of delivering the wrong thing.
How to meet this standard in every phase
You'll be assessed on what you've done to meet this standard at service assessments. However, even if the service you're working on is not being assessed, it's good practice to consider how you'll meet this standard point.
All phases
Things to consider:
how the team uses agile ways of working, tools, and techniques
changes to the service are based on user research feedback and testing. The children and families design history documents how they've done this
how the team will prioritise riskiest assumptions
evidence of decision-making with senior stakeholders that allow the team to adapt and change
evidence that governance is being managed with measurable goals
the team has all the skills it needs at each phase of the agile lifecycle
Things to avoid in all phases
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not involving users regularly in the design and testing process
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making decisions without sufficient evidence or user research
Profession specific guidance
Each DDaT profession in DfE has their own community and guidance.