Week 11: 14-18 November

My goal this week was to do something every day to move forward my three priorities. And I’ve done it! Ok, so not the most ambitious goal. But here’s what I was able to do:

  • Monday: Michael and I started preparing for a senior leadership team workshop on the technology roadmap. We’ve got a format that will help participants develop a view of the maturity of the main components of our existing technology
  • Tuesday: I got a good challenge from Mark on my draft guiding principle for our roadmap (namely that ‘fast to change, fast to learn’ might encourage too much short-termism)
  • Wednesday: I developed a shortlist of questions we could ask of our data as we explore the opportunities for predictive modelling and machine learning
  • Thursday: I explored the technical design of our ‘Digital Case File’ project in order to assess how it fitted into our technical vision for the Future Casework Tools programme
  • Friday: we had a really productive workshop to begin exploring how to make the CPS the best place in the sector to develop software

Some of those things are evidently more meaningful than others where progress is, at best, symbolic. Nevertheless, after a few weeks of ‘general busyness’ it feels good to have inched forward on all fronts.

I’m again on a train back from York on a Friday night (although I found the more trendy pub on the station forecourt this week). It’s given me a couple of hours to reflect on the software development workshop. After a tricky start due to equipment shortcomings and document sharing permissions I was really pleased by how everyone joined in with the spirit of the event. I wasn’t sure how familiar colleagues were in using workshop techniques like personas and future visioning, and there was a significant disparity of perspectives and expertise on the topic. However, we produced a really strong, comprehensive set of outputs and didn’t shy away from some of the tougher issues.

I’ve tried to distil the discussion into an open welcome note for new software developers. At the moment it’s a set of aspirations and assertions but I’ve got a sense that it’ll help us focus on the outcome we’re seeking and can use the tension between the organisation we are and the organisation we want to become to inject urgency into closing the gap. It’d be interesting to hear thoughts to the contrary.

Our business continuity exercises on Tuesday helped me achieve one of the final objectives from my induction period: I understand my role in business continuity issues. It answered lots of my questions, which was reassuring. But it also reminded me how reliant we are on the knowledge of a relatively small number of people.

I also supported colleagues from HR to interview for a data analytics role. It was interesting to be on the other side of the table (and helpful because the civil service uses a common approach to interviewing across different levels of seniority), Even more than that, it was a good opportunity to build relationships with colleagues.

I also benefitted from working as part of a broader community this week. I tapped into the experiences of the Ministry of Justice using Backstage which was a shortcut for learnings that otherwise would have taken months, and had really energetic conversations with colleagues in the police and at MOJ about collaborating on data science.

For most of the month I’ve been taking detailed notes in each meeting I’ve attended, inspired by Mark’s note-taking. I don’t know how helpful it’s been (the notes tend to be ‘they said’ rather than reflective) and I’ve not had reason to read the notes back, yet. But somehow it feels like the right practice to adopt.

In amongst all of that, I’ve fallen behind significantly on my running targets. Trips to Petty France on Tuesday and Wednesday, together with the early start for York meant that I’ve just not run often enough. I’m going to struggle to hit 25 miles this week.

Next week, I’m going to set more focused, delivery-oriented goals:

  1. To develop a means of testing and validating our hypotheses for how data analysis can support operational recovery
  2. To identify a more detailed set of user needs for the technology platform
  3. To build an assessment of our current key software as a key input to the technology roadmap