Creating a workplace culture to be proud of

We’re super chuffed to have won the WorldBlu freedom-centred culture award for 2019. We’re the only company in Oceania to have won this year, and one of only 33 in the world.

The award certifies that Boost follows the principles of organisational democracy. To evaluate this, everyone at Boost gets a survey assessing how empowered they are and how they experience Boost’s culture.

It’s our eighth year joining an elite group that includes billion dollar global powerhouses like WD-40 and Zappos.

Building a democratic workplace is a journey not a destination. It’s something we’re always working at. That’s because there are clear benefits from doing so.

It’s really satisfying to work somewhere that gives all staff the freedom to make the greatest contribution possible. And then there’s the bottom line. WorldBlu-certified companies, for example, averaged 103% revenue growth compared to only 15% among S&P 500 companies.

That’s been our experience at Boost. Our revenue is growing, and, crucially, so is the company. And this matters, because it lifts our capacity to help others create a positive and lasting impact.

Lock in quality and value with the Definition of Done

In Scrum, the Definition of Done helps you produce work you can be proud of, Sprint after Sprint.

Having a Definition of Done gives your team a common understanding of what you need to do to deliver work of releasable quality. This means you can test each Sprint’s work with customers to make sure it's just what they need. And you can build in quality at every step, avoiding costly rework.

Even though delivering releasable Increments is fundamental to successful Scrum projects, the Definition of Done often gets overlooked. It can be hard to come up with one and hard to keep to it once it’s in place. So we’ve put together a bunch of examples, tips and traps to help you do right by your Definition of Done.

Preview the course on YouTube  →

Last chance to do our two-day Agile training

Just a reminder that the 17–18 June course is the last we’ll be running for a while, as our Agile coaches have their hands full with client projects at the moment.

The Agile Professional Foundation is a two-day ICAgile-certified course that sets you up to achieve more the moment you get back to work, no matter what work you do.

You’ll get a comprehensive introduction to Agile values, principles and practices, and then complete exercises that show you the principles in action. Interactive and engaging, the training is a fun way to find new techniques to help you have an impact you can be proud of.

Searching for a greener world

Ecosia is a search engine that lets you plant trees while you search the web, giving you the satisfaction of knowing you’re making a difference each time you dig out the information you need.

New government web standards

Success for the teams who run public sector websites doesn’t just mean creating great sites, it means creating sites that everyone in New Zealand can easily use.

The accessibility and usability standards that guide this work have just been updated. The update is effective from 1 July this year and the main change is that sites now have to follow WCAG 2.1 — the World Wide Web Consortium’s latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.