The election may have put the breaks on the petition, but significant progress has been made on other fronts. In parallel to the petition I set up to demand the government review it’s outdated IT practices, Robert Chatley (with the help of a few others) wrote a letter* to the National Audit Office asking them to update their guidance and recommendations for systems development. After a couple of prods they agreed to a meeting and last week Robert Chatley and I went to see them.

To cut a long story short (I’m supposed to be packing for my hols so have to be brief) it was a very positive meeting. We met with their Director of IT and Systems Analysis, Sally Howes and her colleague Leena Mathews. Both, but especially Sally were very receptive to what we had to say. Fortuitously they are in the embryonic stages of a wide reaching review of government IT practices so this looks like a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference.

One thing they’re particularly keen on hearing about is large organisations who are using and succeeding with agile practices and specifically senior people within those organisations who they could talk to. If you know of or are working for such an organisation please email me at  with the details of people who may be appropriate for them to talk to.

*You can read a draft of the original letter to the NAO here