Highlights: This week's video comes from our Transformation Programme Director, Mike Beaven. Last week the final three of our exemplar projects went into discovery, meaning all 25 have now reached discovery stage. There were two announcements about Identity Assurance this week: HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) are going to be the first department to use the identity platform, and updated privacy principles were published for consultation so we can make sure privacy is at the heart of the services we provide. We were also delighted to welcome Australian MP Jaala Pulford to GDS. From next week, qualitative user surveys will help us better understand how users experience GOV.UK.
(Full transcript below)
Interviewer: Hello Mike. What have we been up to this week at GDS?
Mike: Hi there. Another busy week. So in the transformation world, we have finally got to the point where all of our projects are now in discovery. So we got the final three of those up and running last week, which is good.
We had a really good visit down to the Land Registry in Plymouth last week. Myself, Coca (Rivas) and Gareth (Rushgrove) went down to meet the team there. They have actually got two alpha builds on the go: one is an exemplar, one they are doing off their own bat; a lot of ingestion of agile processes down there, so exciting stuff happening there.
Just to give us a heads up as to where we are across the whole of the 25 in the programme: 13 of our projects are in discovery, 6 are in alpha build, 5 are in beta build and 1 is actually live.
Interviewer: That's fabulous news. We also had some news from the IDA (Identity Assurance) team this week as well.
Mike: Yes. Those guys have been making great strides as ever. They have announced this week that HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) are going to be the first people to use the identity platform, which is brilliant; so right in the face of the public, people using the service, which is superb.
Another major win has been a big consultation on privacy principles, who are a bunch of people who traditionally have not been keen on having things like ID (Identity) cards. So we had them in, we had the minister here, and a really good session and very positive feedback from that.
Interviewer: That is fabulous. We have had some other visitors this week as well.
Mike: Yes, we have. We are getting truly international here. So we had an Australian MP, Jaala Pulford, who came in to talk about what we have been doing at GOV.UK, and looking at what they've been doing in the social media space in Australia.
Interviewer: Terrific. Meanwhile we've got some stuff coming up next week.
Mike: Yes, next week. So there has been a lot of work going on by Roo (Reynolds) and the team, around what actually happens on GOV.UK. So there are some surveys coming up with qualitative data around what people are experiencing, and doing on the site.
Interviewer: We've also got some new starters.
Mike: Yes, in terms of people working in GDS, a couple of people have joined my team this week. So we have had Michael (Brunton-Spall), who has joined as a tech arch (Technical Architect), and Richard (Milner), who has joined as a BA (Business Analyst).
More excitingly, Dave Mann and his good lady have had a little baby called Cleo, who was born on Saturday.
Interviewer: That's terrific. Congratulations to them.
Mike: Yes, congratulations to Dave.
