For most of the last 4 years, I've been trying to wrap my head around how Defra builds services that meet user needs and support the outcomes Defra exists to bring about - benefits for the environment, the economy, for …
After 11 years doing Quality Assurance and Test, in both the public and private sectors, I have learned that testing is overrated, testers are lazy, talking is underrated and waterfalls, while pretty, are not always fun to negotiate. These are …
Before starting at Defra just over 6 months ago, I’d never been part of a Community of Practice. I joined the Delivery Managers Community soon after starting this job and it’s been a godsend.
Communities of Practice are a vitally important part of transformation at Defra. As joint Chief Digital Officers here, we want to encourage as many people as possible to join a community, because we believe there’s a lot to be gained …
Agile delivery is relatively new to government, and a lot of teams and departments are still getting used to how it works. One of the essentials is that the team structure is right, and that you have the right people …
(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 …
Defra group has the potential to simplify its access to satellite data and transform how we monitor and manage the UK’s landscape.
Trees support biodiversity and contribute to wellbeing – a new analytical tool helps us monitor and safeguard them against spread of diseases.
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 …
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 …
