As Jacinda Ardern pointed out when she launched Creative NZ’s arts survey, the arts benefit our local communities, our personal well-being and our economy.
The more our communities are involved in the arts, the greater the benefits.
New Community arts toolkit
That’s why we’ve loved the work we’ve been doing with Creative NZ on their new Community arts toolkit Keteparaha Mō Ngā Toi Hapori.
Community arts are created by, with, and for a community. The toolkit makes it easy for you and your community to be actively involved in creating art — whatever the art, whatever the community.
The government has just inked a new Cloud, Software and Services Agreement with Microsoft. Designed to pass on economies of scale to agencies, the MCSSA has been simplified and set up to help agencies move to the Cloud.
If you’d like to attend a workshop on the new agreement, contact microsoftcssa@dia.govt.nz. The workshops will be held in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
If you’re looking for a web or application development agency, the Government web services panel makes it easier and cheaper to find one.
At Boost, we’re very pleased to be on the panel. That’s because partnering with government agencies is a powerful way to create a positive and lasting impact for the people of New Zealand, and so achieve our purpose as a company.
Earlier in the month we had the 1000th request for our Agile project kick-off kit, celebrating the milestone with yummy Kick-off kit cupcakes.
In the 11 months since we put it out we’ve had some great feedback. Hearing people call it “awesome” and a “valuable contribution to the profession” is super gratifying. We’ve also had handy suggestions for future improvements and would love to hear more. Email james@boost.co.nz if you’ve any ideas.
Wondering what the kit is all about? It's a single-day workshop designed to set your project up for success. It steps you through a series of fun, collaborative activities that:
build a shared vision of how your work will make the world a better place
bond the team as a tight unit aligned behind the vision
ruthlessly prioritise the work that will have the biggest impact
let you do all this quickly so you can deliver a working product sooner.
In a complex world, leaders need a decision-making framework that recognises and responds to complexity.
Are you the leader of an organisation that makes a lasting impact in the lives of New Zealanders? If so, we have limited spaces available for a workshop we are hosting with award-winning management consultant Dave Snowden.
The workshop will show you how you can use an understanding of complexity to bring about change.
When: Thursday 16 August, 9am–2pm Where: Boost, Level 5, 57-59 Courtenay Place, Wellington Who: C-suite or people involved in the planning and strategy of your organisation How to secure a seat: Contact James on james@boost.co.nz or 04 939 0062 to see if you are eligible.
While numbers are limited, you’ll get the biggest benefit if you attend with a colleague so we are happy to consider requests for more than one seat per organisation.
About Dave Snowden
Dave Snowden is the director of the Centre for Applied Complexity at The University of Wales and founder of Cognitive Edge.
Formerly he was Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management at IBM, where he developed the Cynefin framework, one of the first practical applications of complexity theory to management science. Cynefin is a Welsh word with no direct equivalent in English. Pronounced ‘kuh-nev-in’, it can be translated as ‘place of multiple belongings’.
There are lots of different ways you can measure the success of work you’re doing (such as time taken, budget saved, scope achieved or quality delivered). There are also often trade-offs between these measures.
Success sliders are a transparent, collaborative, face-to-face approach for getting agreement on which goals are most important to your team.
We’re very pleased to welcome three new shipmates aboard the good ship Boosty McBoostface.
Natalie Foley is our new office administrator, Nick Schuler is our new designer and Lauren Carey our new Agile Coach-in-training.
Set up your career with certified Agile training
To succeed at work you need build your career on a solid foundation. The Agile Professional Foundation is a two-day course that gives you a firm grounding in the fundamentals of Agile. Completing the course opens up opportunities as an Agile practitioner in one of eight ICAgile career tracks:
Agile Coaching
Agile Engineering
Agile Testing
Business Agility
Delivery Management
DevOps
Enterprise Agile Coaching
Product Ownership
On top of that, you get to claim 16 units towards becoming a Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner.
Practical, interactive and entertaining, the course is a fun way to further your career.
RailsBridge is a free weekend workshop for underrepresented peoples looking to get a taste of the tech world. Growing out of Rails Girls Wellington, it aims to provide a warm and encouraging environment to learn about Ruby, Rails and more.
Boost is sponsoring the workshop, which takes place on August 11 – 12 at Flux Federation, 86 Customhouse Quay.
You can catch up on past issues, or subscribe, on the Boost News archive page. You’ll get Agile tools and tips, development case studies, business change ideas and links to intriguing corners of the interwebs.
Sign up for Agile Professional Foundation - our next course is 13–14 August. Get the skills to deliver successful projects that deliver more value, faster.
