<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: Why I left GDS
---
In which I explain the many and varied reasons why I decided that my life would
be happier outside of the Government Digital Service after 3+ years service.

## 0. Why I don't hate GDS

This is definitely the first and probably the last time I will ever explain
publicly why I chose to leave a job. I left the Government Digital Service in
August 2015 and I've had few people ask why. It's been long enough that I would
hope any lingering unreasonable dissatisfaction would have dissipated and for
the most part I was happy with the experience and would encourage anyone to do a
tour of a few years helping out the Civil Service.

However, as with anyone leaving an organisation, I did it because I believed I
would be happier somewhere else. That sounds negative, but in reality not every
organisation is for everyone for all time. It's OK to move on, so while this
post is from a guy who chose to move, I hope it's not taken as a criticism of
many former colleagues or in fact a disincentive to join GDS.

I believe the idea of GDS is sound. The UK Civil Service has suffered in many
areas, over many decades, from the belief that specialism is something to be
contracted out in the vain hope that private industry will supply the skills and
knowledge needed and act in the best interests of the Country. That's laudable,
but quite frankly bollocks. (I might swear again, sorry mum)

Private industry exists to make money. Pretty much the only benefit it brings to
anyone working in the Civil Service is the outsourcing of risk. In-sourcing
expertise is a great idea and I hope that the UK Civil Service continues to
build and maintain in-house specialist knowledge and capability. I also hope
they do it by adopting skills and methodology that is known to work elsewhere,
so that they maximise the opportunities for people to enter and leave the
service.

## 1. Background - What I did for GDS

I used to be a "Web Operations" for GDS. That is probably the worst thought
out job title anyone has ever created. It vaguely describes a practice
area within the more general field of systems engineering or administration, but
when you try to apply that to a person, it's an ineffective job title, a rubbish
description of what they do and leads to awful phrases like "I need a WebOps".

I was technically employee number 2 in the Web Operations Team on GOV.UK, with
a decade of system administration experience, some exposure to "Cloud", but
not much practical experience of Configuration Management (puppet) - but we
managed to get by, we deployed a thing called GOV.UK with the help of some
talented consultants and friends and I'm quite proud of it.

After a couple of years, I needed something different so I helped out with the
ill-fated Rural Payment Agency project, where we tried to digitize the process
of applying for subsidies by farmers (historically not particularly digital
people). I think enough has been written about that project that I won't bore
you, but without exception the people were great, the aim was high, it just
lacked a little on the execution side from the Rural Payments Agency (historically
not a particularly digital organisation) and the scope creep killed it.

When GDS disengaged from that project, I then started on the Alpha of GOV.UK Pay
which was fantastic, as I was a team of one, we were going to deploy on AWS and
I could choose all the tooling, so I got a chance to use Ansible. Lovely team,
great project, but by that time my heart wasn't in it any more.

## 2. The startup culture

The "startup culture" under which GDS operates is pretty punishing. There is
always something that needs to be done and often refactoring was secondary to
new features. Bad choices were made for reasons of expediency and never
revisited, because there was always a new feature needed.

I also don't like some features which are seem to be common in some "Agile"
circles, but have little to do with being Agile. (I don't believe the [Agile
 Manifesto](http://agilemanifesto.org) mandates them)<commit_msg>Correct another typo<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: Why I left GDS
---
In which I explain the many and varied reasons why I decided that my life would
be happier outside of the Government Digital Service after 3+ years service.

## 0. Why I don't hate GDS

This is definitely the first and probably the last time I will ever explain
publicly why I chose to leave a job. I left the Government Digital Service in
August 2015 and I've had few people ask why. It's been long enough that I would
hope any lingering unreasonable dissatisfaction would have dissipated and for
the most part I was happy with the experience and would encourage anyone to do a
tour of a few years helping out the Civil Service.

However, as with anyone leaving an organisation, I did it because I believed I
would be happier somewhere else. That sounds negative, but in reality not every
organisation is for everyone for all time. It's OK to move on, so while this
post is from a guy who chose to move, I hope it's not taken as a criticism of
many former colleagues or in fact a disincentive to join GDS.

I believe the idea of GDS is sound. The UK Civil Service has suffered in many
areas, over many decades, from the belief that specialism is something to be
contracted out in the vain hope that private industry will supply the skills and
knowledge needed and act in the best interests of the Country. That's laudable,
but quite frankly bollocks. (I might swear again, sorry mum)

Private industry exists to make money. Pretty much the only benefit it brings to
anyone working in the Civil Service is the outsourcing of risk. In-sourcing
expertise is a great idea and I hope that the UK Civil Service continues to
build and maintain in-house specialist knowledge and capability. I also hope
they do it by adopting skills and methodology that is known to work elsewhere,
so that they maximise the opportunities for people to enter and leave the
service.

## 1. Background - What I did for GDS

I used to be a "Web Operations" for GDS. That is probably the worst thought
out job title anyone has ever created. It vaguely describes a practice
area within the more general field of systems engineering or administration, but
when you try to apply that to a person, it's an ineffective job title, a rubbish
description of what they do and leads to awful phrases like "I need a WebOps".

I was technically employee number 2 in the Web Operations Team on GOV.UK, with
a decade of system administration experience, some exposure to "Cloud", but
not much practical experience of Configuration Management (puppet) - but we
managed to get by, we deployed a thing called GOV.UK with the help of some
talented consultants and friends and I'm quite proud of it.

After a couple of years, I needed something different so I helped out with the
ill-fated Rural Payment Agency project, where we tried to digitize the process
of applying for subsidies by farmers (historically not particularly digital
people). I think enough has been written about that project that I won't bore
you, but without exception the people were great, the aim was high, it just
lacked a little on the execution side from the Rural Payments Agency (historically
not a particularly digital organisation) and the scope creep killed it.

When GDS disengaged from that project, I then started on the Alpha of GOV.UK Pay
which was fantastic, as I was a team of one, we were going to deploy on AWS and
I could choose all the tooling, so I got a chance to use Ansible. Lovely team,
great project, but by that time my heart wasn't in it any more.

## 2. The startup culture

The "startup culture" under which GDS operates is pretty punishing. There is
always something that needs to be done and often refactoring was secondary to
new features. Bad choices were made for reasons of expediency and never
revisited, because there was always a new feature needed.

I also don't like some features which seem to be common in some "Agile"
circles, but have little to do with being Agile. (I don't believe the [Agile
 Manifesto](http://agilemanifesto.org) mandates them)
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