Digital strategy

Desktops, devices, and why you can't always get what you want

Sean Brazier, 21 February 2019 — Experts in what we do, Open, Technology, Unity without uniformity

Sean Brazier blogs about the changes in technology from desktops to devices, what that means for his team and those using the kit they provide.

A new way of working: single technical direction

Penny Young and Tracey Jessup, 15 February 2019 — Continuous iteration, Focus on core work, parliament.uk

To improve PDS focus on delivery and its ability to effectively prioritise work on a new website for Parliament, our development team is moving to a new way of working.

Our first unconference and what we got from it

Caroline Auty, 13 February 2019 — Collaboration culture, Community, Cultural values, Unity without uniformity

Here in PDS, we’re constantly looking for new ways to solve (old) problems and to engage staff in different ways so we recently held an unconference. Caroline Auty talks about the unconference format and what we got from it.

Keeping it simple: content principles for Parliament

Rebecca Hales, 8 February 2019 — Collaboration culture, Content design, Continuous iteration, Experts in what we do, parliament.uk

Information is the currency of the House of Commons and House of Lords with 37 pieces of new content published on parliament.uk every day, on average. We've created a set of content principles to maintain standards and help our editors.

How I got to where I am: from sound engineer to SharePoint

Kieran Dunlop, 6 February 2019 — Curiosity, Experts in what we do

Kieran Dunlop is a SharePoint Analyst in PDS. He doesn't have an IT background so you might wonder how he got here. He's written this blog post to explain how someone with a music degree ends up working in IT.

Say it with…a card

Jenny Radcliffe, 30 January 2019 — Care, Collaboration culture, Simplicity

Following on from Dan Cook’s blog post about healthy and happy teams, we’re trialling something new in the digital portfolio team. A new way to say thank you and well done to colleagues who have gone above and beyond.

Showing that we care

Dan Cook and John Box, 25 January 2019 — Care, Cultural values, Open

We have four cultural values here in PDS: care, community, curiosity, and confidence. We recently held a cultural values day which focused on the care value. Dan Cook and John Box have blogged about why we did it and what it involved.

Understanding services through user needs 

Jeanette Clement, 11 January 2019 — Collaboration culture, Community, Service design, Start with user needs, User research

Understanding the needs of our users is an integral part of building a service that works for everyone. Recently we've extended those services to other teams across Parliament by helping them to learn more about their users and the impact they can have on these services.