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 and Christina Gyles share their thoughts on the idea of 'pair facilitation' after attending the Agile in the City conference in Bristol.
Let's talk about legacy software. Every large organisation has some. We have plenty. When we say 'legacy', we usually mean software and systems that are old. But old software isn’t necessarily bad software.
Imran Hussain reflects on his first month in the Community of Practice lead role for the Defra group.
John Seglias (Chief Digital and Information Officer) and Malcolm McKee (Chief Technology Officer) share their thoughts after attending the annual Gartner Symposium in Barcelona.
John Seglias, Defra group Chief Digital and Information Officer, talks about the updated Greening Government Sustainable Technology Strategy to 2020.
The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are responsible for providing flood warning information to properties at risk of flooding. In recent weeks we’ve been moving our text notification service to GOV.UK Notify, providing us with many benefits and improvements.
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.
With the next Silicon Milk Roundabout job fair fast approaching, Helen Eden, Defra Digital Delivery Manager, reflects on her experience of attending the Women of Silicon Roundabout event earlier this year.
Over the last six months, a small group of Civil Service Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Fast Streamers have been using some of our time to build a prototype learning and development tool for colleagues across the Civil Service.
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.