Celebrating 'End Digital Poverty Day' 2024
Today marks 'End Digital Poverty Day', a significant occasion hosted by the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) to raise awareness and drive action towards eliminating digital poverty by 2030.
READ MOREEnhancing MoJ Common Platform reliability through proactive defect management and strategic solutions.
READ MOREScrumconnect partnered with the Ministry of Justice to enhance the Common Platform’s efficiency and reliability through strategic defect management and innovative methodologies.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Common Platform is a colossal web application integral to justice proceedings across 99% of Criminal and Magistrates courts in the UK. Despite its critical role, the platform faced significant challenges that hampered its efficiency and reliability.
The primary issues included a massive defect backlog, with over 1000 unresolved defects dating back to 2021. This backlog stemmed from undefined user journeys and a baseline that required substantial improvement. The scope of defects was often unclear, and the entire process was predominantly reactive rather than proactive. Consequently, the primary objective was to achieve a net reduction of 50 defects per month, alongside reducing the number of new defects created and increasing the number of defects resolved.
We implemented strategic defect management and innovative methodologies to enhance the MoJ Common Platform’s efficiency and reliability.
To tackle the defect backlog, we initiated the process by defining and publishing the backlog. This approach provided transparency and visibility to a diverse range of stakeholders through various meetings, workshops, and "Show and Tell" ceremonies.
We engaged in active brainstorming sessions directly with the leadership team to devise strategic solutions. Many of the actions discussed were promptly implemented, driving significant improvements in our processes.
Curated insights were regularly presented to the Crime Programme board, and we published weekly blogs to keep the entire Crime platform informed about progress and developments.
In addition to the existing Kanban process, we introduced a new working methodology that focused on grouping defects by functionality and addressing them in bulk. This approach contributed to achieving a net reduction of 50 defects per month for April and May, with June on track to continue this trend.
The defect triaging process was improved through two key initiatives. We established a prioritisation matrix to score defects based on their impact, streamlining the backlog by ranking the order in which defects were addressed. Comprehensive analysis was conducted to link existing defects, thereby controlling and reducing the inflow of new defects. As a result, new defects decreased by 50% over the last six months.
We significantly reduced defect backlogs and improved platform reliability, enhancing the overall efficiency of the MoJ Common Platform.
Despite the absence of defined SLAs for 3rd line support, we achieved a turnaround, improving SLA compliance by at least 90%. This was evidenced by the minimal percentage of untriaged defects in the queue by 2024.
We delivered over 100 complex functionality defect fixes in the last six months, maintaining a remarkable ~99% quality rate. Only 5 defect fixes regressed during this period, underscoring the effectiveness of our approach.
Our efforts received positive feedback from various stakeholders: Prioritisation Matrix: Business process owners praised the prioritisation matrix for its effectiveness.
Today marks 'End Digital Poverty Day', a significant occasion hosted by the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) to raise awareness and drive action towards eliminating digital poverty by 2030.
READ MOREDiscover our latest job openings across the UK and India and take the next step in your career with us.
READ MOREIn our third Scrumconnect Spotlight series, we spoke to Mark Duncan, Chief Digital Officer, about his role and the unique challenges he faces. Mark shared insights into the wide-ranging responsibilities he handles beyond the typical CDO scope, reflecting Scrumconnect’s dynamic approach to leadership and project delivery.
READ MOREWe are committed to continuously providing the best in tech with our people, practices and technology through our certifications.
Scrumconnect is committed to disability rights.
This enhanced government-endorsed standard demonstrates that we have implemented the essential plus security requirements for protecting your data, and that of your client’s, against unskilled internet-based cyber attackers.
We are a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Cloud Compute 2 framework, a testament to our commitment to providing high-quality services to the UK public sector.
An integrated management system, designed for ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2015, operates across our business. These are regularly reviewed in order to ensure the continuous improvement to meet the needs of our customers and stakeholders.