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03. The team
3. Put in place a sustainable multidisciplinary team that can design, build and operate the service, led by a suitably skilled and senior service manager with decision-making responsibility.
Link to corresponding item in JIRA: https://jira.informed.com:8443/browse/FCOLOI-156
Questions
- Can you talk us through the team that was in place during alpha and what the team looks like in beta?
- How was the service manager empowered to make decisions during alpha and is this the case in beta?
- Can you give us an example?
- Is the service manager the single responsible person with the power and knowledge to make decisions to improve the service day-to-day during beta?
- Were there any gaps in the team during alpha and how are you addressing these in beta? Are you using external people and if so, how are you approaching transferring skills and knowledge to the team during beta?
- Is there a separation of key roles?
Evidence
Service Manager able to:
- clearly explain the structure of the team during alpha and beta (the following should be either in the team or available to the team depending on the scale of the service: service manager, product manager, delivery manager, tech architect and lead, assisted digital lead, designer, user researcher, developers, content designer, web ops, product analyst).
- show they were empowered to make decisions during alpha and are continuing to do so during beta.
- show there are no gaps in the team or explain how they are addressing any gaps in beta.
- explain how they will transfer knowledge from external people to the team during beta.
- show that there is a separation of key roles (i.e. the same person is not performing multiple roles within the service).
- there is at least one user researcher working at least 3 days per week.
Context: size of department and small budget for 120k transaction service = a shared resource approach is necessary in some areas
Andy Hamilton
Examples of empowerment during beta:
- Removing company number registration requirement, but keeping company name (and ensuring mandatory) as we move along the path to opening up the service at an appropriate speed for the required internal change management
- Adding additional details to the cover sheet to bridge the gap until the full case working solution captures all the data and sends it to dispatch
- Proposal to make feedback consent an account setting rather than a per-application setting, for those with accounts (on backlog, expected in 2 sprints' time)
- Removal of country field for documents
Mark Barlow
Tom Weeks
Matthew Rix
Mike Skaife
Note: when the service moves to live, web ops will be covered by Kainos' managed cloud service which maintains the FCO's existing live services handed over by GDS in December 2014
Adam MacMillan
Robert Precious
Mark Daunt
Cyril Peka
Previously in alpha, while working without a dedicated designer, we benefited a lot from reviews by Ed Horsford and Joe Lanman, both before the alpha assessment and as part of it. We also used the elements and design patterns hackpad as a guide. We also set up our design resources document to help as a reference guide, aggregating disparate sources of information
Alison Diaz (Legalisation Office)
Nick Wearn (User Researcher)
Ian McBride
Mark Barlow
FCO consular content team: Chris Allison, Ash Matin and Peter Noble (freelancer)
This team is a shared resource who look after all FCO content on GOV.UK
To note: the majority of the detailed content is already designed - the original 65 document detail pages in the GOV.UK smart answer, and the start page. This information has been re-packaged and updated for the new service.
Nick Wearn, User Researcher, 3 days per week since December
Supported by Claire Healy and Sara Jones in the Consular Insights Team, and WhatUsersDo managed service which includes research analysis
Previous approach in alpha: 25% Mark B time / 15% Claire Healy (Consular Insights team) / 15% Sara Jones (Consular Insights team) / 2 days per sprint Whatusersdo managed service / 72.5 days from IFF research, 580 man hours logged
- Thanks to DWP, we sent 5 staff on the February user researcher course in London for us to start the process of training in-house user researchers, 3 of whom are from the consular directorate
- The updated GDS Digital Strategy promises digital transformation support for smaller departments - we have engaged with the team and hope to be one of the test beds for this
- Similarly, the updated FCO Digital Strategy 2016 (currently in draft) is expected to call for an in-house, permanent specialist team to be set up to develop and deliver digital transformation programmes. This will be aligned with the Civil Service digital and technology profession.