I joined i3Works in October 2020, and am starting to settle into my new role as a trainee. In the run up to Christmas, it seems like a good time to check in let people know how I’m getting on.
by Alec Bosomworth, senior consultant and Agile PM subject matter expert
Agile is seen as a new and exciting term; one which is being increasingly used as more and more organisations choose to “go agile”, with promises of better customer satisfaction and rapid delivery. All too often, however, these aspirations fall short. In my experience, this is often due to the misconception that agile is a method.
Yep, you read that correctly – agile is not a method.
by James Marwood, head of Public Sector Transformation
I don’t like buzzwords or management catchphrases. They may sound good sometimes, but they rarely add anything. You can keep your “helicopter views”, “synergies”, and your “going forwards”. However, there is one term being used more often nowadays that could easily be mistaken for one of these bits of jargon, but one which shouldn’t be mistaken for ‘trying to impress’.
Functional coherence is increasingly important, especially as large organisations seek to realise the value in their investments in digital technologies. As a result, it’s coming up in meetings more and more, but given the puzzled reactions of some of the people involved in those meetings, it’s clearly not always fully understood. So, with that in mind, allow me to explain.
When an organisation takes on a project, it is inevitably looking to implement change. This change means doing something differently to how it’s been done before, with the expectation that specific, defined benefits can be achieved.
Last week (Monday 19 October) we completed our i3Institute 2020 intake by welcoming five project controls students. This week, their training ramps up as lessons in planning, risk and cost management officially begin.
I joined Avon and Somerset Constabulary on an apprenticeship
programme within the Criminal Justice Department immediately after finishing my
GCSEs. That was the start of my thirteen-year career, taking me on a diverse
career path from police community support officer to Major Crime Investigation
Team helping investigate homicides.
During my career in the police force I had many secondments. I enjoyed being an executive assistant for the assistant chief constable in Gloucestershire Police, and helping set up the Outreach Team with the aim of making Avon and Somerset a more diverse organisation.
Projects are
all about delivering benefits. If what you’re doing isn’t going to improve your
organisation, what’s the point of the project in the first place? However, the benefits
driving a project are all too often lost in translation. In my experience, this
is generally because people don’t go far enough in interrogating their
requirements and capturing the tangible improvements they seek.
Welcome to the family, Freddie, Mary, Lewis and Alice
Yesterday (Monday 21st September) we had the pleasure of welcoming four new graduate consultants during a face-to-face induction day in Corsham. The day consisted of introductions from our current graduates, plenty of coffee, and a taste of things to come from programme lead Alec Bosomworth, Head of People Helen Sanders, and company director Ben Ames.
It’s fair to say that summer 2020 has not turned out as any of us expected when we were making plans at the start of the year. Instead, we have experienced cancelled holidays and distanced visits with loved ones, all while adapting to remote working and an ever-changing business landscape. We have truly been tested on both a professional and personal level these past few months.
We are proud to announce the official recognition and resulting trademark of our own training academy, the i3Institute®.
Over the last four years, we have supported and trained significant numbers of people from all backgrounds and careers, turning them into subject matter experts now firmly embedded within defence, IT and infrastructure roles at some of our major clients.