Weeknotes #6
Week commencing 12th August 2019.
Focus for the week
Support / DevOps maturity has been a big focus for this week. There have been a continuous number of changes needed on varies systems and services and we massively upped our game on communicating better throughout incidents - lots to be done still but overall, we’re getting incrementally better and that’s got to be a good thing, right?
We also spent some time re-organising a programme of work for LGSS Revenues and Benefits. Transformation is hard, it’s even more difficult when you have an out of date understanding of what you’re doing even now. So that’s where we started, gathering up what the service is doing now, doing the simple stuff well, data collection on transactions, cost of ownership, cost per transaction, income and impact. From there we’ll be able to put a priority against some of the opportunities the services have to improve. All in good time.
I did a bunch of other managementy stuff too, supporting the team with comms, a few HR and Finance bits, couple of proposals and dealt with a few support tickets for a bit of fun on a Friday. I also stuck together a few more ideas about how to help our software engineers develop themselves, understanding some core skills to focus on and possibly building up some progression pathways from there.
Finally I published a quick prototype of S’uptime a soon-to-be public status page and performance dashboard. It’ll eventually show the performance info we’re capturing and using to improve our service, y’know, the stuff I talked about in Weeknotes #4.
What I’m thinking about
How do different organisations structure their teams? – I’m writing another post about my thoughts on this and why I’m thinking this. Mostly because it was a way of making what I was thinking make some kind of sense. I also asked Twitter and LocalGovDigital to see if anyone could add to my understanding of how teams work at the minute, I’ll attempt to share more about what I’m thinking in the next post.
How are IT and or ‘digital’ teams structured in your organisation?
— Dan Blundell (@danblundell) August 16, 2019
I’m doing some research how IT is structured in different organisations, There’s plenty shared on start-up models but few published examples of public sector and nfp orgs. (1/2)
How might we work more openly by default? – I’m only just getting back in the swing of writing regularly and I’ve actually found it pretty difficult because who wants to read this nonsense anyway. In reality, I find it difficult to write about my week because there’s so much context to working in leadership, in a shared service, in IT, in public services. Plus, things that should be simple or sound simple, just aren’t because…‘stuff’. (Politics, economics, mad strategies that make little sense, outdated views of the world…y’know, ‘stuff’). Having said all that, I had a really good time-out with David Durant of HackIT who reminded me how we (I) can be better at sharing what we’re doing in a more useful format. Thanks David. So, I’ll try and do more of that over the coming weeks.
I am pleased
- I feel like I listened to people much more this week, I spent some solid time with customers to hear their problems to have some difficult conversations but those are the times that make us all a little stronger.
- I got chance to catch up with Helen and Mark at UKAuthority this week on some of the work we’ve been doing to create services and software that are reusable across other organisations
- I took myself off to a gig on Wednesday night. I went to see Thank You Scientist 🎵 in Nottingham. The first gig I’ve been to in ages and I went on my own just just do something for me and give my brain chance to not think for a while and just be very, very present. It was, incredible. I felt immediately lighter and woke up the following day fresh and happy, even though my ears were still ringing.
Recommendations
- 200° Coffee – having spent a very rainy afternoon in Nottingham this week, I had a much better time thanks to these fine folks. I had a filter, it was a good 8.7/10 💯💯☕
- Drain Buddy – My son decided to throw a toilet block down our loo a wee while ago and it’s been backed up ever since. I finally got someone to take a look at it and they couldn’t have been better. So, after they were recommended to me (thanks father-in-law), I’m recommending them to you. For all your drainage needs, if you have that kind of thing going on in your life. 🚽💩
- The DevOps Handbook – Although I’m only about a third of the way through this, if you do IT stuff in a team, no matter what kind of work you do, this is definitely worth a read. Pretty much a definitive guide on not only what DevOps is and isn’t but how to help your team get to a better place than it is now. 🦄