Ways of working
Work flexibly, build a skilled team and collaborate across different organisations.
Test and learn uses the tools and techniques of agile project management. Agile helps teams deliver work in short repeated cycles, often called iterations. Teams continuously test and improve their work, rather than waiting to release it all at once.
Agile puts testing with users at the centre of the process. It relies on people working closely together, sharing updates and ideas regularly.
Teams use agile methods to:
- structure their day-to-day work
- keep their work visible
- collaborate effectively
- learn continuously
Standup
Run a daily check-in of up to 15 minutes where your team shares:
- what they’ve done
- what they’re working on
- whether anything is blocking them
Use standups to keep everyone up to date without long briefings.
Backlog
Maintain a prioritised list of everything the team needs to do. A backlog records what the team is working on and what’s coming next.
Use your backlog as the single source of truth to make priorities visible to everyone, including stakeholders and people outside of the team.
You can also keep a backlog of test ideas that you or others revisit later.
Sprint
Work in short, fixed timeframes, usually 1 or 2 weeks, where the team:
- agrees what to focus on
- completes the work
- reviews what they’ve achieved
Use the sprint well and all other tasks should follow from it.
Sprint planning
Plan at the start of each sprint to turn your backlog priorities into a deliverable list. In this meeting, your team agrees on what work to finish next.
Sprint review
Review completed work at the end of each sprint to check progress against your plan and keep the wider team updated.
In this meeting, your team:
- marks the sprint as finished
- checks progress towards overall goals
- records lessons learned
Show and tell
Share progress regularly with stakeholders and colleagues to build trust across the organisation. In these regular meetings, your team:
- shows what they’ve done
- explains what they’ve learned
- answers questions from the audience
Use show and tells to build trust and share progress across the organisation.
Retrospective
Reflect regularly on how your team is working together, rather than on what they’re delivering. During a retrospective, or retro, the team:
- discusses what’s working well
- talks openly about mistakes
- agrees on practical changes to improve how you work
Read the Service Manual guidance on agile tools and techniques.
Agile governance
Make sure your team has the authority to make day-to-day decisions. Keep stakeholders informed by sharing evidence rather than writing long documents.
Read the Service Manual guidance on governance principles for agile.
An agile approach only succeeds if the team feels it’s safe to be honest about their work and challenge each other.
While every team is different, these principles help create an environment that supports agile ways of working.
Expect uncertainty
Work will not always follow a predictable plan. Be ready to learn as you go, adapt when things change and make decisions without having all the answers.
Make it safe to speak up
You should be able to talk about mistakes, ask for help and challenge ideas without fear of blame. Raising a concern early makes it easier to sort out.
Own the work together
Agile teams do not stick rigidly to their roles. Share responsibility for getting the work done, support each other and focus on outcomes over individual ownership.
Follow the evidence
Use what you learn to guide your decisions. Change course when evidence points in a different direction.
Keep moving
Take action, learn from what happens and adjust. Progress comes from doing, not planning.
Read the Service Manual guidance on core principles of agile.
Public policy challenges are complex and constantly changing. Different user needs, local circumstances and limited evidence mean you cannot know in advance what will work.
Taking a traditional approach to delivery is risky because it relies on:
- planning everything at the start
- delivering a finished intervention or service
- evaluating results at the end
A team may spend months working on something, only to find it does not solve the problem. Agile ways of working help teams manage this uncertainty.
You may also need to adapt agile practices to your situation, for example if different organisations are involved in the same policy area.
Focus team effort
Balance work that could bring the biggest benefit with work that can happen quickly.
Use early planning and design to identify opportunities for immediate progress, choosing work that motivates your team and matches the time they have available.
Share information openly
If you work across different organisations, not everyone will have access to the main team’s communication channels or meetings. An agile approach depends on everyone in the wider team being able to take part, whichever organisation they’re in.
You should:
- send updates from your sprint reviews to people outside the main team, summarising progress, learnings and next steps
- keep updates clear and consistent
- invite everyone to show and tells so they can see work in progress
Read about including other organisations in your team.
Agree the sign-off process early
Decide how people in different organisations will sign off on work and raise issues to avoid approval delays.
You should confirm this process before committing people or budget to a project.
Read the Service Manual guidance on core principles of agile.
The test and learn approach needs a team with the right mix of knowledge, skills and experience. Bringing these roles together into one team is called a multidisciplinary team (MDT). Working as an MDT is essential to test and learn.
This core team does the day-to-day work. An MDT does not include everyone who supports or advises on the work.
