Foundry4 run discoveries with a pragmatic rather than dogmatic approach - with a strong focus on co-design with the client team members.

We use a lightweight lean/agile approach which focuses on a rapid cycle of sprint-planning and delivery activities (including daily stand-up meetings and regular showcase activities, and sprint retrospectives. This ensures work is delivered both quickly and incrementally, enabling us to demonstrate real progress and capture early feedback.

Our method is strongly influenced by the approach Will Myddelton wrote about and also the way Sarah Prag tackles things. But it is flexible enough to react to the context on the ground. Our methodology provides a framework that our teams iterate based on what works best for the problem at hand.

Whilst Discovery is a team sport, goals are assigned to individual Discovery team members - it helps to give individuals responsibility for ensuring delivery. The goals are loosely divided amongst the team in line with the Discovery Blocks diagram:

A recent addition to our ways of working is a commitment to following the advice from this guidance published by Doteveryone about writing better final 'reports' - https://doteveryone.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Doteveryone-definition-of-done-.pdf.

Project principles

• Work in the open
• Actively share as we go
• Run agile with user-centered design
• Publish week notes

Agile practices

The team:

• Uses sprint planning to commit to a set of tasks to achieve within a sprint
• Maintains an open project board
• Works with the Product Owner to define and prioritise the backlog
• Regularly conducts sprint retrospectives
• Conduct weekly show & tells