The document discusses how the Scottish government leveraged Kanban practices to address challenges in digital transformation within mygov.scot, focusing on people and culture rather than just technology. Key initiatives included reorganizing teams, improving planning and visibility, and fostering innovation through hackathons and retrospectives, which led to a significant increase in productivity. Ultimately, the program achieved over 40 releases in 200 days, enhancing relationships with stakeholders and boosting team morale.

1. Kanban in the Scottish
Government
How Kanban practices have helped us
respond to four key challenges within mygov.scot
@jose_casal – jose.casal@actineo.xyz
@calumshepherd – calum.shepherd@gov.scot

3. Information spread across 160+
organisations
...over 480+ websites

4. 6 million content items on main
websites alone
We have more content items than
people

5. Visualise
Limit WIP
Manage flow
Make process policies explicit
Implement feedback loops
Improve collaboratively, evolve
experimentally

6. WARNING
These were our responses to our
challenges and in our context
Don’t just copy them, *please*
tailor your own

7. Our programme’s reputation was
compromised due to early
promises and ambition
#1

8. The challenge of digital transformation
isn’t one of technology, instead it is
one that requires a focus on people
and culture

9. Avoided the temptation to change
everything at once

10. We let people know that it is OK not to
have all the answers
Proactively supported experimentation

11. We were not delivering at a pace that
would support our short-term
ambitions, instead blinded by our end-
goals
#2

12. 100-day drives
Short, focused tactical delivery aligned
to our roadmap

13. Reorganising into vertical teams to
dissolve silos and enable
on-demand delivery

14. Moved the programme swiftly through
beta and live product iterations,
helping provide clarity to others on our
maturity and progress

15. We struggled with conflicting
prioritisation and strong views from
influential members of our senior team
#3

16. Improved planning and visibility
through the introduction of a
roadmap, horizon board and
combined delivery board

17. Began to deliver value
early and often

18. Morale was suffering within the teams
and we were lacking opportunities for
true innovation
#4

19. Empowered people to deliver
against our ambitions

20. Re-introduced regular
retrospectives and reignited our
product demos

21. Re-introduced Hackathons for the
team to explore new ideas and
solutions

22. Content colleagues arranged a
content rally, which led to…
co-design workshops

23. So, have the changes all been
worthwhile?

24. 40+ releases in 200 days
compared to
2 releases in 8 months

25. We have more productive
relationships with public sector
subject matter experts

26. An increase in the transparency of
our planning, clearer short term
delivery and improved morale

27. Thank you.
@jose_casal / linkedin.com/jcasal
@calumshepherd / blog.calumshep.com
@mygovscot / inside.mygov.scot