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PD Newsletter #14: Diego Piacentini hands on the baton in Italy, buying better technology, user research and agile teams

Welcome to the 14th edition of the Public Digital newsletter. I'm @egawen on Twitter. This week, lots of great examples of internet-era ways of working.

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A hotbed of circulars

Diego Piacentini has ended his 2 year term in Italy as Government Commissioner for the Digital Agenda (not too surprising given the political leadership change). Before leaving, he and his Digital Transformation Team released a detailed assessment of their work over the last 2 years, alongside bold recommendations for future success. They offer a direct assessment of their partners at the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID): they have "become an ineffective hotbed of circulars and an organizer of round tables that do not add any value to the public administration's transformation process.

Piacentini is succeeded as of the 31st October by Luca Attias, an appointment Piacentini supports as a sign of continuity and support for the digital agenda.

Ways of working


For those interested in resetting relationships with technology suppliers and reforming procurement, Piacentini has also recently published a framework of principles for technology procurement. Though adapted for the Italian public administration, the principles apply soundly to any big organisation. They also have a lot in common with the UK governments Technology Code of Practice.

User research is a team sport: Will Myddelton's insightful and practical field guide is well worth your time. It very much chimes with my experience trying to practice team research: harder that it initially seems, time-consuming, but ultimately well worth the effort. Start here if you want to try it.

This Twitter thread about great agile teams has proved popular. A reminder before reading though: most teams aren't like this, and it's ok not to be perfect.

How a start-up is helping farmers in India cultivate crops, using image-recognition algorithms, and predictive modelling.

Around the world 🌎

👤
A brilliant profile of Matt Cutts, the head of the U.S. Digital Service, explaining why he's stayed in the new administration, and how the U.S. Digital Service has adapted to political transition.

🇩🇰
Denmark have published (DK) their new priorities and initiatives for Digital Government, demonstrating ably that to stay at the number 1 spot of the UN e-Government rankings no-one can afford to stand still. Unfortunately only published in Danish and in PDF, making translation tricky. (So I'll re-share this excellent post from GDS on why it's better to publish in HTML)

🙏
Basics before blockchain: Reforming Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Jamaica has instructed public sector workers to use an official e-mail when conducting business on behalf of the Government.

🍁
One to watch, the Canadian Digital Service are launching a digital training needs analysis, starting with a survey to gauge awareness and use of digital skills. Organisations looking at digital capability should take a look at the 30 emerging digital disciplines they identify.
#Waysofworking

👩‍💻Hillary Hartley from Ontario tells the story of re-building the Canadian state's online medical formulary, and how a team spotted a problem and fixed it, without asking for permission.

Other news in brief

News from Public Digital


Hiring an Internet-era CTO
In part one, James talks about what an Internet-era CTO is, what skills and experience they should have, and how to hire one.*

In part two, he sets out how you should go about hiring one.

*In case you spotted it, last time I linked to Tom's post twice; I have it right this time.