Working  in  an  Agile  wayCONTENT  CREATION,  DELIVERY  AND  STANDARDS

In  this  master  class1.  DEVELOPING  A  VISION§Welcome

§ Creating  a  digital  content  strategy

§ Exercise  – Making  a  start

§ Break.

2.  DISCOVERY  AND  USER  STORIES§ Role  of  discovery

§ Running  a  user  story  workshop

§ Exercise  – Course  search

§ Break.

3.  COLLABORATIVEWORK§ Exercise  – Task  board

§ Exercise  – Stand  up

§ Build  a  community

§ Developing  standards

§ Question  time.

Who  we  are§ Richard  Prowse  – Digital  Editor-­‐In-­‐Chief

§ Justin  Owen  – Digital  Editor

§ Rhian Griggs  – Digital  Editor.

What  we  do§ 16-­‐strong  digital  team  

§Work  with  extended  teams  in  our  faculties  and  administrative  services

§ Develop  platforms  and  services

§ Set  and  implement  standards

§ Deliver  “core”  content.

1.  Developing  a  vision

Developing  a  vision§ You  need  to  have  a  plan,  this  will  help  you  to  focus  on  the  things  that  matter

§ In  Agile  plans  often  take  the  form  of  a  roadmap

§ Roadmaps  tell  the  story  of  what  you  are  trying  to  achieve  in  a  way  that  your  stakeholders  will  understand

§ Detailed  planning  happens  as  part  of  the  sprint  process

§ In  Agile  the  best  people  to  plan  how  something  will  be  delivered  are  those  who  will  be  working  on  it.

How  to  develop  a  vision§ Set  out  some  principles  for  your  team  – this  defines  the  way  you’ll  work  with  stakeholders

§ Set  some  realistic  goals  that  will  improve  your  content

§ Start  small  and  focus  on  the  things  that  matter  the  most

§ As  you  learn  more,  be  willing  to  change  your  approach  – iterate!

Developing  a  roadmap§ There  are  lots  of  great  examples  of  roadmaps,  including  Bath and  the  Government  Digital  Services (GDS)

§ All  follow  a  similar  format:  § A  timeline§ The  problem§ How  you’ll   solve  it  § The  benefits.

§ The  focus  of  your  roadmap  should  directly  relate  to  your  goals.

Roadmap  templateWe’ve  created  a  template  you  can  download  and  use.

Exercise  – making  a  start§Work  in  pairs

§ Choose  one  of  our  themes.  Spend  10  minutes  thinking  about  a  single  problem  you’d  like  to  fix  with  your  digital  content

§Write  down  how  you’ll  solve  it  and  what  the  benefits  will  be

§ Use  the  template provided

§ Swap  over.

Take  a  break

2.  Discovery  and  user  stories

The  role  of  discoveryYou  can’t  build  successful  products  and  services  based  on  business  needs  alone.

Discovery:§ is  a  collaborative  process§ cuts  through   organisational politics§ helps  stakeholders  understand   their  users§ develops  a  single,  deliverable,  product  vision.

Starting  conversations“...we’ve  been  looking  at  our  website  and  we  want  more  images  so  it’s  more  engaging  to  users.”

“We  want  a  ‘Book  now!’  button  at  the  bottom  of  the  page,  so  people  read  all  the  detail  first.”

“We  need  social  sharing  buttons  on  every  page  so  our  content  gets  more  reach.”

Changing  the  conversationDATA

§ Visitor  analytics

§ Search  logs

§ Conversion  ratios

§ Google  trends.

OUTCOME

§ Dispel  myths

§ Empower  stakeholders

§Reset  expectations

§ Clear  path  for  discussion.

Get  stakeholders   involvedRESEARCH

§ Applicant  surveys

§ Online  surveys

§ User  testing

§ Peer  review

§ Ethnographic  studies.

USER  STORIES

§ Straight  forward

§ Quick

§ Develop  user  focus

§ Visual/shareable  results

§ Create  perception  of  value.

Running  a  user  story  workshop1. Get  the  right  mix  of  people

2. Make  sure  you’ve  got  Post-­‐it  notes  and  Sharpies

3. Set  a  plan  and  timescales  for  the  session

4. Be  clear  about  what  participants  will  achieve

5. Supply  plenty  of  sweets  and  biscuits.

Scenario  You  are  an  Agile  delivery  team  from  a  arts-­‐based  university  specialising in  media,  including  computer  animation,  broadcast  production,  film  makingand  journalism.

Your  business  analyst  has  reported  high  levels  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  course  search  facility  on  your  website.  

§ You  need  to  plan  a  new  course  search  tool  and  launch  the  first  version  within  2  months

§ You’ll  be  using  user  stories  to  start  your  planning

§ You  must  work  out  what  is  Minimum  Viable  Product  (MVP)/  Minimum  Desirable  Product  (MDP).

In  this  sessionWhat  user  stories  are

Exercise:  Identify  needs  for  a  new  course  search  app

§ Task  1  -­‐ Identify  user  top  tasks§ Discuss  and  prioritise

§Task  2  -­‐ Write  user  stories  for  functionality  and  content§ Discuss  and  refine

User  storiesA  simple  description  of  what  someone  needs,  told  from  their  perspective.

