“Most blog posts about communities of practice cover the first couple of years. I had the unusual chance to lead one for six (the product management profession at the Ministry of Justice). That gave me a front-row seat to how…
“In government and the wider public sector, we’ve built our identity around “services.”Digital teams design them, measure them, apply the Service Standard to them. But most of what we call a service isn’t actually a service. More often, the work we label…
“Organisational policy is an important tool. It can help organisations be compliant, teams to behave consistently, and employees to understand what’s expected of them. But it’s also fundamentally limiting in character: all policy acts to constrain people’s actions in some…
“Part of India’s National Health Authority, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was founded in 2021 to design, build, operate and scale digital public infrastructure for India’s health system. Among the products and platforms it is responsible for are the Unified Health Interface, which…
Many councils have made it this far by cutting back on their existing model of public service delivery – in some cases right to the bone. But what do they do when all the incremental cuts that can be made…
“Acceptance criteria (ACs) are a key part of user stories. They set the boundaries of what should be achieved – telling the developer when to stop, the QA how to test, and the product owner what to expect. Because they’re…
“There’s been a lot of work to define what a good digital service looks like (see for example the government’s Digital Service Standard). It’s less obvious what to do if you want to make your whole organisation digital, and there…
Business cases are lies. Not wilful lies usually, but they end up with the same results: misleading, misinforming and hiding reality. An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is inaccessible.
“Importantly, I want to emphasise that exploring new operating models entails fundamentally rethinking the role of a local authority and what it’s uniquely placed to do for its community.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the…
“A pidgin language is a simplified language, usually used for trade, that allows people who can’t communicate in their native language to nonetheless work together. User stories act like this. We don’t expect customers or users to view the system…
A comprehensive introduction to the process of mapping value chains, which helps you focus on what really matters. An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is inaccessible.
“If you’re a leader or a manager of people, part of your job is telling them that they’re allowed to think and behave that way. Most people, in most organisations, will be nervous of doing so unless they have permission…
“The Tacit community of practice kick-off canvas helps get your community started or reset using a canvas framework that guides you through six questions.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if the original is inaccessible.
“We want to make the internet work for everyone. For that to happen, our public, civic and business leaders need to become digital leaders — not just so that they can manage specifically digital programmes and projects, but so that…
“…the approach taken to build and deliver digital products needs to evolve to take advantage of modern software development methods including agile iterative development, human centered design, and continuous delivery.” An archived PDF of this page can be downloaded if…