Managing an agile team of internal and external partners

Managing an agile team is one thing when you're all part of the same organisation, so how do you manage a hyper-creative, cross-functional team made up of partners from many various agencies?

Our make-up is quite unique: we are an in-house product team and two procured agencies. 

We have a brand team that owns the vision for the product, manages on-the-ground delivery, and supports and trains users on the front line; a Drupal consulting agency procured part-time to lead on technology and agile transformation; and a separate agency of developers (in-house and outsourced) with dedicated Scrum Master. 

We're a team of around 8 core people working to design, build and test product iterations for the Investors in People online suite (https://www.investorsinpeople.com/). 

This presentation will take you through the steps we have faced in applying agile principles in our context, including a look at the successes, the failures, the pitfalls and the many opportunities. Some of the topics we will cover are:

• Alignment: collaborating on one shared goal.
• Communication: communicating the product vision to external developers (PO); bringing multiple parties together in line with one sprint goal (SM); communicating product developments and value back to the business (PO).
• Product delivery: managing an in-life product, iterative releases and a large user base.
• Organisational shift: championing the value of agile to the wider Investors in People business and promoting culture shift.