Welcome to Defra! This guide is an overview of tools and resources available to you as a developer, and how to get access to them.
You can find our software development standards on GitHub (in this very repository!)
The Government Digital Service (GDS) sets standards for government digital services.
You can read these standards here:
Digital teams in Defra use Slack to keep in touch. Slack is a messaging app that lets you talk to colleagues in your team, department, or even across government.
If you have a Defra email address, you should be able to sign up to this Slack workspace yourself.
You may also want to join the UK Government Digital Slack. This has thousands of members from across government, and useful channels about software development and security.
Developer community of practice meetups are a chance to meet other developers, share what you’re working on, and find out news and updates about best practice.
Participating in the community of practice is considered part of your core job, so we encourage both permanent and contract devs to come along.
Meetups usually happen in our four hub offices, but developers from any office are welcome to attend.
- Meets every other Thursday at 2pm in Foss House, York
- Organised by John Watson
- Check the #york-dev-test-cop channel in defra-digital Slack for updates
- Meets every Monday at 1pm in Richard Fairclough House, Warrington
- Organised by Paul Shaw and Lynne Farrow
- Meets every other Monday at 2pm in Temple Quay House, Bristol
- Organised by Alan Cruikshanks
- Check the #development channel in defra-digital Slack for updates
What technology you’ll be using depends on the service you work on. Here are some common resources and tools to be aware of, and how to access them.
Access to GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins and other infrastructure services is managed by the Web Ops team.
We aim to develop in the open on GitHub. However, some repos (especially things like environment config) are privately stored on GitLab.
You will need VPN access to get to GitLab, Jenkins and our development environments.
Contact the Web Ops team or another developer to request access to these services.
Many teams use the project management tool Jira to manage their work.