Agile fundamentals for teams

In this video, we’ll walk through the four key phases of Agile delivery. These phases help you deliver products and services that meet user needs. It also gives you the flexibility to respond to changing circumstances. Agile is all about continuous improvement, collaboration, and delivering value early and often. It’s flexible: it allows you to focus on user needs. It also enables you to build products and services that are accessible and effective. 

First, we have the Discovery phase. This usually lasts between 4 to 8 weeks. It will vary depending on how much you already know. This phase is where the team works to understand the problem. To do this, teams identify the needs of users. What are users trying to achieve? This is also the time where teams learn about constraints. This ensures they're aware of the implications before they get started. Teams work with users and stakeholders, asking key questions: What are the challenges? What opportunities exist? The Discovery phase also helps teams define what success looks like. All this knowledge gained, helps clarify the steps needed to achieve the vision. This allows you to begin to create a high-level roadmap. You will outline key milestones and phases for how you plan to achieve the vision over time. At this point, it will be broad. So, you can expect it to evolve as you move through the rest of the phases. Alongside this, you can also begin building a backlog. You'll use the insights gained from the Discovery phase to inform this. It will consist of the specific work items that you plan to complete in the next phases. 

Next is Alpha. This phase usually takes between 6 and 8 weeks. In Alpha, the team starts experimenting. You'll look at different ways to solve the problems you identified in the Discovery. Teams create prototypes and test different approaches on a small scale. It's your opportunity to explore new ways to do things. The goal is to learn what works and what doesn’t. This is the time to fail fast and pivot if needed. By the end of Alpha, you should have a good understanding of the best way to deliver your service. This is what you'll take forward into the next phase. 

Beta is where things start taking shape. In this phase, you’ll build a working version of the product or service. You'll base this on what you learned in Alpha. You’ll release it to a wider audience, but it’s still not the final version. At this stage, you’re improving the product or service. You'll be testing it with real users, and iterating based on their feedback. The aim is to minimise risk, whilst maximising opportunities to learn. The focus here is on ensuring the service is robust and ready for live use. 

Following a successful Beta phase, the product or service becomes Live. This is when it's operational and available to everyone. But the work doesn’t stop here! Teams continue to track performance, respond to user feedback, and make updates. Agile delivery is an ongoing process. There’s always room for improvement to meet changing needs. 

To recap, Agile delivery consists of four key phases: Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live. Each phase builds on the last. This ensures that public sector services are user-centred, accessible, and improve over time. You will be well placed to deliver high-quality services that meet the needs of people in Wales.