17 October 2023 - DIG23 reflections - Lloyd Naylor
I was lucky enough to attend DIG 23 in October, with the intention to gain insight and discuss how other universities are tackling areas as diverse as sustainable IT, smart campus and approaches to moving to Agile delivery.
One of the highlights of the conference for me was the opportunity to share knowledge with other participants, who came from different backgrounds and sectors, but shared a common interest and passion for digitisation in Higher Education. We discussed the successes and challenges my peers are working through and how they were dealing with similar issues that we face at UCL. I was particularly interested in how others balanced the effort between sustainability, cost reduction and customer experience, and how to ensure that the digital strategy is aligned with the institutional mission and values.
Along with opportunity to network I attended sessions on the transformation to agile delivery. My takeaway from these sessions is Agile delivery is not only applicable to software development, but also broadly to digital education, including areas traditionally seen as "waterfall" only, such as Estates.
To be successful in the move to Agile delivery it must be understood it is not a one-off activity, but a continuous and integrated one. It requires a supportive and enabling environment, that provides the necessary resources, tools, training and guidance for the staff to adopt and practice Agile delivery.
Embracing Agile is an important step to delivering a Smart Campus. This can only be achieved with the support, vision and willingness for culture change from the whole organisation, and specifically a very close working relationship between Estates and IT, which is achieved through an Agile working. Without the Smart Campus target being held jointly between Estates and IT success would be very hard to achieve, given the impacts and dependencies on both teams.
My advice for someone to get the best out of a DIG Conference is they need to be curious and active. Before the conference, do some research on the speakers and the sessions, and choose the ones that interest you the most. During the conference, network with other attendees and speakers, and ask questions and share your opinions. After the conference, reflect on what you have learned and how you can apply it to your own work and context.
Do this and you'll both learn and have fun!
