Horizon IT scandal: repeating patterns
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.
Talking to Parliament about digital government
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
The state of blogging in digital government
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.
Benefits of controls on government technology spending
Spend controls often focus on immediate savings, but there are many other benefits of introducing controls on technology spending which often get ignored
Deliver little, deliver often, avoid the big bang
When building and running services it’s important get into the habit of releasing updates to users on a regular basis. Always be shipping.
Create the space to let teams deliver
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.