As part of a recent Discovery project, we used our research findings to carry out an indicative service assessment of an incumbent service.
Typically, service assessments are an important part of the assurance process for digital services, occurring for the first time at the end of an Alpha phase. Our Discovery recommendations are always mindful of this and reflect how teams can progress their services in a way that meets the standards required of them.
In this instance, we decided to map our Discovery research findings about an incumbent service against the service standard as a benchmark for the service team to understand the gap that would need to be bridged to satisfy assurance processes for a future service.
This proved to be a helpful lens to evaluate and critique the incumbent service, evidenced by user research, whilst stepping back from the entrenched cultural norms of the organisation. This was particularly useful as the current system had been in use across the organisation for several years.
The insights from this process enabled us to make recommendations for Alpha, whilst acknowledging where the effort may be needed to align best practices with the evolving needs of users for the future service.
Going forward, we will continue to use the lens of an indicative service assessment to assess incumbent services to support the case for change, where it is needed to improve the service.
