Skip to main content
GOV.UK
Blog Defra digital, data, technology and security
Organisations:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Animal and Plant Health Agency

Making performance management better

Posted by: Jac Broughton, Posted on: 22 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Smarter working
Poster saying "Think big, do small things" on the wall in the Defra office

Regular readers will know about Defra's “smarter working” initiative, as explained by our COO Betsy Bassis in a recent blog post. It means adopting a user-centered approach to the processes and services our staff use every day. One of those …

Read more of Making performance management better

Flood digital: user-driven service design and agile working

Posted by: Dominic Burton, Posted on: 18 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital
Flood road closed image

A couple of weeks ago we published a short film about the flood digital service. This second film shows how the service team works and how they put users at the heart of what they do to continually improve how …

Read more of Flood digital: user-driven service design and agile working

What we learned about our users when we went fishing in their shoes

Posted by: Phil Baird, Posted on: 17 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Defra services, Digital transformation
Members of the rod licence team on a fishing trip to learn more about users

Being a Product Manager is about championing the needs of the users of a service. Our team, responsible for the “I want to fish” service (of which buy a rod...

Read more of What we learned about our users when we went fishing in their shoes - 2 comments

What we’re doing to make video more useful across Defra

Posted by: John Seglias, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Posted on: 16 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation, Smarter working
Defra is unblocking access to online video

We're committed to smarter working in Defra, and we are starting with small fixes that make people's lives easier. One of those is about opening up access to online video.

Read more of What we’re doing to make video more useful across Defra - 3 comments

What we've learned about preparing for discovery

Posted by: David Thomas, Delivery Manager, Posted on: 7 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Defra services, Digital transformation
Animated gif with the words "Pre-discovery" replaced by "Preparing for discovery"

...discovery, which leads into alpha, beta and then live. My own recent experiences make me think that while the preparation work done during 'pre-discovery' is incredibly useful, the name “pre-discovery”...

Read more of What we've learned about preparing for discovery - 4 comments

Why we care about data architecture

Posted by: Sarah Burnett, Head of Data Architecture, Data Transformation Programme, Posted on: 4 August 2017 - Categories: Data Transformation, Defra digital
Head of Data Architecture for the Data Transformation Programme, Sarah Burnett,

We’re beginning to tell the story of how critical getting data architecture is to 'getting data right' for the Defra group.

Read more of Why we care about data architecture

A film about the flood digital service

Posted by: Dominic Burton, Posted on: 3 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
The flood digital service is used by the public to check for local flood warnings by location as well as current river and sea levels

The Environment Agency’s flood digital service is used by the public to check for local flood warnings by location as well as current river and sea levels. We spoke to the agile team that developed the service about how they are continually …

Read more of A film about the flood digital service

Time to talk, time to think, time to help

Posted by: Betsy Bassis, Posted on: 2 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital
A poster about health and wellbeing in the Civil Service

...coat it: there’s a lot going on at the moment. Political changes. Organisational changes. People changes. Change has become the new business as usual. That’s why we’re working to become...

Read more of Time to talk, time to think, time to help - 2 comments

Better access to data to tackle Bovine TB

Posted by: Steve Wilkinson, Head of Innovation, Defra Data Transformation Programme, Posted on: 1 August 2017 - Categories: Data Transformation, Defra digital, Digital transformation, Software tools
Cows

Bovine TB is a complex and costly disease in cattle. Bringing Defra’s data together and providing better access and tools will really help us to tackle it.

Read more of Better access to data to tackle Bovine TB

Related content and links

Defra digital, data, technology and security: our story

This blog is about our experience of transforming Defra digital, data, technology and security services and information.

Find out more about what we do.

Working for us

Plastic humans holding up the word TEAM

We're hiring

We’re always on the look-out for great talent.

Visit our recruitment hub for more information about the current roles on offer.

Find out more about our people.

Spotlight on talent development

https://youtu.be/-7RDo6AyvkM

Follow Defra digital, data, technology and security

  • Join our Defra digital, data and technology LinkedIn community
  • Follow Defra digital, data, technology and security on X

Recent blogs

  • Why we built a user research manual (and why it matters more than you think) 21 August 2025
  • Reflections on Civil Service Live 2025 4 August 2025
  • Building a shared understanding of services 31 July 2025

Sign up and manage updates

  • Email
  • Atom

Pages

  • About Defra digital, data, technology and security
  • Blog comment and moderation guidelines
  • Subscribe
  • A guide to agile communication
  • Our people
  • Working for us

Blog categories

Recent Posts

  • Why we built a user research manual (and why it matters more than you think)
  • Reflections on Civil Service Live 2025
  • Building a shared understanding of services
  • How our digital teams supported innovation in flood risk services
  • GenAI and software development: a new paradigm

Recent Comments

  • Jorge Lamadrid Guerrero on Why we built a user research manual (and why it matters more than you think)
  • Rose on Reflections on Civil Service Live 2025
  • Lisa Jeffery on Building a shared understanding of services
  • Becky Miller on Building a shared understanding of services
  • Robert Worth on Rolling out digital delivery at scale in Defra

Archives

  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015

Categories

  • Accessibility
  • Civil Service Live
  • Data protection
  • Data Transformation
  • Defra content design
  • Defra digital
  • Defra Forms
  • Defra interaction
  • Defra Science and Innovation
  • Defra security
  • Defra service design
  • Defra services
  • Defra technology
  • Digital delivery
  • Digital services
  • Digital transformation
  • Earth Observation
  • Geospatial information
  • GovTech Catalyst
  • ICT sustainability
  • INSPIRE
  • Interaction design
  • Learning and Development
  • Maker community
  • Open data
  • Planet Centred Design
  • Robotics automation
  • Smarter working
  • Software tools
  • Strategy
  • UnITy
  • User centred design
  • User research

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Useful links

  • All GOV.UK blogs
  • All GOV.UK blog posts
  • GOV.UK
  • All departments
  • Accessibility statement
  • Cookies
All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated
© Crown copyright