Daveslist Volume 3 Issue 18 👨‍🦳

Just don't call it a maturity assessment!

Yes, I know, I know. I’ve been rubbish.

First newsletter for nearly a whole month. What can I say? I’ve been quite busy on other things, which I will explain a bit about below. But I’ve also been having some health ups and downs and they have slowed me down a bit, and made me go into my shell as well.

Still, am here now, so let’s crack on.

I’ve been beavering away recently on a thing I am calling the Local Government Digital Quality Model. Don’t call it a digital maturity model… but that’s basically what it is.

Other companies have created such things in the past, so why do we need another one?

For me, it’s about providing an open framework for improvement in digital design, data and technology within councils, and then wrapping a collaborative community around it.

The aim is to foster quality conversations in and between councils about the different elements of digital, and to help them decide which areas require their focus, and what realistic aims are.

It isn’t about getting the highest score possible, but instead about identifying areas for improvement, using a common model that can be compared and benchmarked with other councils.

The model is made up of 10 dimensions, which are rated at 5 different levels. These then produce a level for the councils overall.

Councils either self-assess, or get another council to do it (peer assessment) or can pay someone to do it (I guess). This is done by completing an assessment pack, basically considering various prompts around each dimension, then rating the council as it currently stands, giving reasons and evidence to back up those choices.

When that is done, the council should then decide where they want to get to next for each dimension during the next period (could be a year, I guess that’s down to individual choice). It could be that a council chooses just one or two dimensions to focus on, or perhaps would prefer to be more broad in their approach.

All these numbers get entered into the very simple calculator spreadsheet to produce the overall ratings for the council.

The next step is action planning. An action plan template will be produced along with a community maintained library of action items. These action items will be examples of things that councils can do to progress within each dimension.

So, if a council wants to make an action plan around the culture dimension, action items could include “Start a community of practice” or “Get your team to start blogging” or “Run some show and tells”, for example.

That is basically it! I think it would be good to fine a way to collect scores and some details about the councils, so benchmarking is possible.

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Watch the video!

I apologise for any cringe that results from watching this.

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There’s a website now, which isn’t terribly sophisticated but gives me something to point people to, and it has a form on it which enables people to apply to join the community (it’s open to anyone with good intentions!).

So far we have a great gang of around 15 different organisations who are getting involved, and we had our first online meet-up last week, where feedback, ideas and challenges were shared.

Broadly speaking, this is where the model is at, and what happens next:

• I have brain farted out v0.1 - the initial draft

• It will be full of howlers. Please check and feedback via community or email. No point is too small to make.

• I’ll then produce 0.2 based on that.

• When that it done, we will role play an assessment online, picking a ‘volunteer’ to be our guinea pig.

• We will iterate again based on feedback and how it flowed. 

• 0.3 will then be produced. That will be effectively the beta.

• We then have a go (quietly) at peer reviewing to test it again.

• More feedback, more iterating, and maybe then we will be at 1.0

If you would like to be involved with this project, in whatever capacity, just hit reply and let me know!

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This issue’s links

I blogged about blogging a bit again, sorry.

Raindrop.io is a very good tool for social bookmarking, it turns out. Mine are here.

Some awesome advice here on how to write a blog post.

Anne McCrossan is great at lots of things and one of those things is data. Found this post from her about data as a utility really interesting.

OpenAI’s Misalignment and Microsoft’s Gain – Ben Thompson’s take on the ongoing OpenAI kerfuffle. All this stuff just makes me nervous about the whole AI thing. Potentially game-changing, yes, but currently stewarded by bozos.

The different ‘flavours’ of service design – by Emma Parnell (subscribed!).

Trustworthy AI in Government + Public Services — A self assessment tool from Oxford Insights.

This is great, from Audree at Public Digital: Changing how we change in the public sector. Business cases, big programmes and all that stuff can really hamper good work.

Lauren Pope’s sharing is just amazing. Take this latest belter as an example: Prioritisation for content teams: a guide.

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That’s it for this issue. Don’t forget to hit reply if you have any feedback, or forward this on to anyone you think may enjoy it.

Also, if I can help you with anything, you can hire me!

Until next time,

Dave ❤️