As part of Work Experience Week, Opencast attended Jesmond Park Academy to deliver a practical and engaging workshop for BTEC Applied Science students. The session was run by Scott Axon and Laura Martin and focused on introducing students to the fundamentals of Agile delivery and the key roles involved in a technology project.

They worked with a cohort of 20 students, split into four teams of five. Each team was assigned the following core Agile delivery roles:

• Business Analyst (BA)
• Developer
• Quality Assurance (QA)
• User-Centred Design (UCD)
• Client

The session began with an introduction to the Business Analyst role, with a spotlight on how BAs collaborate with other team members and stakeholders to understand and translate business needs into actionable solutions.

Each group was then guided through four different scenarios, designed to simulate real-world delivery challenges. Using LEGO as a creative tool, students were tasked with fulfilling client requirements by:

• Collaborating in their defined roles
• Communicating clearly to gather and refine requirements
• Testing and iterating on their LEGO builds based on feedback
• Presenting their final solution back to the “client”

During the session we encouraged the students to use key transferrable skills such as using questioning as a method to ensure that they fully understood the clients needs. This encouraged good understanding of the requirements they were working with and showed they fully understood the ask.

The hands-on format allowed students to step into the shoes of each role and experience first-hand the importance of teamwork, iterative delivery, and user-centred thinking.