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Delivery in a crisis

In high-pressure situations, you need to focus on delivering services that meet user needs immediately.

This guidance offers practical advice to help you deliver and develop a viable service by prioritising what’s most important during a crisis.

It’s based on lessons learned by the Scottish Government digital delivery team who supported the Ukraine crisis response.

Recruitment

It can be hard to assemble a team during a crisis because you need to recruit people at pace. You want to get a stable team with the right skills as soon as possible and establish the minimum roles required for immediate tasks. You can then evolve the team as work progresses. It helps to:

  • look at managed move lists, speak to colleagues who might have resources they can lend, and ask for volunteers with specific skills through the DDaT profession
  • check if you have existing suppliers with flexible contracts (you can ask your procurement team or HR department for help with this)
  • prepare for higher-than-usual staff turnover and avoid over-reliance on individual staff members as this can lead to significant knowledge gaps if they leave
  • ask for an initial 6 month commitment to the project for continuity where you can
  • document key decisions on shared platforms like Confluence, and regularly update induction materials to streamline staff onboarding
  • be open about the nature of the work and hire people who are comfortable with change and can work at pace
  • remember that working under pressure with potentially long hours isn't for everyone and that's ok
  • consult HR for guidance on recruitment, overtime, and weekend shifts – if you’re on the SCOTS network, Saltire has information on how to get HR help including support for contractors and temporary workers
  • remember that people will be drawn to the project because of the subject matter, giving you a dedicated core who feel passionately about the work

Procurement

You should start procurement as soon as you can and make sure any contracts include skills as well as end products. You can:

  • tap into existing contracts for resources you do not have such as developers or data engineers, or for help with tasks such as setting up a technical environment
  • look at suppliers' past experience of dealing with crisis situations to ensure they're a good fit
  • formulate contracts with maximum flexibility but be aware you'll pay a premium for working in crisis mode
  • procure services that are non-proprietary so they can be taken over by an alternative supplier if required
  • be wary of pro bono or free offers of help as these can leave you tied to a more expensive supplier longer term
  • try to procure a partner rather than a supplier by considering their values as a company and their commitment to offering solutions
  • aim to understand early on which services provided by a partner could eventually be handed over to core members of staff

Team culture

Building trust within your team is crucial during a crisis. You can:

  • lead by example – be honest and open with colleagues, admit what you don't know, listen to ideas, and be pragmatic with solutions
  • accept that mistakes will happen when working quickly in uncertain situations – focus on learning from them and preventing them in future
  • identify individual's needs early – people have different working styles and personal constraints
  • support flexible working by encouraging people to create a 'manual of me' that outlines how they work best
  • build a culture of wellbeing by checking in with each other outside of Agile ceremonies and make space for honest conversations
  • agree on shared team values and principles, such as respecting different opinions and working transparently
  • empower your team – once goals are clear, trust people to use their skills to deliver
  • encourage a supportive environment – pace and pressure can be intense, so it's important to actively look after team wellbeing
  • remember that working in a crisis can be an opportunity for people to grow – they may take on challenges and responsibilities they would not normally have the chance to tackle

Ways of working

Teams often face unclear workflows during a crisis. To help avoid confusion and poor decision-making you can:

  • use Agile ceremonies in a way that works for your team e.g. you might need two stand-ups per day
  • try splitting the team up into different deliverables as this can improve communication and help progress tasks more quickly
  • make sure you create opportunities to come together so that everyone knows what’s happening across the project – using time to communicate is never wasted
  • ask smaller teams to present back to the main group (e.g. about decisions made) to help to flag if another team needs to step in on a piece of work or if there are any skills gaps.
  • remember that delegating ownership is more important than sharing ownership – it will help give your team autonomy and speed up delivery
  • don’t forget to do the basics – it’s important to have artefacts such as decision logs, road maps and risk logs, especially when things keep changing
  • try to ensure that ways of working are project led rather than led by external suppliers – this will help you keep control of delivery

Stakeholder engagement and management

It’s important to build trusting relationships with stakeholders during a crisis. You can:

  • map out who your stakeholders are in broad terms as this is likely to keep changing
  • make time to talk to your stakeholders – and really listen to them – as this will help the team understand where any changes or tensions are coming from
  • represent your stakeholders' views fairly and be on their side
  • set clear milestones at the start to manage expectations, but compromise where possible e.g. on methodology, deliverables or timescales
  • make sure what you are asking of your stakeholders is essential as they will not have a lot of time
  • consider videoing/recording conversations with stakeholders so that responses can be revisited and shared with colleagues – this will avoid returning to the same stakeholders repeatedly (if you're on the SCOTS network you can access the digital recording policy)
  • agree the cadence of your stakeholder meetings and review this regularly to check it's still working
  • form a clear pipeline from your user research to your user requirements

