back to article Mike Bracken suddenly decides to quit GOV.UK outfit GDS

The head of the Government Digital Service, Mike Bracken, has stepped down after five years in the role. No reason was given for the seemingly sudden departure, with Bracken set to stay until the end of September until his replacement is announced. The Register understands that Bracken and the new chief executive of the Civil …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Where next?

    How about a job as Santa Claus? Should be an easy stretch taking on another fairy tale about delivering on time to millions of people.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    From his blog:

    The Unit of Delivery is the Team. Leadership is a total privilege, one can only lead with the consent and support of a team and I’ll say right here and now that the team at GDS is the best digital delivery group in the world

    So why's he going? Did his 'funny' team withdraw their 'consent and support'?

    I guess we'll never know but I presume Mr Bracken will pop up as Director of Digital Betterisational Delivery on a healthy remuneration, somewhere at a well loved consultancy very soon.

  3. Trollslayer

    Framers will be cheering

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/26/rural_payments_digital_exemplar_at_risk_last_year/

    As to the team:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/28/gds_hr_consultancy_report_exclusive/

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: Framers will be cheering

      I thought at first you might be talking about web developers who refused to follow the approved design code, but I see it's actually about agricultural payments :(

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Framers will be cheering

        Yes, I think framers who keep large herds of crows will be particularly pleased.

  4. Kay_terra

    No one is surprised, the house of cards is starting to topple and the department's are starting to see past the smoke and mirrors. 700 people to build a website. And they are proud of that.

  5. Mike Pellatt

    I'll keep banging on about this.

    Because it's beyond unbelievable.

    Months and months since the new DartCharge system went online for the Dartford Crossing, the payments site is still tagged "alpha".

    Un-be-f'ing-lievable. An alpha system for live payments processing.

    The only saving grace is that the call centre systems appear to be pre-alpha from the grief that many people with payment issues have been having.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Dart Charge - Alpha

      To be fair the Dart Charge website has a satisfaction survey as you log out. I make a point of checking the Very Dissatisfied box and saying that I still remember the Crossing was supposed to be free once it was paid for - AFAIK this happened some years ago. Lets see if that feature survives the transition to Beta Status. I wonder what their satisfaction stats actually look like.

  6. Captain DaFt

    Obviously

    He left to work for that concept generating powerhouse Steve Bong.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In his leaving speech he should tell us what he spent on contractors and how much National Insurance and tax they paid.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    He can reflect his achievements, such as making 18pt Comic Sans the default font on HMG web-sites and, err...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now that 'Mad' Frankie Maude is no longer the commodore for GDS; this may signal the exodus of the overpaid, technically bereft, graphic designers.......sorry, I mean, digital consultants. The same individuals who have demonstrably failed to deliver anything other than hipster website facades, and systems that have taken the 'user journey / experience' on a wild goose chase to arrive at a dead end (to the chagrin of many a farmer).

    After all, hiring web designers into positions as heads of technology is a bit like Mercedes Benz promoting car valeting operatives to be heads of automotive engineering!

  10. Kay_terra

    And he's off ... to the co-operative group. I hope he takes his cultists with him and leaves us to get on with fixing the mess they made.

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