Simpler business cases get projects going faster

We’ve put together an overview of the government’s Better Business Cases (BBC) framework showing you how to make it as simple as possible.

The Treasury developed the BBC process to help government make investment decisions that maximise public value.

All government agencies have to follow the guidance when getting funding for significant projects. Smaller projects share the aim of maximising value, but the process can be streamlined. Our guidance shows you how to keep your projects and business cases simple, small and speedy.

Discover the crux of your project

For a project to deliver results, everyone involved needs a shared understanding of what these results will be.

That’s why project discovery is a key step when you’re preparing business cases and setting up projects. Discovery is the process by which you build a shared understanding of what your project will achieve and how it will do so. Your aim is to hone in on the crux of the project: the simplest solution that delivers the greatest value.

Project discovery is a collaborative process. You need the development team, the key stakeholders and the voice of your users. You also need a structure that makes the process engaging, efficient and effective.

Discovery workshops

We’ve put a bit of time into refining our discovery process. The best way to collaborate is face-to-face (or screen-to-screen in the age of COVID) so we base our process around workshops. We’ve built up a toolkit of activities that we use to tailor each workshop to the specific project.

For certain projects we can facilitate a free discovery workshop.

Based on what we’ve learnt, we’ve also put together a step-by-step guide to running project discovery workshops. The guide includes:

• an example discovery workshop agenda
• step-by-step instructions for running the workshop
• templates for the activities
• example deliverables
• alternative activity options
• facilitation tips and tricks.

Winning at work the Agile way

Agile training is a great way to get on top of work (and stop it getting on top of you).

Agile was developed to stop complex work getting on top of teams. Breaking work into small prioritised batches that people pull in as they have capacity makes the job more manageable. As a result, Agile teams tend to be happier and more productive.

Train at your place via Zoom

Get ICAgile certified with our virtual Agile Professional Foundation training.

Run over 4 consecutive mornings, the course uses fun online activities to show you Agile in action. It gives you the practical grounding you need to bring Agile into your day-to-day work. The next course runs on 2–5 May.

Cyber security report shows incidents on the rise

CERT NZ, New Zealand’s cyber security agency, have released their security summary report for 2021.

Last year saw a 13% increase in incidents reported to the agency. The top three types of incidents were:

1. phishing and credential harvesting
2. malware
3. scams and fraud.

Are you involved in Agile software development, either on the development or the client side? If you’re after a non-technical summary of what to do when it comes to security — or what to expect your developers to do — check out our guide.