6 November 2014 - Mary Ward House, London
Top and tailed by a wonderful Mistress of Ceremonies, Kate Kapp, the MOJ DS monthly staff meeting took place in Mary Ward House.
Mary Ward was a novelist and unsung hero for social reform, and the house became a self-help, training and community hub in the early 1900s. Nearly 100 years later, let’s hope MOJ Digital Services can follow in her footsteps.
High up in Silicon Valley
Paul Shetler’s update touched on his recent tour of Silicon Valley in which he was delighted to discover MOJ DS is streets ahead of most software companies. Always good to hear!
He talked about the next wave of digitalisation which is to create great exemplars across departments. And MOJ DS needs to continue to ask, what does it mean to have a digital justice system?
Simpler, clearer, more humane
Paul ended by emphasising the humanity of what we are delivering.
Although, yes, it’s products not projects, it’s users not customers, it’s people not profits, it’s show don’t tell, and it’s delivery in 20 weeks or less - overall, it’s a humane digital solution we want to offer the public. This is a public who don’t ‘choose’ our services - our services are all they’ve got.
65% pass rate
All new government digital services and products have to pass a high service standard set by the Government Digital Service
Olivia Neal, Head of Service Standard from GDS took us through the importance of complying with the standard, she revealed:
- the good 65% pass rate for product assessments
- how internal department services were about to start applying the standard too
- the training of over 100 internal assessors
- the benefits of coming to GDS sooner (rather than later) to talk about assessments
Ask the experts - us
Afterwards, Eliot Fineberg hosted a team retrospective.
We split into groups, identified problems and ways to improve working at MOJ DS, then voted online for the one we’d most like to work towards.
The team decided on:
- a slicker on-boarding process
- the set up of quiet rooms or work spaces
Tea-urns on the tube
Last but not least, a huge thanks to Kellie Matheson who generously gave her time and energy to prepare and serve refreshments.
If only there was a video to share of her transporting the tea-urn on the tube, the team would be EVEN more grateful! Thanks, Kellie.
2 comments
Comment by Graham Anderson posted on
"Digitalisation" does not mean what you think: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/digitalize
Comment by Jane Stead posted on
Thank you. I think it means to administer digitoxin AND the process of becoming digital. Hopefully not at the same time!