Team-driven onboarding — get everyone up to speed fast

When new members join a team, you want to bring them on board in a way that quickly gets the whole team running at full steam ahead. You need to make the new arrivals feel welcome and help them get to know the work and the people they’ll be working with.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is to get onboarding ideas from the team itself. With that in mind, our Agile lead Rebecca has designed a session to step you through this process.

The Welcome aboard retrospective is a one-hour get-together in which the team looks back at their time on the project in order to find ways to support the new arrivals.

For the new crew, having the team you’re joining brainstorm the best ways they can bring you on board is a great welcome to the team.

De-risking software projects — a simple US government guide

Recognising that only 13% of large government IT projects succeed, the US government has put out a non-technical guide on how to set up projects for success.

It’s non-technical for two reasons.

Firstly, you don’t need to be a techie to follow it. The De-risking guide is for the people who manage and fund projects. That includes executives, managers, project sponsors and leads, product owners and procurement teams.

Secondly, it doesn’t focus on technology. The guide’s main focus is on processes and practices: things like planning, project management, budgeting and procurement.

There are actually two guides, the Federal field guide and the State software budgeting handbook. In the New Zealand context, the Federal guide would be the place to start.

The guide was put together by 18F, a US federal government agency set up to help other government agencies build, buy, and share technology products. With that in mind, the guide is simple, clear and practical.

For a different perspective on the same subject and approach, check out our CEO Nathan’s Project risk management guide.

If you’re wondering about the name 18F, it refers to their address, 1800 F St, Washington DC.

Introducing your Introduction to Agile hosts

One of the benefits of our free fortnightly Introduction to Agile is that you’re learning from working Agile coaches. Every day, Ruka, Mette and Erin put the principles of Agile into practice delivering real world projects. This means they have a wealth of practical experience in the Agile methodologies covered in the workshop.

Run via Zoom, this 2-hour interactive workshop takes place every second Friday afternoon.

The workshop is not just for people working on software projects. With an understanding of the Agile mindset, you can apply the approach in all kinds of roles and sectors. The Intro is for anyone wanting to understand how the Agile way of working can help you get more done, with less stress, week after week.

Free Intro to Agile — help us spread the word

We run the free Introduction to Agile because going Agile has made us much more effective and resilient, and we want to help other people make similar gains. It’s one way we achieve our purpose as a company: helping others have positive and lasting impacts.

If you’ve been to the Intro and found it useful, we’d love it if you helped spread the word.

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Last Agile Professional Foundation course of the year

You have one chance left to attend our Agile certification training this year.

The last course runs on 6–9 December.

Held online via Zoom, this Agile immersion course runs over four consecutive mornings, giving you the afternoon to digest the day’s learnings.

The course sets you up to bring the benefits of Agile into your professional life. It uses hand-on activities to demonstrate the Agile mindset and the tools that let you put it into practice. Completing the course gives you professional certification with the International Consortium for Agile, opening up an array of career options.

Have your say on the government's Digital Strategy for Aotearoa

The government has put out a discussion paper to get feedback as they develop a Digital Strategy for Aotearoa.

Boost’s fave TV shows streaming now

With other options out thanks to COVID, finding good TV has become a bit of a priority. Here are the shows now streaming in New Zealand that the team at Boost voted as our favourites.