Strategic vs tactical solutions

You will often prioritise quick fixes during a crisis but it’s important to consider your longer-term strategy at the same time. You can:

  • ensure your Minimum Viable Service (MVS) really is the minimum – you can scope and define improvements once the service is live
  • ensure your users and stakeholders are clear on what is a quick fix and when they can expect a more permanent solution
  • work through the long-term implications of your decisions to help you understand which ones you can and cannot reverse
  • think in terms of building blocks – what can be done early and improved upon rather than re-done?
  • document any shortcuts or technical debt, e.g. by adding them to a backlog, and revisit them as soon as possible to help you get out of crisis mode more quickly
  • choose technology solutions that your team has existing skills with or that you have the resource available to develop
  • try to make strategic decisions around data, e.g. agree a data architecture that is robust but flexible, as tactical data solutions can get messy and are prone to error
  • follow the Digital Scotland Service Standard and revisit any criteria you might have missed as soon as time allows
  • stop using any tactical components that are not reusable as early as possible as they could delay the implementation of a strategic solution

Common components and reuse

Attempting to reinvent things during a crisis can hinder critical responses. Aim to reuse as much as possible and stick to familiar technology. You can:

  • check what reusable components and technology are already available e.g. the Scottish Government Cloud Platform
  • use the Design System if you need to build web pages or forms as this will ensure they are accessible
  • tap into communities of practice for advice or guidance they can share
  • check if there are similar pre-existing services that you can borrow ideas from
  • try to automate what you can, especially software testing and build and deployment steps – this will make it easier to migrate to business as usual (BAU) and pivot around policy changes
  • always try to build with reusable components as tactical solutions often have a longer lifespan than anticipated

Data

Data can get very messy very quickly during a crisis and any data debt you create can be very difficult to unpick later. Effective use of data is crucial. You can:

  • set up a robust data infrastructure and regularly check that it is doing what you need it to do
  • bear in mind that your data flows might change frequently in terms of where data is coming from, where it’s going and the format it’s in
  • make sure you have data assurance processes in place that will pick up any data failures or anomalies quickly
  • minimise manual data processing as soon as you can and set up automated data checks e.g. by coding them
  • have people on your team who are comfortable with data and have data expertise
  • talk to cyber security experts to make sure you are aware of the security level of your data as it might be very high in a crisis situation
  • commission threat modelling and factor in necessary protection of your data, possibly on a 24-7 basis
  • try to move to a proper data management tool, e.g. a relational database or low-code development platform, as soon as possible – Excel is not secure, robust or shareable
  • make sure your data governance is flexible and that expertise is available to make changes because your data model and requirements will keep changing
  • understand the level of data quality required as early as possible – improving data quality and retrofitting can be complex and costly
  • ensure that all stakeholders know who is responsible for which data sets 
  • agree early what your reporting requirements are and where the edge of your scope is – “nice to know” information will often be requested, but you cannot let it unduly impact development

User centred design

Rapid delivery means you risk building services that do not meet user needs. You can:

  • commission user research (UR) alongside your build and carry out more in-depth UR when urgent issues are resolved
  • be mindful that your users might have experienced trauma as a result of the crisis situation and support this with an ethical UR policy
  • make sure user research is ongoing because things will change as the crisis evolves, and identify insights that are actionable now, not in 6 months’ time
  • share UR insights so that they can inform policy and operational decisions
  • keep system mapping at a high level as this is likely to be more useful than detailed mapping when the situation keeps changing
  • involve your user researchers in user forums and requirements gathering so they can influence the development pipeline 

Exiting crisis mode

It's important to get out of crisis mode as soon as possible so that you can focus on more lasting change. You can:

  • define what BAU should look like (e.g. document who should be doing what) and create a plan to get there
  • have a timescale in mind for moving to BAU to ensure it happens
  • review your stakeholder map to make sure you are still talking to the right people
  • reduce your reliance on suppliers by bringing what you can in house
  • have set review points (e.g. every 6 months) to check you are still doing the right thing
  • review your communication and change processes e.g. change daily meetings to weekly or merge separate meetings into one
  • make time to tidy things up and go back and complete the bits you missed
  • know who you are handing work off to and when
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