Tentative first steps toward Agile Service Management…

/ deborahmurphy1 / Leave a comment

3. Have a multidisciplinary team

Put in place a sustainable multidisciplinary team that can design, build and operate the service, led by a suitably skilled and senior service manager with decision-making responsibility.

Last updated:
4 months ago

Page contents:

You must have a multidisciplinary team to meet point 3 of the Digital Service Standard.

You’ll have to discuss how your team works at your service assessments.

How point 3 improves your service

A multidisciplinary team helps you to:

  • build your service
  • keep improving it based on user needs
  • make decisions quickly

How you’ll be assessed

Your assessment and the questions the assessors ask you will vary depending on your service and what it does.

To pass the alpha, beta and live assessments, you usually need to:

  • describe your delivery team – you need to employ people in the following roles: service manager, product manager, delivery manager, technical architect, assisted digital lead, designer, user researcher, developer, content designer, web operations engineer, performance analyst, front-end developer
  • show you have a service manager with the knowledge and power to make day-to-day decisions to improve the service
  • show you have at least one user researcher working at least 3 days each week
  • explain how the separation of key roles in the team means that nobody is performing multiple roles

You also need to:

  • show you understand where gaps may emerge in the team and how to fill them
  • explain your plan to transfer knowledge and skills from contractors to permanent staff
  • show that there’s a person on your team who’s responsible for user research and usability tests
  • show you’ll have a team that can keep improving the service after it goes live
  • show the team fully understands the service after it’s gone live

In the live assessment only, you must explain how your team and the your way of working can keep improving the service.

Explain your service’s evolution

At each phase, you should explain how your service has evolved since its last assessment.

 

Further information and the links can be found here – at the Government Digital Service

Office redesign

/ deborahmurphy1 / Leave a comment

Talking to a couple of chaps at work today about changing the office around. Not an expensive refit – just a good clean, reshuffle, change some desks.

‘What’s the point in that?’ one chap says. The other sighs and says, ‘what will it achieve?’

‘Well’ I said the point is, you – improve the environment, make it easier and comfortable to work and maybe you’ll do more, or even enjoy it…’

‘You reckon? I think that’s rubbish’ says the first one.

The joys of cultural, workplace change….