The GDS have now become what they were setup to avoid. That is, they were supposed to be an agile startup to avoid massive overspend on untenable projects like NHS digital [1].
What I've noticed is that "new style" government projects like the GDS seem to be suffering from using too many "innovation tokens" [2], probably due to the much cited lack of leadership.
It's not nice to be in a situation where you are stuck on a legacy Java 7 platform, and nothing else, but equally, it's not nice to be in a situation where you are trying to support and context-switch between too many stacks. One is too conservative, the other is chaos.
If there's no leadership, there's no-one to make decisions to limit proliferation of new technology. This might be unpopular for some developers looking to improve their CVs, but necessary for the organisation as a whole.
What I've noticed is that "new style" government projects like the GDS seem to be suffering from using too many "innovation tokens" [2], probably due to the much cited lack of leadership.
It's not nice to be in a situation where you are stuck on a legacy Java 7 platform, and nothing else, but equally, it's not nice to be in a situation where you are trying to support and context-switch between too many stacks. One is too conservative, the other is chaos.
If there's no leadership, there's no-one to make decisions to limit proliferation of new technology. This might be unpopular for some developers looking to improve their CVs, but necessary for the organisation as a whole.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28464002 [2] https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology