Case Study: The University of Hull

AgileDS, The University of Hull and Evoco

Lampada Digital Solutions, an innovative partnership between the University of Hull and business leadership and change specialists Evoco, is using the Agile Business Consortium’s Agile Digital Services (AgileDS™) approach to give graduates the opportunity to develop and grow their skills on live projects.

The challenge:

Matching methodology to demand

Formed in July 2017, Lampada Digital Solutions is a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Hull and incorporates the Digital Delivery Academy, which is managed by Evoco Digital Services. The Digital Delivery Academy took part in the beta development phase of AgileDS, which was created by the Agile Business Consortium and accredited by APMG.

Through Lampada, university graduates are employed on competitive salaries to deliver live projects to paying clients.

Chris Hewitt of Evoco and Academy Director at Lampada Digital Solutions said an agile methodology was needed that would meet the various educational demands of the trainee developers and the variety of customers they would be working for, which included public and private sector organisations.

The solution:

AgileDS

AgileDS has proved versatile as we are already using it to deliver for several customers including two in central government and one university. For government customers the developers can fit in really quickly, and for the university, this is a slightly newer way of working but fits in well with their future plans - Chris Hewitt

One of the key advantages of the AgileDS approach for Lampada is that the training course covers a broad range of topics at different levels of detail. Some are covered in-depth and others are at an awareness level with signposting for further resources. This helps give developers a broad understanding of agility and the range of skills needed to fit into a modern team.

Chris added: “The emphasis on user research and user experience has been a real eye-opener as university degrees often focus on more traditional, documentation heavy methods rather than engaging face-to-face with real users. This interaction is vital to our way of working and ability to deliver great outcomes. This is of significant benefit to Lampada’s clients, in that they get to see prototypes more quickly, and the outputs are more closely aligned to their needs. The student developers are receiving training and experience that is closely matched to their future in business, which means that they should be more employable, and find it easier to acclimatise to their new roles.”

Happy students, happy clients

It’s almost like agile has come full-circle from its roots in software development, proven its worth in many other areas and now with the interest in digital everyone in the team needs to know enough about modern software development and AgileDS helps us achieve that

The most recent intake of graduates started on the AgileDS course on day two of their employment which has given them a flying start when it comes to tackling their first real development project.

Feedback from the students has been good, with AgileDS allowing them to really get to grips with agile working having either only touched on the methods at university or having had no contact with agile at all.

How to find out more:

AgileDS brings a digital services approach to agile project delivery. The AgileDS qualification provides the knowledge to develop a consistent approach, common language and a skilled workforce for the successful design, delivery and evolution of digital services, using guidance aligned with the Service Manual of Government Digital Service, the UK Government’s department responsible for digital transformation.

Learn more and find a trainer: APMG - Agile Digital Services (AgileDS™)

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