DVA engaged Pragma’s experienced assessors to work with internal staff to undertake the assessment, provide coaching services and reusable tools, all designed to embed the knowledge internally.

Pragma commenced the engagement by collaborating with key stakeholders to identify the highest priority projects. Following the Digital Transformation Agency’s (DTA) methodology (e.g. Alpha, Beta, Live), we undertook staged-assessments against the highest-priority projects using the Digital Service Standard to ensure advice and recommendations could be discovered quickly. 

For less critical digital services and where appropriate, in-flight assessments were conducted with teams. Pragma gave direction and coached project teams to ensure agile and user-centred practices were embedded in delivery teams to ensure that they had the best chance to progress through the delivery stages. 

Pragma advised the delivery team on which ceremonies, artefacts and techniques would be useful to each digital service and provided sample artefacts with accompanying explanations to demonstrate the value of improving delivery practices. 

In addition, we were assigned ‘shadow assessors’, designed to embed best practice assessment techniques and provide guidance on the line of questioning and supporting evidence required for an assessment.

The assessment reports delivered were of a high standard and identified components of the projects done well and recommendations for improvement across the categories in the Digital Service Standard. 

By providing coaching/mentoring services to DVA staff, DVA was able to retain this value internally and embed these practices across its stream of projects. Additionally, with appropriate user research, project delivery/management practices, measurements and controls, that are designed for integration and reuse, DVA can ensure a higher level of maturity for the Agile delivery of its services. 

We are proud to have had the opportunity to share our skills and knowledge to build this important capability within DVA.