As  a…   [role]I  need/want…   [goal]So  that…   [benefit]

Epic  user  storiesAn  epic  is  a  bigger,  top  level  story

§ too  big  to  implement  in  one  iteration

§ needs  to  be  broken  out.

EXAMPLE  EPIC

As  a prospective  student

I  need to  know  about  all  your  courses

So  that I  can  work  out  whether  anything  interests  me

User  storiesA  need-­‐focused  user  story  is:

§ detailed

§ topic  specific

§ task  driven

§ actionable.

EXAMPLE

As  a prospective  student

I  need to  know  the  grade  requirements  forBA  (Hons)  in  Media  management

So  that I  know  whether  I  am  eligible  to  apply

Task  1:  Identify  top  user  needs

TASK

Write  down  3  to  5  search  features  or  content  that  users  will  need  when  looking  for  courses.

Examples:

§ ‘Search  by  keyword  and  exam  grades’

§ ‘Browseable search  by  course  category’

§ ‘Detailed  information  on  course  module  options.’

REMEMBER

§Write  1  need  per  Post-­‐it  

§ Use  Plain  English

§ Keep  descriptions  short

§Write  clearly.

You  are  a  prospective  student   looking   to  come  to  University.

What  are  the  main  features  and  /or  content  you  want  from  South  West  University’s  course  search?

Task  2:  Write  user  storiesUsing  the  list  of  Minimum  Viable  Product  needs,  write  3 user  stories  that  clearly  explain  why  the  user  needs  the  features  or  content.  

As  a…   [role]I  need/want…   [goal]So  that…   [benefit]

Think  about  one  thing  you’ve  learnt  today  that  you  could  implement  and  which  would  transform  your  organisation.

Take  a  break

3.  Collaborative  work

Setting  up  a  task  board§We  use  a  free  online  tool  called  Trello (you  don’t  need  to  use  the  paid  version)

§ Task  boards  are  made  up  of  five  columns:§ ‘Icebox’  – where  you  store  user  stories  you  aren’t  working  on§ ‘To  do’  – the  stories  you  plan  to  work  on  in  the  next  2  weeks  (we  call  this  a  Sprint)§ ‘Doing’   – the  stories  you’re  working  on  right  now§ ‘Review’  – the  things  you’ve  completed  that  need  reviewing§ ‘Done’  – stories  that  have  been  reviewed  and  accepted.

§ The  aim  is  to  move  every  card  from  left  to  right.  Anything  that  isn’t  completed  returns  to  the  ‘Icebox’  to  be  rescheduled.  

Group  exercise  – task  boardHow  to  set  up  a  task  board  based  on  your  user  stories§ Add  your  user  story§ Prioritise the  stories§ Break  into  tasks.

Task  board  templateWe’ve  created  a  template you  can  copy

Holding  a  Stand-­‐upEvery  morning  the  team  meets  for  10  minutes.  We  tell  each  other:

§ the  single  most  important  thing  we  worked  on  yesterday

§ the  single  most  important  thing  to  work  on  that  day

§ anything  that  is  blocking  us  from  completing  our  work.

This  helps  the  team  to:

§ find  out  what  everyone  is  doing  

§ focus  on  the  tasks  to  be  completed  that  day

§ share  blockers  and  get  help  to  remove  them  -­‐ saving  time.

Exercise  – Stand-­‐upBefore  the  break  we  asked  you  to  think  about  one  thing  you’ve  learnt  today  that  you  could  implement  and  which  would  transform  your  organisation,  tell  us  what  it  is.

Let’s  stand  up!

Building  a  community  of  publishersA  community  is  a  group  of  individuals  who  share  a  common  culture.  This  doesn’t  mean  they  need  to  sit  together,  however,  they  should  share  a  common  understanding.

Agile  helps  to  build  relationships  by:§ sharing  a  way  of  working  and  a  common  goal§ bring  people   together  from  different  disciplines§ using   their  skills  and  expertise  to  solve  a  problem.

Building  a  community  is  more  than  just  Sprinting,  it’s:§ encouraging  best  practice§ listening   to  feedback§ a  willingness   to  change§ treating  those  individuals  as  part  of  an  extended  team.

Developing  standards§We  use  our  blog  to  communicate  our  plans  to  our  publishing  community

§ New  guidelines  start  as  blog posts  before  we  adopt  them

§We  encourage  feedback  and  our  guidelines  are  considered  collaborative  documents

§ Our  standards  are  easily  accessible  through  our  website

§ Adopting  the  same  guidelines  helps  to  improve  the  quality  and  consistency  of  our  content

§ Examples  of  our  standards  include:§ Editorial  style  guide§ Image  guide

§We  invite  people  to  use  our  digital  tools.

Questions  and  answers

Thanks  for  coming§ If  you’d  like  to  chat  more,  please  join  (buy)  us  for  drink  later  

§Follow  us:§ @richprowse§ @justinowen§ @rhiangriggs

§ Follow  the  team  @uniofbathdmc

§ Find  out  what  we’re  doing  at  blogs.bath.ac.uk/digital.