Many MDTs are made up of people from a single organisation. However, you can also build a team by working with people from different organisations.
Benefits of working this way
MDTs make better decisions because members are more likely to bring new ideas and challenge bias.
They also deliver faster and more effectively than people working separately.
Challenges of working this way
MDTs often include specialists from different fields who rarely work together, such as a social worker and a service designer.
Team members from different backgrounds may:
- use different jargon
- prefer different methods
- rely on different tools and software
How to manage these challenges
Set up your team as a group of equals where no one dominates.
Your team will thrive when members respect each other’s skills and experience. Progress is easier when the shared goal matters more than individual methods.
Not everyone needs to agree with an idea. They only need to agree that it’s safe to try, even if it’s not their first choice.
Read the guidance on equal roles and decision making.
The exact people you need will depend on the context you’re working in.
A person on your team may have a mix of the skills you need. Your team may be:
- smaller if people have skills across several areas
- larger if people specialise in a single area
Core team members need dedicated time to work on a test and learn project, for example 15 hours or more a week. Test and learn work cannot be an add-on to a full-time job.
Deciding which skills to include
You should consider including these skills in your team:
- design – to help solve problems and develop interventions that meet people’s needs
- project management – to use agile tools and keep the work moving
- monitoring and evaluation – to track progress, measure impact and use evidence to improve interventions
- research – to find and interpret data and insights, and conduct user research
- strategy – to manage uncertainty, and allocate time and money to achieve objectives
Depending on your context, you may also need a:
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data engineer – to build data services if you’re running a digital or data project
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data governance specialist – to apply laws on collecting and sharing data if you handle personal data
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delivery manager – to remove barriers and help the team work together if your team has limited capacity or competing priorities
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policy specialist – to guide your team through legal and policy processes if you work with central government programmes
Forming a new team takes time and effort. Set up your multidisciplinary team (MDT) as early as possible. Create a flexible structure from the start so you can bring in new people without disrupting the work. Build a team that feels inclusive, safe and supportive.
Setting team expectations
In MDTs, people work together as equals to deliver a shared goal. If people feel more loyal to their professional background than to the team, they may make decisions that suit their profession rather than the project.
Set expectations early by agreeing how you’ll make decisions and set boundaries for each role, so everyone understands:
- their role within the team
- when they can decide alone
- when they need to work together
- shared responsibilities and collective decision making
Read the Service Manual guidance on governance principles for agile.
Sharing working preferences
It can be helpful if each team member shares a ‘manual of me’ – a short document setting out how they work best. It can cover:
- work patterns and hours
- communication preferences
- skills
- interests
When someone new joins, update these documents and run a ways of working session. Use this session to agree meeting schedules and frequencies, communication tools and decision-making processes.
Improving how you work together
Run retrospectives regularly to surface tensions, review your ways of working and fix issues quickly. Read the guidance on running retrospectives.
Mapping stakeholders
Identify the people whose support, guidance or authority you need. You can map your stakeholders using the Team Onion framework by Emily Webber.
Think about who to involve, including:
- the main MDT delivering the work
- experts who advise the team, share contacts and inform decisions
- senior stakeholders who support or champion the work and are part of your governance structure
Working across different organisations brings a wider range of experience and knowledge to a project. However, these teams can be more complex to set up and manage.
Deciding who to involve
The organisations you involve in your work will depend on your context. You may need insight from:
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academia – to find out what research is happening in your area and who is doing it
- the private sector – to understand how businesses work or for public-private partnerships
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central government – if your work touches complex policy, ministerial priorities or related programmes
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frontline staff – to understand how services work for the people you’re trying to reach
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people with lived experience – if your work affects people in vulnerable situations or involves under-represented groups
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local government – to understand context, what local leaders want and what’s happening nearby
- voluntary, community and social enterprises – if these organisations play a big part in your area
You can bring people in on secondment or through informal arrangements. Secondments take longer to set up but are more secure. Informal arrangements are quicker but carry the risk of people being pulled away by other priorities. Be pragmatic about which route you use.
Agreeing hosting and governance
Agree who hosts the team early. The host organisation usually sets the rules for:
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what data you can access
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what software and tools you use
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where information is stored
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which professional standards you follow
Governance must work across all the organisations involved. Oversight needs to stay flexible and proportionate.
Read the Service Manual guidance on governance principles for agile.
Protecting the conditions you need to do the work
Each organisation you work with needs to give people time to do the work. Core team members need 15 hours or more a week on a test and learn project. Agree how daily tasks will be covered if they’re needed for urgent work in their own organisation.