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Blog: Defra digital, data, technology and security

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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Animal and Plant Health Agency

How a ‘Hackathon’ approach can accelerate the implementation of digital solutions

AI Generated Infographic illustrating the core elements of the hackathon

How a ‘Hackathon’ approach can accelerate the implementation of digital solutions

AI Generated Infographic illustrating the core elements of the hackathon Jay Ashcroft shares how a ‘Hackathon’ approach can foster creativity and produce working digital solutions in days. At the end of the summer, we collaborated on a ‘Hackathon’ event which …

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Invest in people if you want to transform

Posted by: Tracy Green and Colin Banno-Thorton, Posted on: 27 February 2018 - Categories: Digital transformation
Some of our "agile enthusiasts" stickers

A few weeks ago, we were invited to speak at an internal event for managers in one part of Defra. The subject of our talk was "What are digital skills, and how do we develop them?" We think that good …

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Quite enthusiastic about agile

Posted by: John Clapham, Posted on: 8 February 2018 - Categories: Digital transformation
An agile enthusiasts meet-up

...It's an easy and accessible forum for people who want to know more about agile, or ways of putting it into practice, without having to set up meetings, book meeting...

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Stop irritating, start iterating

Posted by: Samantha Brown, Posted on: 7 February 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
The long term flood risk page after iteration

...an invalid postcode, the error message wasn't clear enough. It said: “Please enter a valid postcode in England.” Users seemed to be registering the ‘valid’ part of the instruction, but...

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Modernising Data Protection

Posted by: Lisa Allen, Data Protection Programme, Posted on: 6 February 2018 - Categories: Data protection, Defra digital

Digital technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives. A lot has changed over the last 20 years since the last Data Protection Act was passed in 1998. In that year Celine Dion had a chart topping hit with …

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An agile approach to water abstraction licences

Posted by: Harriet Green, Joint Chief Digital Officer and Myra Hunt, Joint Chief Digital Officer, Posted on: 1 February 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
Screenshot of water abstraction beta

...existing licences. Good prioritisation means faster progress. More advanced features, such as applying for or renewing licences, can be added later. … be flexible - by adjusting the way they...

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Agile ways of working in HR

Posted by: Jamie Arnold, Posted on: 30 January 2018 - Categories: Digital transformation
Detail from the team's discovery wall

...it encourages all sorts of unintended behaviours. People genuinely want to learn how to improve their performance, but they need to feel supported and encouraged to do that. A rigid,...

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What we learned from colleagues at MoJ

Posted by: Frieda Davies, Posted on: 24 January 2018 - Categories: Defra digital
Delivery managers community at work

...collaborative, and meant we visitors could absorb a lot of new information in a very short time The whole workspace was better equipped for agile working, with flexible, moveable desks...

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A new discovery for tracking waste

Posted by: Alistair Paul, Waste Regulation and Crime, Posted on: 15 January 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
Waste tracking discovery team at work

A cross-government collaborative team recently started a discovery looking at how waste movements are tracked across the UK. The team is keen to hear from regulators and businesses, to find out more about their needs. In this post I’ll explain …

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Change is hard, but better than not changing at all

Posted by: Harriet Green, Joint Chief Digital Officer and Myra Hunt, Joint Chief Digital Officer, Posted on: 12 January 2018 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
Custom software created using Kirona

...who have had to make considerable changes to the way they work. We’re grateful to them for their patience while we move from old to new. But the important thing...

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Platforms can be products too

Posted by: Colin Banno-Thorton, Posted on: 15 December 2017 - Categories: Defra digital

Like many other government organisations, we have embraced the Service Manual, and we’re increasingly putting service design thinking and agile working methods at the heart of our approach to delivery. It’s change, and change for the better.

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