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Running retros in pairs: what it’s like, and what we learned
David Thomas and Christina Gyles share their thoughts on the idea of 'pair facilitation' after attending the Agile in the City conference in Bristol.
David Thomas, Delivery Manager
Delivery Manager
When ‘efficient’ processes make us less efficient
We’ve all been there - you have to deal with a problem by calling a large organisation, and you end up being put through to a call centre. You explain the problem to one person, who puts you through to someone else, so you explain it all over again.
Funding product teams, not projects
Over the last year Defra has started making the transition from focussing on projects to focussing on teams. The results of this have been great. More stability has meant work gets done more quickly, meaning we can deliver more great services for our users.
Developing in a mob
Recently the Waste Permitting Service reached the end of its first phase; to deliver an application process for standard rules waste permits. As we moved on to our next phase; supporting bespoke permits, we were keen to shorten the time …
Funding teams is hard
Back in October last year I wondered out loud why we couldn’t start funding teams not projects. At the time I rather naively thought that there was some senior person or group of people who just needed to be persuaded …
How showing the thing helped us simplify our MVP
Minimum viable products (MVPs) are a hugely important part of service development. By aiming to release as early as possible you reduce the risk of never releasing at all. You also get valuable feedback from users using the system in …
Let's fund teams, not projects
(Let me be clear up front: this is a potentially controversial post. It proposes radical change in the way we do things. But I feel strongly about it, and I think this needs to be said.) Over the last few …
What we've learned about preparing for discovery
Over the last year or so, I’ve heard a lot of colleagues in Defra talk about “pre-discovery”. They mean it as an additional phase of work to be done before discovery, which leads into alpha, beta and then live. My …