DEFRA UCD Operations Sprint 7

10 May - 28 May 2021

Photo by Jakob Cotton on Unsplash

This is the end of sprint 7 for UCD Operations, we’ve had a few niggles with our agile ceremonies and trello board. You know when it just doesn’t feel right?

We’re just constantly reacting to work which makes it hard to stick to our sprint goals, so we’re going big on our strategy and roadmap. This should enable us to be less reactive and have a happier balance.

Design — Tom Frankland

What went well

• Most of this sprint was spent understanding the software needs for the design team. Following the survey (which got a great response! 🎉), I’ve analysed the results and started adding the tools mentioned in the survey into Defra’s ‘Tools Radar’, which will help bring UCD into alignment with the other technical professions.
• Meeting the BBC’s design ops team, where we had a brilliant conversation about tackling many of the same problems but at different scales. It was a great insight into how we might continue to scale up the design team.
• We also had a great team structure meeting this sprint, where a number of designers got together to think about how the design team might look in the future. So many brilliant ideas came out of this, and I’m looking forward to the follow up meetings in the future to continue the discussion.

Content — Cerys Mainwaring

What went well

• Planning for the UCD meetup has been the main focus this time, with a lot of work going on behind the scenes, I want to say a huge thank you in advance to Daniel Owens who has not only been great to work with but enthusiastic and insightful from his previous experience. I have only ever organised “in person” conferences before which come with their own pros and cons, but to work with Daniel has been really beneficial to learn from his knowledge experience!

What didn’t go well

• Time! With my maternity leave date zipping towards me faster than Usain Bolt, I feel like I am running low on time to get things done, so wanted to ask if anyone is waiting on me to get back to you on a query, please do send me an email or Slack message as baby brain has fully taken over and I hope I haven’t missed any requests or queries!

Research — Samantha Brown

What went well

• Interviewing for the UCD Ops support role, I love it when an interview goes well. Believe it or not, the chair and panel are often as nervous as the candidate.
• Having that epiphany moment about strategies. I feel like I’m about to get my geek on with this — done well it’s going to help Ops. I’m holding a crit on the Research Ops strategy. I’ve also offered to help content and research understand what their strategy will look like.