FiReControl’s Failure
The Public Accounts Committee have opined that the FiReControl project wasted £469 million pounds. A sobering report, all the more so if you were one of the people that worked on the project. How could...
View ArticleNineteen Years in Public Service
Nineteen years ago I started work, at Her Majesty‘s pleasure according to my job offer letter, as an Executive Officer with the Department of the Environment. I was a graduate entrant on the DOE’s...
View ArticleGuest Blog for Government Digital Service
I was asked to do a guest blog for GDS on my experience as a Service Manager on one of their early service assessments. You can see what I have been doing at work of late, […]
View ArticleWriting Routines
This is inspired as a short piece from a question on the A215 (Creative writing) student forum about what discipline people apply to their writing. I write as part of my work, although mostly not […]
View ArticleChaos Monkeys
I spent a chunk of Friday in an alpha training session on clouds. Much of it wasn’t new, but there were some insights into designing stuff for clouds as opposed to fixed infrastructure. The netflix […]
View ArticleScottish Independence – Staying Positive
I’m Scottish and I live in England. So I don’t get a vote on Scotland becoming independent. I do get to express my opinion though. For most of my life I would describe myself as a […]
View ArticleTwenty Years on the Internet
It’s so long ago that I’ve forgotten the exact date, but I first used the internet in February 1995 when I was working as a local system administrator for the […]
View ArticleVerify on Gov.UK – a user experience
I had occassion to become a beta user for the Government Digital Service sponsored Verify service (previously known as IDA – Identity Assurance). I’d come across this before at work, […]
View Article7/7 London Bombings Remembered Ten years on
Ten years ago the last successful terrorist spectacular was about to happen in London. 52 people were murdered by suicide bombers in one of the worst terrorist attacks in mainland […] The post 7/7...
View ArticleDigital Transformation in Government
The purpose of government is to serve its citizens, it should do that as efficiently and effectively as possible. The extent to which any specific government serves its people should […] The post...
View ArticleGetting A Civil Service Job
Today is my last day in my current civil service job. On Monday I will start a new civil service job, on promotion, with a different civil service department. Figuratively, […] The post Getting A Civil...
View ArticleThe Secret of Success or Snake Oil?
The Secret of Success is offered on many pages across the Internet. They’re almost all snake oil salesmen trying to part you from your money with the temptation of an […] The post The Secret of...
View ArticleLessons in Leadership from Andrew Strauss
I was lucky enough to hear Andrew Strauss speak about the lessons in leadership he has learnt as a cricket captain and then as Director of Cricket England. Andrew Strauss has […] The post Lessons in...
View ArticleE.Q. Librium by Yvette Bethel [Book Review]
E.Q. Librium Unleash the Power of Your Emotional Intelligence: A Proven Path to Career Success by Yvette Bethel My rating: 4 of 5 stars E.Q. Librium E.Q. Librium is a […] The post E.Q. Librium by...
View ArticlePerformance Objectives – Public Sector
Performance Objectives – Public Sector Slack et al. identify five generic performance objectives: quality speed dependability flexibility cost These generic performance objectives are explained below....
View ArticleFive Steps to Great Requirements
Requirements are the key to getting a good solution, whether in procurement or just choosing between options. Most people get their requirements wrong, largely because they haven’t drawn this...
View ArticleArticle 50 – How do we Brexit?
After the referendum there’s been a lot of speculation on how we invoke Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon. Article 50 (see below) is the provision for a member […] The post Article 50 – How do we...
View ArticleCivil Service Live 2016
Yesterday I attended some sessions at Civil Service Live 2016 in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in central London. The QEIICC is next door to my office, so I […] The post Civil Service Live...
View ArticleHow will you be choosing your next boss?
I’m now in a position of needing to choose my next boss. My loan to DCMS is nearly over, a year has flown by, mostly very enjoyable. If I had […] The post How will you be choosing your next boss?...
View ArticleFailure is the Foundation for Success
Our culture fears failure more than anything else. We talk about failure less than we talk about death, even though failures are way more common than fatalities. If we are […] The post Failure is the...
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