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This blog post was published under the 2015-2024 Conservative Administration

https://defencedigital.blog.gov.uk/2019/12/16/creating-the-defence-digital-service/

Creating the Defence Digital Service (DDS) in MOD

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Defence Digital Service (DDS), Richard Crowther

Organisations are defined by their values - here are some of ours:

A Picture showing values of the Defence Digital Service
Values of the brand new Defence Digital Services.

Hello, we are the Defence Digital Service (DDS) - a new group in the Ministry of Defence (MOD), here to help pave the way for the rapid delivery of user-centred products and services in Defence.

Our aims

Using modern practices and technologies, we’re aiming to bring tactical and strategic advantage by responding rapidly to user needs, both in the office and in the battlespace. 

How we work

We’re here to deliver! The projects chosen by our team will be pathfinders, case studies and exemplars, for broader use across the MOD.

Borrowing a little from our friends who spell defence with an ‘s’, we’ll work on things where:

  • we have a senior executive sponsor who can act as a senior advocate and remove challenges and roadblocks.
  • we have the right talent and skills on the team, so that we’re uniquely positioned to assist.
  • our work will be of benefit across Defence.

We’ll work in the open as much as possible, publishing what we’re up to and how we’re progressing, as we go.

Our team

Our fledgling team is currently just three strong and made up of Elliot Wilkes from the US Defense Digital Service team, here to help us set up, myself - Richard Crowther, and my colleague Iain Baars-Gordon. We’re already starting to deliver value whilst we build our first product team made up of civil and crown servants together with industry experts.

A Picture showing values of the Defence Digital Service
Left to Right: Elliott Wilkes, Rich Crowther and Iain Baars-Gordon - The Brand New Defence Digital Team in the MOD.

So far...

We’re already working on our first Discovery exercise with support from several other teams across Defence - so watch out for our news!

Get in touch

If you’re an experienced developer, user researcher, delivery manager or service designer, and you like our mission and values, please get in touch and we’ll let you know when we advertise new roles. 

Elliott, Rich and Iain.

 

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15 comments

  1. Comment by Mike Brydon posted on

    Hi,
    What are we to be known as, Defense Digital or Defense Digital Service?

    Reply
  2. Comment by Dan Beasley posted on

    Great to see this initiative! Please make sure you find your way to the Hydrographic office at some point as it would be great to talk.

    Reply
  3. Comment by Dawid Kotur posted on

    Congrats guys, we like your approach here at Curvestone. Looking forward to reading your published materials!

    Reply
  4. Comment by Chris posted on

    I would like to see office based digital services which are as easy to use as the .GOV.UK sites. The DVLA pages are an excellent example.
    Best of luck with the initiative, great news!

    Reply
    • Replies to Chris>

      Comment by rebeccacarden posted on

      Thanks for your comment. Completely agree that our internal digital services should be built in line with the Service Standard wherever possible.

      Reply
  5. Comment by Lorna Parr posted on

    Hi. How do you interact with Defence Digital - home of the Defence CIO?

    Reply
  6. Comment by Angela posted on

    Hi guys - any update? what have you / are you prioritising?

    Reply
    • Replies to Angela>

      Comment by rebeccacarden posted on

      Check out our blog on the work we have started on readiness reporting. Other early projects include supporting our cyber security colleagues, establishing a vulnerability disclosure programme, and continuing to build the team. We'll publish more on all of this as soon as we can.

      Reply
  7. Comment by N.Jones posted on

    Hi,
    Do you have any involvement in managing system to system interfaces?

    Reply
  8. Comment by Yuri posted on

    Hello everybody, one question, Whats is the difference between you and CYBER COMMAND? Do you work with National Cyber Security Center? Thankyou

    Reply
    • Replies to Yuri>

      Comment by Rebecca Carden posted on

      Hi. We're a user-centred service design team sitting within Defence Digital. We sometimes collaborate with NCSC, and we follow their advice on building digital services and technology securely. The broad UK equivalent to US Cyber Command is the National Cyber Force, which works closely with GCHQ."

      Reply

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