The Agile Business Consortium, ABC, together with APMG International, is currently developing a new Agile Digital Services certification.
The methodology behind the certification is focussed on the agile delivery of digital services, based on ABC’s Agile Project Management Framework and the UK government’s Digital Service Standard.
This new methodology will support people who are involved in delivering digital services by providing a structured framework which is usable for organizations that want the benefits of agile together with a robust governance framework.
The Digital Service Standard helps to ensure that services which are based on digital technologies are robust, coherent and sustainable. Knowledge of the Digital Service Standard will help organizations beyond the original scope of the standard to think about their digital services in a new way.
The standard was developed as part of a response to the situation where the UK Government’s digital services initiatives were characterized by inconsistency, lack of maintenance and frequent reliance on big projects run by large suppliers resulting in cost overruns and late delivery. The drive was to move to agile delivery of smaller projects using open source solutions and smaller suppliers, with an emphasis on building service teams who could deliver frequently and successfully maintain the service in operation.
The certification is currently in the Private Beta phase, where workshops are being run to collect feedback from trainers and workshop participants about the new methodology, the course materials and the exams. The feedback will be used to improve the new handbook and coursework, influencing the final product. This practice itself is part of the new framework.
CUPE International has been invited by the ABC and APMG International to host three Private Beta Workshops as part of the development of the new certification. I led one of the workshops myself in September, and there will be a second round of workshops in November and December.
This certification to be available for everyone early next year. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would be interested in finding out more.
Chris Holt
27th October 2017