alpha.gov.uk

Alphagov was a prototype of a single government website for citizens, businesses and government departments. It was motivated by Matha Lane-Fox’s report, Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution Not Evolution in which she argued all government services should be delivered digitally by default, with improved user experience, using modern agile techniques from within an organisation mandated to deliver.

This project delivered an alpha version of a user-focused single domain government website, delivered using agile, product management techniques. It was completed with a team of 10 in 12 weeks for £250k, and won much praise from the digital community, press and even the politicians liked it.

I was the Delivery Manager for Alpha.gov.uk.  It was an amazing project to work on, from recruiting the team through to delivery.  I remember on the night of launch we were flooded with positive comments on Twitter and Facebook and my colleague Tom saying “Russia like us… Now Spain…” as we saw tweets roll past at 11pm :) Fantastic team to work with and so much fun!  Who’da thunk it was Government IT?  But then, that was the point.

You can see the prototype at http://alpha.gov.uk/

And now for the beta version…