Article Structural solutions for structural problems 19 June, 202420 September, 2024 There have been several articles published in various locations over the years about whether some kind of GDS type agency might help local councils get better at digital (by which I mean technology, online experience, and data). It was when the question was first posed back in 2012 that saw LocalGovDigital emerge as a community…
Article It’s the agile mindset that matters for local government 8 May, 202420 September, 2024 Local authorities need to be more agile – it’s pretty much axiomatic. Particularly in our technology and digital related work, the success that many organisations have had in adopting agile delivery approaches seems to indicate that it’d be a good thing for councils to do more of. The local digital declaration advocates it, for example, by committing…
Resource Free resource: service discovery template 27 April, 202420 September, 2024 This is a nice and easy framework to use when you find yourself needing to do a quick service discovery to find out some basic details about a service and how it can be transformed. The point at which you might want to use this is right at the start of your digital work, when…
Blog Countering the AI hype 10 April, 202420 September, 2024 It’s hard to look at LinkedIn these days without being instantly confronted by AI enthusiasts, almost foaming at the mouth as they share their vision for how the public sector can save millions, if not billions, of pounds by simply using AI. It sounds so easy! As a chief executive I would be reading this…
Resource Free resource: project management template 26 February, 202420 September, 2024 There are so many projects on the go in local authorities in particular that require a certain amount of documentation, no matter how old school it might feel. Often though it just doesn’t get done, and that’s largely because there’s often a gap between project document templates, which tend to be large and overblown, and…
Guide Good decision making 8 January, 202420 September, 2024 Decision making is a key part of our approach to good digital work. In this guide, I walk you through why it matters so much, what bad and good decsion making looks like, and suggest a simple model to use to improve the way you do this in your organisation. Download the slides: Good decision…
Article 5 things for local leaders to know and understand about digital and technology 8 November, 202320 September, 2024 This quote from an article by the always insightful Jerry Fishenden really stuck out for me: With apologies to the late scientist and author Arthur C Clarke, to those who don’t understand technology, any sufficiently advanced marketing bullshit from snake oil merchants peddling their cryptocurrency, NFT, blockchain and Web3 potions is indistinguishable from magic. Computer Weekly, 13…
Article Three levels of digital change 13 October, 202320 September, 2024 Even if we adopt Tom Loosemore’s definition of digital – and we probably should – it’s still necessary to interpret it in the context of the service you are looking to digitise. I’ve worked out a really simple framework for thinking about this, by dividing the options into three distinct levels, or approaches to, digital change.…
Blog Was the local digital declaration too ambitious? 8 August, 202320 September, 2024 There have been a few posts flying around the bits of the internet with an interest in digital and technology in local councils recently, reflecting on the local digital declaration, which is now 5 years old. Here’s one from the Local Digital team themselves, Tass’ excellent post about Warwick, another from the nice folk in Stockport, and a good…
Article The roles you really must have on your digital team 6 August, 202320 September, 2024 The ideal The GDS service manual is very clear on the roles required to run a proper multidisciplinary team to deliver digital services. It states that you must have a product manager service owner delivery manager user researcher content designer designer developer And this is, of course, quite right. Doing good digital work means taking it seriously,…
