Revolution NOT Evolution: UK Government's Digital Transformation Journey

Reflections on the GDS journey (a year on from leaving) for the Digital Transformation Day at Agile India 2018

Transcript

1. James Stewart |@jystewart | james@jystewart.net Revolution NOT evolution: UK Government's digital transformation journey
2. @jystewart
3. “Public sector IT” has been synonymous with failure
4. “We found that government is currently over-reliant on a small ‘oligopoly’ of large suppliers, which some witnesses referred to as a ‘cartel’… governments have wasted an obscene amount of public money.” https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmpubadm/715/715i.pdf
5. More fundamentally, bad services erode trust @jystewart
6. Revolution, not evolution
7. GDS
8. Software developer and product manager Co-founded UK Government Digital Service Deputy CTO, UK Government Digital leadership, technology and security advisor James Stewart |@jystewart | james@jystewart.net
9. @jystewart No more than seven words per line Minimum font size of 36pt That became the UK Government Digital Service
10. James Stewart |@jystewart | james@jystewart.net Making Security Everyone’s Responsibility GDS
11. https://flic.kr/p/dSQB4h
12. GDS
13. Starting with a website let us get close to lots of users, really quickly
14. https://www.gov.uk/design-principles & https://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/9120523574/
18. Digital is a chance to reclaim values and history
19. We joined forces with the technology reform team, gaining spend controls
20. We published a government digital strategy (after we shipped)
22. With so much going on, what does good look like?
23. 1. Understand user needs 2. Do ongoing user research 3. Have a multidisciplinary team 4. Use agile methods 5. Iterate and improve frequently 6. Evaluate tools and systems 7. Understand security and privacy issues 8. Make all new source code open 9. Use open standards and common platforms 10. Test the end-to-end service 11. Make a plan for being offline 12. Make sure users succeed first time 13. Make the user experience consistent with GOV.UK 14. Encourage everyone to use the digital service 15. Collect performance data 16. Identify performance indicators 17. Report performance data on the Performance Platform 18. Test with the minister https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-standard
24. The problem is rarely tech The solution is never tech
25. James Stewart |@jystewart | james@jystewart.net GDS
27. @jystewar 2. Philosophical meandering 3. Something actually useful 1. Boasting GD GDS GD
28. We saved £3.56 billion over three years
29. I w w We weren't there to help government innovate Photo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/memestate/3381786500
30. We weren’t there to focus on the numbers
31. “Overall, we saved £4.1 billion during the course of our digital reform programme. But you get to these numbers by not thinking about numbers. You get to these numbers by working on stuff that really matters. And crucially we did it all in the open all of this stuff is out in the open, as it should be.” Mike Bracken https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/12-top-tips-governments-can-go-digital/
32. @jystewart No more than seven words pe line Minimum font size of 36pt U.S. Digital Services Playbook The American people expect to interact with government through digital channels such as websites, email, and mobile applications. By building better digital services that meet the needs of the people that use our services, we can make the delivery of our policy and programs more effective. Today, too many of our digital services projects do not work well, are delivered late, or are over budget. To increase the success rate of these projects, the U.S. Government needs a new approach. We created a playbook of 13 key “plays” drawn from successful best practices from the private sector and government that, if followed together, will help government build effective digital services. SEE THE PLAYS HELP IMPROVE THIS CONTENT DIGITAL SERVICE PLAYS 1. Understand what people need 2. Address the whole experience, from start to finish 3. Make it simple and intuitive 4. Build the service using agile and iterative practices 5. Structure budgets and contracts to support delivery 6. Assign one leader and hold that person accountable 7. Bring in experienced teams 8. Choose a modern technology stack 9. Deploy in a flexible hosting environment 10. Automate testing and deployments 11. Manage security and privacy through reusable processes 12. Use data to drive decisions 13. Default to open Information and services Govt.nz Connecting you with government information and services Government A-Z Government A-Z Information and services Information and services Search govt.nz ! We've rebuilt newzealand.govt.nz - tell us what you think Births, deaths, marriages Certificates, ID, wills, relationships, name change, pregnancy, divorce. Citizenship and immigration Residency, visas, work and study in NZ. Community, arts and sport Tramping and camping, funding, fishing and volunteering. Consumer rights Consumer disputes, complaints, scams and fraud. Crime, law and justice Jury, fines, prison and neighbourhood issues. Driving and transport Driver licences, tickets and fines, WOFs and registration. Education and training School terms, special education, student loans and apprenticeships. Emergencies and disasters Civil defence alerts and emergency planning. Environment and climate Conservation, daylight