Take a Look: Inside the New DASA Ambassador Program

Over the last year the DevOps Agile Skills Association (DASA) has been receiving questions from many forerunners and partners searching for support in their local area, and we have also been hearing that some of you are interested in serving as a representative of DASA in your community. During the DASA Connect Europe 2017 conference, many participants reiterated these needs.

With all of these requests flowing in, we decided to respond by developing and launching the DASA Ambassador Program. In developing the program, we have had to address two main challenges – 1) Determining Ambassador eligibility and requirements, and 2) Ensuring that DASA thought leadership and messaging remains consistent and clear.

Designing the Program

We took the opportunity during the conference to engage participants in a discussion around the potential structure of the program including whether Ambassadors should be paid or volunteers, how many should be appointed per country, and who should be eligible. Inputs from conference participants helped us to improve and validate our program design details.

It took us some time to finalize the structure for this program, but we did it, and now we’re releasing it to the market. We believe that the Ambassador Program is a long awaited addition to DASA, and that it will help to encourage further adoption of DASA DevOps and Agile initiatives within organizations.

Ambassador, Embajador, Ambassadeur

But what is the Ambassador program and how can it help DASA achieve its goals? The DASA Ambassador program is designed to increase awareness for DASA both online and in local markets. DASA Ambassadors influence, create commitment, contribute and disseminate DASA thought leadership.

DASA Ambassadors are considered volunteers and are typically employed by a current DASA Forerunner organization, which sponsors the Ambassador. The Ambassador ensures there is no conflict of interest, and he/she will not promote or represent the Forerunner organization. At the same time though, the Forerunner will benefit from building awareness in the market, and the credibility associated with the Ambassador.

There can be multiple Ambassadors within one country, and the configuration depends on the size of the country, its maturity level, and the Ambassador profiles. Because there are different working groups, within a small country, one Ambassador may be focused on social media engagement while another has a stronger interest to speak on behalf of DASA.

Supporting Ambassadors in the Field

The DASA Editorial and Marketing boards have always worked very closely together in designing and marketing DASA portfolios. The risk of working with Ambassadors who are engaged yet isolated in their local markets across the world, is that communication could potentially break down, leaving Ambassadors feeling unsupported.

To tackle this challenge, we have proposed a structure within the DASA Ambassador Program that ensures a close link from the Ambassadors back to DASA and also encourages community and collaboration between Ambassadors across the world. Under this structure, Ambassadors create their own local engagement plan and discuss this on a monthly basis with DASA. To enable Ambassadors further and to allow them to focus on work they feel passionate about, they will choose from one of 4 Ambassador working groups (on-boarding, engagement, social media, events) where they will collaborate with other Ambassadors on shared projects. The events group for example will work on speaking opportunities and collaborate on the content of presentations.

With this structure in place, we believe we have created a solid foundation for Ambassadors to flourish and stimulate local market development. With the program developed, and officially launched – we look forward to announcing the first Ambassadors in the coming months.

Learn more about the details and requirements for becoming a DASA Ambassador.