Standards Assurance

TEAM Overview

Government Digital Service (GDS) is a unit of government within the UK’s Cabinet Office. The role of GDS is digital transformation of government.

GDS is a a centre of excellence in digital, technology and data, collaborating with departments to help them with their own transformation. They work with them to build platforms, standards, and digital services. They always start with user needs. They are agile. They work to a set of Design Principles that guide many teams in everything we do. They believe in working openly, because making things open makes them better.

I led a Standards Assurance Team at Government Digital Service who was responsible for assuring digital services across central government.

Team

As an Agile Delivery Manager / Agile Coach I coached the team to improve the ways of working and internal processes of delivering assurance to the rest of the government. I helped the team set the cadence of their regular standups, planning meetings and encouraged them to participate in the GDS Show & Tell session to share their achievements and great results from their engagements with other departments. As the team was new to Agile ways of working, we started with simple visualisation techniques, ongoing planning and prioritising, identifying the users and understanding their constantly changing needs. I facilitated conversations with the team and the Senior Leadership Team on a desired outcome they were trying to achieve and user problems they were trying to solve.

I also supported the service teams from the main government departments (e.g. HMRC, DEFRA, DfT, DVLA, DVSA) how to implement Agile ways of working and design services used by millions of the UK citizens.

I trained the internal employees and other civil servants on Agile and its frameworks within the GDS Agile coaching sessions as well as mentored Associate Agile Delivery Managers.

Key Statistics/METRICS

Improved ways of working
Processes made consistent and simple to use by other government departments
Increased internal capability of Agile best practice