saving, natural resources and weather. Health Public funded healthcare, GPs, children's health. History, culture and heritage Historical records, Māori culture, family history. Housing and property Buying, selling, renting, renovating and building. Internet, media and communication TV and radio, online security, advertising. Money, benefits and tax Financial help, NZ Super, paying tax and KiwiSaver. Parliament and politics Parliament and elections, official information requests and have your say. Passports, travel and tourism Visit NZ, go overseas to visit or live. Work and jobs Holidays and time off, paying ACC, redundancy and working for yourself. Rules reduction The Rules Reduct looking at updatin property rules in Compliance M small business If you’re a small b you can manage compliance requir new tool from bus New duty free r cigarettes and t The limit for duty coming into NZ is cigarettes or 50 g or tobacco produc exceed this limit a you will be charge GST. If you don't anything over the tobacco will be se can be prosecuted Business advice and business.govt.nz has information and tools designed specifically for medium-sized businesses and the people who support them. Delivery is the strategy. 18F builds effective, user-centric digital services focused on the interaction between government and the people and businesses it serves. We help agencies deliver on their mission through the development of digital and An official website of the United States Government fThe Olympus Supercomputer (ENERGY.GOV) Building the 21st century digital government. We energised a global movement working for open, digital government
33. @jystewart https://www.blogarama.com/business-blogs/326043-thedollarbusiness-foreign-trade-magazine-expo-blog/ 12939087-uks-govt-digital-service-cto-holds-talks-indias-darpg
34. It’s about the network @jystewart
36. TeaCamp & GovCamp & co @jystewart
37. The most successful transformations I have experienced—the ones where you walk into the office and there is a tangible difference in the energy and interactions between people, where the commercial and management stakeholders are as excited and invested as the technology stakeholders, where everyone agrees on the metrics that matter and those metrics are trending in the right direction, where the people involved are proud to be part of the change, and where those outside are eager to get involved—those transformations succeed because a small cabal of dedicated individuals take the time and effort bringing people on the journey with them; they create and nurture a groundswell of enthusiasm; they engage, challenge, educate and support the middle and senior managers whose world is being turned on its head; they gain the executive sponsorship and investment to carry the whole thing forwards; they use external help because they know they can’t do it all themselves. https://dannorth.net/2018/01/26/in-praise-of-swarming/
38. Castro’s analysis of how Batista had been removed - and therefore of what it would take to achieve revolutions elsewhere - overlooked several key factors in the Cuban situation, three of them decisive. First, when he and a dozen guerrillas reached the Sierra Maestra, in December 1956, there was already a peasant base ready to support them. Furthermore, a strong urban underground was able to provide Castro with weapons, supplies and fighters. Finally, his assurances that he was not a communist gained him the support of conservative Cubans who opposed Batista, and mitigated the hostility of the United States. But the victorious Cubans ignored these facts; they were mesmerised by the foco. ‘We have demonstrated,’ Guevara wrote, ‘that a small group of men who are determined, supported by the people, and not afraid of death … can overcome a regular army.’ This, he believed, was the lesson of the Cuban revolution. Piero Gleijeses quoted by Phil Gyford http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2017/12/09/the-foco/
39. @jystewart
40. things GOV.UK Make open, it makes things better
41. It’s about people @jystewart
42. https://www.gov.uk/design-principles & https://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/9120523574/
43. @jystewar 2. Philosophical meandering 3. Something actually useful 1. Boasting GD GDS GD
44. “If you haven’t found the people responsible for outcomes, you haven’t found ‘the system.’” - Dave Wood
45. It’s about leadership @jystewart
46. "do we want to believe we found the vision and the courage to step back, reset the rules governing our economic and social engines, and point them toward a more sustainable future" John Battelle reviewing Tim O’Reilly’s book (WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us) https://shift.newco.co/wtf-is-wrong-with- capitalism-585249daa9c8
47. "The future will resent us in exact proportion to our failure to have attempted to meaningfully address those systemic problems that we will be known to have been quite aware of” William Gibson. https://medium.com/hand-brain/william-gibson-57e75f87e525
48. The problem is rarely tech The solution is never tech
49. But those of us who are confident in tech and design have a powerful role to play
50. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software value http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
51. Find allies inside and outside
52. Establish cultural markers
53. Understand purpose, values and principles
54. Fix the basics
55. Work together on things that matter
56. The strategy is delivery
57. James Stewart |@jystewart | james@jystewart.net Thank you