We've previously introduced the Finance team and the Hosting and Infrastructure team, and shone the Spotlight on procurement. Now we invite you to find out more about the work of the Transformation team.
Meet the Transformation team - video transcript
Mike Beaven (Transformation Programme Director, Government Digital Service):
The Transformation team really operates as an internal consultancy that goes out and works with departments to help them look at transactions they’re trying to transform. We’ve worked with probably every department in government now to different degrees. So we’ve got ten full-on transformation projects on the go and we’ve worked through about 200 different propositions that have been brought to us. The fundamental shift is stopping designing things from the inside out and designing things from the outside in. What are you trying to do and who are you trying to do it for? - that’s the first question of any session with any department we start working with. That’s the fundamental thing, so who do you serve basically?
SME Day, Sept 2012 (Small to Medium Enterprises)
Louis Hyde (Head of Digital Supplier Solutions, Government Digital Service):
The SME day was all about showing success stories with using SMEs to other government departments. There are incredibly talented SMEs out there and our biggest hurdle is getting them accessible to government.
Mike Beaven:
We’re currently working to build a new framework which is very simple, has very light terms and conditions, has very short term contracts and is dynamic, and that should mean that the actual business of finding out about work and then bidding for that work will be much simpler and much more accelerated, and will also favour smaller organisations.
Agile in action - Student Loans Company
We’ve had some hugely positive experiences with people like Student Loans, who really want to work with us.
Tom Meade (Digital Team Leader, Student Loans Company):
SLC is very committed to delivering a much better service for users and they’re very much committed to delivering in an agile methodology.
Gordon Simpson (Chief Information Officer, Student Loans Company):
We have a large building in Glasgow. The third floor is now allocated to an agile project delivery approach.
Lucie Glenday (Business Transformation, Government Digital Service):
And there’s a real buzz around SLC that there is this one floor that’s doing something different and exciting.
Tom Meade:
As we’re the first large transactional system that’s being built with GDS, we’re benefiting a lot from the design concepts that they’re using in the GOV.UK transformation, but also they’re learning quite a lot from our experiences in building for a transactional system.
Lucie Glenday:
It’s just exciting to watch, to see a business starting to transform itself in that way.
6 comments
Comment by Bryan Pogson posted on
Can you explain a bit about prioritisation? I'm assuming there is, or will be, a high demand, so how did you select your ten current projects?
Comment by Jane O'Loughlin posted on
Bryan
The initial projects were selected using a combination of requests from the departments and using criteria around:
The volume of transactions the service processes, ideally over 100k per year
The nature of the service, ie it must be public facing
The transformation opportunity, ie can we change the way the department works to be more agile and citizen centric
Going forward we will use similar methods for prioritisation.
Comment by simonfj posted on
Hi Jane,
Many thanks (to all the teams) for the reports. it really is very enlightening to be able to gain an insight into what's on the boil. Just lookin ahead a bit now.
So far, the GDS has taken a top down approach. So you've gathered all the central dept's published "real estate" and are addressing improvin the transactions, which every citizen must navigate around the silos. http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2013/07/17/the-pivot-from-publishing-to-transactions/ As you say "The initial (transaction) projects were selected using a combination of requests from the departments". So that's logical and should save the gov (us) lots of pennies.
But you'll have to address the bottom up, sooner or later. So let me point to a nice graphic from one of my correspondents at the worldbank. It's a prob for anyone in a gov institution that they will always be pragmatic and start at stage 4. http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/co-creation-of-government-services
"The fundamental shift is stopping designing things from the inside out and designing things from the outside in." Not quite. The fundamental shift is stopping designing things from the institutional perspective and designing them from an individual citizen's perspective, regardless of whether they're working inside an institution or a mere cit.
I think Rebecca Kemp, once she's set up an "inclusion team", has the hardest role in transforming the online space.gov (and .edu).uk. Cause she'll have to address that horrible prob of " i want my services.gov personalized" but " i don't want big brother watching". In a nutshell, the transformation team will have to address this challenge. http://standards.data.gov.uk/challenge/standard-attributes-level-service
And, so far as keeping the discussions, between (groups of) insiders (in gov.uk domains) and outsiders/citizens on an even keel, the team will have to address this challenge as well. http://standards.data.gov.uk/challenge/directory-localnational-groups
Hmm. Seems you're up to, on the first challenge, where the Uni network guys we're up to about a decade ago. And on the second challenge, where the (global) uni librarians are today. I suppose the GDS team isn't considering runnin an uni? Cause i learn more in this domain than any other. All the best.
Comment by baragouiner posted on
The framework mentioned in the SME segment - how does that relate to the CloudStore and the work of the G-Cloud Programme Team?
Comment by nettienwilliams posted on
Hello and apologies for the delay in responding - G-Cloud provides access to commodity, productised Cloud based services. The proposed Digital Procurement framework will provide end to end service delivery and digital project build services. These services will provide bespoke digital solution development rather than the commercially available services offered under G-Cloud. Regards.
Comment by Charlie Hull (@FlaxSearch) posted on
When will we hear more about the Digital Procurement framework? It sounds like just the thing for our style of working