Digital and Agile Specialist

Category: Digital Government

  • #GovermentIsOpen

    Why we need to bring user centric design into our Communications in the public Sector. Having been involved in the hiring of many Content and Interaction Designers in the last few years, we’ve always preferred candidates from within the Public Sector, because they tend to have the same specialisms as we in the Digital Data…

  • Delivering Digital Government 2019

    This week Claire Harrison (Head of Architecture from CQC) and I had the opportunity to attend the Delivering Digital Goverment event run by Worth Systems in The Hague. The event was focused on how digital has transformed governments across the world, sharing best practices and lessons learned. With speakers from the founding of GDS, like…

  • WomenInDigi19

    How we as leaders can keep supporting people As I sat listening to the conversations happening at the Women in Digital event on Wednesday, it occurred to me that although the point of the day was around creating more opportunities and continuing to support women working within digital, so many of the things that we…

  • Service Standards for the whole service

    How the service standards have evolved over time…. Gov.uk has recently published the new Service Standards for government and public sector agencies to use when developing public facing transactional services. I’ve previously blogged about why the Service Standards are important in helping us develop services that meet user needs, as such I’ve been following their…

  • Scrum Master or Delivery Manager – what’s in a name?

    Are the roles of Scrum Master and Delivery manager the same? Continuing on my recent musings on the different roles within Agile multidisciplinary teams, today’s blog focuses on the role of the Delivery Manager, or the Scrum Master, and whether these roles are really the same thing. This is a conversation that came up a…

  • Producing Code or Fixing Problems?

    The role of Developers in user centric design. I’ve been working with Developers of different flavours for almost a decade now, and in that time I’ve worked with some amazing Devs, and some frustrating ones; the same as any role it depends on the person. I’ve also encountered a lot of stereotypes about Developers, primarily…

  • What is the value in a Head of Product?

    Our numbers are growing, but what is the role, and what value does it add? When I first took up the role of ‘Head of Product Management’ back in October 2016, I was one of the first in Government to have the title, and within a few months there was a very small band of…

  • What is the role of Business Analysts within agile?

    Analysisng the role of the Business Analyst. When we were looking at the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) roles and capabilities back in 2016, one of the roles we really struggled with was the role of the Business Analyst (BA). Not because we didn’t agree that it was a role (because we absolutely did) but…

  • The Day Data went Viral

    This week the UK Government and Parliament petitions website has been getting a lot of attention, both good and not so good. This site has been a great example of how the Digital Service Standards work to ensure what we deliver in the public sector meets user needs.

  • Bringing Product and Design together to build a user centric culture

    Why bringing Product and Design together is such a good idea. Within the Product Management community we often talk about the importance of the Vision and how critical a prioritised backlog is. Making sure we understand our users needs and making sure we deliver quality services that meet those users needs. Recently Service Design as…