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

Building Defra’s software development profession for the AI age

A man with a beard and short fair hair, standing, wearing a blue fleece, with arms crossed, and bushes in the background.

Building Defra’s software development profession for the AI age

Principal Software Developer John Watson shares how he and his colleagues are exploring how they can use AI to drive efficiencies.

Read more of Building Defra’s software development profession for the AI age

Our wall - a living part of our team

Posted by: Jessica Bonham, Posted on: 13 September 2018 - Categories: Defra digital
a user goes thru a journey using our service

Agile digital teams use walls to openly showcase their progress and demonstrate the work that they are doing, and many people have written blog posts about this in the past. However, when a colleague in another department asked me to send him …

Read more of Our wall - a living part of our team - 2 comments

In memory of David Pearson

Posted by: Clare Moriarty, Permanent Secretary, Defra, Posted on: 6 September 2018 - Categories: Defra digital
David Pearson

While I was away on holiday the sad news reached me that David Pearson had died unexpectedly. I’ve described David as part of the fabric of Defra, and he’s a...

Read more of In memory of David Pearson - 1 comment

Developing in a mob

Posted by: David Thomas, Posted on: 26 July 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Smarter working
4 people standing around a desk looking at a screen

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 …

Read more of Developing in a mob

Hack value: harnessing creativity as a team

Posted by: Michael Lyons, the Environment Agency, Posted on: 12 July 2018 - Categories: Defra digital
Team member standing in front of a whiteboard directing group discussion.

The Warrington-based flood digital team recently organised its first hack. Over two days #Floodhack2018 aimed to develop, build and test a product concept that could sit within the flood information service. If you’ve not heard of hacks, they’re dedicated problem-solving …

Read more of Hack value: harnessing creativity as a team

Using an incubation to design an MVP in two days

Posted by: Jessica Bonham, Posted on: 2 July 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation, Smarter working
People in a workshop

Agile teams aim to release early and often, starting with a minimum viable product (MVP) and iteratively building on it. But choosing what to put in an MVP is hard. You don’t want to release something that delivers little or …

Read more of Using an incubation to design an MVP in two days

Funding teams is hard

Posted by: David Thomas, Posted on: 21 May 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
A team at work

...individual working in the department has a day rate, which covers both the cost of that individual working on a project, as well as any extras such as project support...

Read more of Funding teams is hard - 3 comments

Lessons from winning the GovTech Catalyst grant fund

Posted by: gov.uk archive author, Posted on: 18 May 2018 - Categories: GovTech Catalyst
Oliver Dowden, Minister for Implementation

Minister Oliver Dowden announcing the GovTech winners at Sprint 18 I was at Sprint 18 last week, where I got some good news: Defra has won a slice of the...

Read more of Lessons from winning the GovTech Catalyst grant fund

Iterating our digital principles

Posted by: Harriet Green, Joint Chief Digital Officer and Myra Hunt, Joint Chief Digital Officer, Posted on: 16 May 2018 - Categories: Digital transformation
A Defra poster with the words "Think big, do small things"

More than a year ago, our predecessor Sally Meecham wrote about Defra’s digital principles, saying how they acted as a useful way of setting out our approach to simplifying services and cutting out complexity. A lot’s happened since then. In …

Read more of Iterating our digital principles

Digital means learning and iterating as you go

Posted by: claresherwood and Joanne Gillies, Posted on: 15 May 2018 - Categories: Digital transformation
Joanne Gillies and Clare Sherwood at work

The more steps Defra takes towards becoming a user-centric, service design-focused organisation, the more we learn about changing the way we work and collaborate. That’s made more difficult in an organisation like Defra, which despite our best efforts over many …

Read more of Digital means learning and iterating as you go - 3 comments

A short film about the waste permits digital service

Posted by: Dominic Burton, Posted on: 27 March 2018 - Categories: Data Transformation, Defra digital, Defra services, Digital transformation
Waste exemption service on PC screen

A few weeks ago we posted a blog about how we’ve simplified the waste permits service. We've also made a short film about the agile team working on the service and how they are continually improving it based on feedback from users.

Read more of A short film about the waste permits digital service
Previous page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 29
  • Page 30
  • Page 31
  • …
  • Page 52
Next page

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.

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.

Join us on LinkedIn

Interested in finding out more about what we do in Defra Digital Data Technology and Security?

Check out our LinkedIn page for all the latest news, stories and job openings. While you're there, why not give us a follow?

Want to know more about our Sustainable ICT journey?

Defra is at the forefront of ensuring that UK Government Information Communications Technology (ICT) is rationalised, resilient, responsible, and free from exploitation throughout our digital infrastructure and associated supply chains.

Find out more

Recent blogs

  • Why senior service ownership matters at Defra... and why now 7 July 2026
  • Services Week: What we are learning about introducing sustainability into service assessments 29 June 2026
  • Making every customer call count through more joined-up data 24 June 2026

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

Recent Posts

  • Why senior service ownership matters at Defra... and why now
  • Services Week: What we are learning about introducing sustainability into service assessments
  • Making every customer call count through more joined-up data
  • Digital waste tracking: where we've been, what we've built, and why the market is our primary user
  • How we built the new Defra service manual with AI and community collaboration

Recent Comments

  • ALICE Frances WICKHAM on Building Defra’s software development profession for the AI age
  • Geoffrey Bot on Radar 2026: A personal look at the technologies shaping our future
  • Paul Bailey on Making digital services more sustainable: introducing a 15th service standard point
  • Dale on Doing content-first design at Defra – part one
  • Rosie Brave on Doing content-first design at Defra – part one

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