One of my favourite things that’s come out of the UK’s Government Digital Service is the Government Service Design Manual.
It manages to provide an incredible amount of guidance and resources for anyone involved in “digital delivery”, while remaining implementation-agnostic and succinct.
This is not just for people working in government; whatever your role, whatever stage of your career you’re at, whatever sector you may work in, I reckon there’s something for you. I do not work for the Government, I have never worked for the Government, and I doubt working for the Government is in my future. I do work in tech, and I’ve found it an invaluable set of documents.
Some of my favourite sections:
User stories for Web Operations
In general, I think the idea of lists of user stories to be used and re-used between projects is great.
Specifically, this is a great list for anyone looking to understand “the work required to run a large online service” (and it’s still worth looking at if it’s not a large service).
Resources for CTOs
In February I went from being a one-man tech consultancy to being the CTO of a tech startup. While I’m operating on a much smaller scale than the average Civil Service CTO, this section has still been an excellent resource for helping with that transition.
What is DevOps?
This is easily the most useful, helpful, and buzzword-free description of “devops” that I’ve encountered.
So those are my favourites. Got a favourite section of your own? Let me know! I’ve not yet found the time to just sit down and read it all…!
Thanks to everyone who’s helped make it happen.
UPDATE: The more I read of the SDM, the more great and useful things I find. So every Friday I’ll be tweeting about sections I recently enjoyed, under the hashtag #SDMOfTheWeek. Follow along, and if you’ve got your own favourites, tweet them at me!