31 December 2020
2020 is almost over. A year that will forever be remembered as that one lost to a global pandemic, people dying, many getting ill, and the March that never ended. But many other things happened as well, and this year note is an attempt at capturing some of those things for posterity.
27 November 2018
While everyone else was watching that other committee today, I was giving evidence to a less glamorous but equally important committee about digital government alongside Tom Loosemore. The hour long question and answer session covered a wide range of topics from the aspirations behind setting up the Government Digital Service (GDS), to the challenges government […]
14 February 2018
In its early days, GDS published a set of design principles to guide the building of new digital services. These principles were a codified version of a set of practices that had developed during the building of Alphagov and the beta of GOV.UK. The 10th principle says: Make things open: it makes things better Teams […]
31 December 2017
This year has been a bit of a mixed bag, with many ups and downs. At the end of 2016 I left GDS with no real plans for what to do next. GDS broke me. Both physically and mentally. After 5 years there, I was completely exhausted. I’ve spent a large part of 2017 working […]
10 April 2017
Recently, the National Audit Office (NAO) released a report on the Digital Transformation of government. In it, they devote a section to the approach and results of the government’s control of technology spend. As always happens, the focus is on “savings”. After all, what’s the point of controlling spend if you don’t make savings? People […]
27 March 2017
When building and running services it’s important get into the habit of releasing updates to users on a regular basis. This applies to all phases of a product lifecycle – whether you’re prototyping something new, or maintaining a service that’s already in use. Deliver value early When you’re building something, find the smallest thing you […]
10 March 2017
Building good services takes a lot of effort. Whether it’s gaining a deep understanding of user needs, or changing policy and laws to remove complexity, or piecing together technology to make it all work, there are many things that need to be done. The most successful teams and services are those that have the space […]
9 March 2017
For the last 5 years, I’ve been at the heart of efforts to bring government into the digital age. I’ve worked with teams across departments to introduce new ways of doing things, to build new services and transform organisations. Along the way, I’ve learnt a huge amount about how to do it, and also what […]
18 October 2016. 1 Comment
Digital transformation is a phrase that gets thrown about a lot in government circles at the moment. It means different things to different people. This makes it impossible for people to really understand what you mean when you say it. I’m not the first to write something about this. Simon recently wrote about how the […]
13 October 2016
A few weeks ago was my fifth anniversary at the Government Digital Service. I’ve had the opportunity to work on a huge number of important projects in various roles including software developer, technical lead, product owner, delivery manager, troubleshooter and technical architect. From building GOV.UK to travelling to DVLA in Swansea every week creating new […]