The brief

We supported a UK government agency to strengthen their cyber security service and improve technical delivery through new agile ways of working following 18 months of no tangible business value.

This transformation included changes to roles and responsibilities, a new UK-wide multi-agency approach to categorising incidents, and the alignment of business and technical visions and delivery. These changes affected 40 operational users, multiple development teams and >300 internal/external customers, including other government departments.

Laying foundations for success

Working with seniors and operational teams we co-developed the vision, technical roadmap and user stories for digital transformation, aligning 260 disparate tactical change initiatives with strategic priorities and the new technology strategy.

We developed a target operating model and identified metrics (OKRs) and acceptance criteria to ensure business readiness. We clarified processes, tasks, roles and ownership, and embedded agile practices to ensure technical development work was aligned with the vision and strategy, achieving early delivery value to the customer.

Developing a clear change and communication strategy and setting up a change network was instrumental in increasing the awareness of and desire to change. This enabled business change to become sustainable and it is now the norm within the service.

Achieving measurable efficiencies

New ways of working have been implemented, embedded, supported and enhanced through new technical deliverables. As a result, the service has been recognised as one of the most mature areas within the department in terms of working processes and technical capability.

The improvements made to effectiveness and efficiency enabled the service to be extended and scaled to meet demand. The new agile ways of working enabled technical capability to be delivered within 4 weeks, creating a 30% efficiency saving. Working software is now delivered every 2-4 weeks rather than annually. End-to-end processes were streamlined, reducing time and effort from half a day and 100 mouse clicks, to 1 hour and just 10 mouse clicks.

Perhaps most importantly, our approach helped to establish an alert service across government and industry partners and increased incident response times.

But don’t just take our word for it – here’s what our client has to say.