WHY DEV

Authenticity on purpose

So often you can see how deeply mission is a part of culture by looking at the formation documents of a company. If they had total clarity it would be locked in. If a organisation is using the default for-profit model you know their real purpose is to make money for shareholders above all else.

At DEV we co-created our mission statement:

Be the obvious choice for empowering world-changers through creativity, technology and strategy.

We legally locked that in to our formation documents:

Carry on any business for the benefit of the community by providing Internet, back office, technology development, creative and other digital and electronic services to charities, not-for-profit organisations and social movements working on social and environmental justice struggles and more equitable development.

That’s how we stay authentic, if we didn’t care we’d just be a for-profit company, looking for the projects with the best margins.

We believe:

• That non-profits and charities desperately need digital modernisation. If we can’t get 40,000 organisations modernised in 5 years, we’ve missed it.
• That this is fundamental to seeing the positive impact on the world we’re looking for, if we get this right, the world will change for the better.
• That the two signs of an organisation being digitally healthy are
  1. Doing user-centred test-driven project inception
  2. Delivering continually evolving digital projects in an agile manner
• That money isn’t the blocker to this change, it’s expertise of delivery, showing rather than telling organisations how to be.
• The best way to impart this learning is to work along side organisations so they absorb the knowledge transfer, and future projects have to flow this way.

How we do this

1. We deliver great digital projects, in a way that allows agile delivery to start and continually move forward in sprints.
2. We use technology in a way that enabled this process rather than simply enabling the project to be completed.
3. We build infrastructure and best practice and distill it into a shape optimised for non-profits and charities budgets.
4. We have tried and tested workshops that help organisations transition from waterfall toward agile (a hard space for us to hold) and learn how to do user-lead test-driven development.
5. We’ve build a team that owns this mission, and is fully empowered to help us adapt to the changing needs of the sector.
6. We’re a template organisation for others to adopt.

What we do

1. Consulting - workshops and processes to help you understand your needs, and learn how to learn.
2. Digital projects - we deliver well, so you can learn best practice. Learn how to be agile in digital delivery.

This is what I do, it’s what drives me every morning.