Agile working and cross-functional teams have the ability to silo organisations into teams, programmes and functions. This leads to duplication or work, a reduction in sharing knowledge and worse cuts people off from their support network. At a time when organisations are scaling, structures are flattening and workforces are increasingly fluid, supporting and connecting people is more important than ever. This is where communities of practice come in.
Communities of practice have many valuable benefits for both individuals and organisations. In this session, Emily will draw from her experiences of developing communities of practice at the Government Digital Service, government departments and other organisations as well as case studies from her ongoing research into this area. To show you why Communities of practice are a vital piece of your Agile organisation and what role they can play.
Emily has been working with Agile teams for many years, she has a breath of experience of delivery and agile transformation in both the private and public sectors.
She was the Head of Agile Delivery at Government Digital Service (GDS), where she built, developed and led an amazing team of ~40 Agile delivery professionals, she created the model for developing communities of practice through her work with the Agile Delivery community, was the Agile champion across GDS and across wider government. At GDS, she was also the Programme Delivery manager for Cabinet Office Technology transformation during the initiation, ensuring that the project was user needs focused and Agile.
She is always seeking opportunities to give back to the Agile community and co-founded Agile on the Bench; a meet-up in London and a one day Agile conference and is often found speaking at Agile and Lean conferences and meet-ups.
She is passionate about agile, communities, organisational learning and skills development. She co-runs the meet-ups called Agile on the Bench, blogs at emilywebber.co.uk and has a weak spot for vintage scooters.
