This highly successful workshop took place on 3rd February 2022. 

It was aimed at people interested in using agile principles and methods to improve outcomes of Business Information and Market Research projects.

Neil Osmond CEO of Earthware Ltd. won the BHBIA's Ian Burgess Award for the delivery of this workshop in 2021. 

This success was a big factor in our decision to feature the topic on our programme in 2022, and we are delighted that Neil was willing to share his expertise once again, for the benefit of BHBIA members.

The workshop

Through a team exercise, attendees had the chance to explore the principles and values of Agile and the 'SCRUM' methodology in an intense learning experience. It was great to see such good engagement from the delegates throughout the day. They were enthusiastic to take on each task and as the day progressed we observed that their mind-set changed from being told what to do to making it happen!

Neil commented:

'For the second year, I just spent a fantastic, and intense, few hours with a team of BHBIA members learning all about Agile.  We started at where it came from, the four values and 12 principles, we introduced the Scrum methodology and within an hour the team (who didn’t previously know each other) were doing their first sprint designing a board game.  They quickly learned how to play to each other’s strengths and in one intense hour of work went from not having an idea to designing and planning the launch for a board game in the USA.  They used a bunch of new techniques such as planning poker, story points, definitions of done and MoSCoW to deliver a Minimum Viable Product.  We enjoyed exploring how some of these might transform their ways of working in the projects and organisations and a group of strangers finished the session as friends who had been on a journey together and created a new board game “Explorers!”'

Course outputs:

Delegate feedback

Comments from the delegates included:

• "It exceeded my expectations: The interactivity and the mix between being taught and actual doing. By demonstrating the pitfalls in the first sprint was a great way to help us learn."
• "Very practical exercises lead by a great facilitator who kept everyone engaged. Overall it was excellent."
• "Neil did a great job in putting the theory to practice. It really helped understanding how to apply agile in a real project"
• "Understanding the methods of Agile, but using it in a real life context - I now feel confident in my ability to use it in my own projects and settings."