Blog

Short(ish) month notes for August. I’ve spent the last week not working, which has been much needed. I’ve been feeling a little burnt out after a busy summer, and by last Friday I was running on empty.

I think I’ve started every set of months notes saying I’ve been busy. But hoo boy was I not prepared for July! Thoughts on the general election, welsh politics, work, CrowdStrike, gin, house work and a final word on Twitter

Things got busy, and I predictably stopped writing. These are some brief catch-up notes for May & June dominated by work, my board, house renovation and Dilys

I started writing this last week, and then got completely sidetracked. This has been one of those months where so much has happened, I probably should have written week notes instead. But you’re going to get this abbreviated (but still overly long) summary instead.

I’m sure I only wrote one of these a few days ago - but apparently we’re almost in April. Unintentionally, this one is very focussed on my health / NHS based work. March 2024: presenting reports, health annual plan, house work, duty of candour and cooking

Another month gone. It’s a cliche, but it really has just disappeared - I’m sure New Year was only a few weeks ago. But that means it’s time for another month note. February 2024: board, work, house renovation, turning the oil tanker, devolution and the resurgence of week notes

I’m not sure I can stretch myself to writing something every week, so I’m setting myself a slightly less onerous goal of a note every month instead. So - January 2024: work, health, things I’ve read and things I’m thinking about

There is so much that has been written and said about the Horizon scandal over the past 10 years, that it’s hard to pick out what actually happened, and how it got so bad. When things go really badly wrong, there’s never just one cause. Many things have to have failed. In the case of Horizon, this list is huge: the tech, the supplier, the culture, the investigations, the lawyers, the system of private prosecutions, the management, the politicians, the governance and scrutiny, the recovery.

It’s half way through January, so I’m a little late with my 2023 wrap up. But better late than never!

2020 is almost over. A year that will forever be remembered as that one lost to a global pandemic, people dying, many getting ill, and the March that never ended. But many other things happened as well, and this year note is an attempt at capturing some of those things for posterity.

This week I gave evidence to the Parliament Science and Technology Committee about digital government and the challenges ahead to continue delivering good services to users

Publishing blog posts about the work you’re doing is a great way of making things open. In the early days, GDS was great at this. Working out loud and talking openly about even small changes was normal practice. It was just a thing that happened. Fast forward to 2018 and things are different. Blogs that were once active, now lie dormant – untouched for months.

This year has been a bit of a mixed bag, with many ups and downs: Leaving GDS; setting up my own business; getting married; visiting new places; exploring London.

Spend controls often focus on immediate savings, but there are many other benefits of introducing controls on technology spending which often get ignored

When building and running services it’s important get into the habit of releasing updates to users on a regular basis. Always be shipping.

Organisations that create an environment and culture that supports delivery will find they build better services and have more productive teams. Don’t slow down delivery.