Your role or my role: perceptions and experiences in the Public Sector
Understanding the perceptions of who does what in the UK Public Sector
Roles in technology are evolving. This has led to the introduction of new specialisms, as dedicated job titles and role descriptions are created to focus on specific aspects of technology. Here we will explore:
how the rapid growth of this industry has translated into new roles in the public sector
experiences private sector consultants have had and how they have tailored their role to meet expectations
public sector expectations and perceptions of industry roles.
Rapid growth - keeping up with change
Roles and skills in technology have grown and although there were significant layoffs in the sector in 2023, demand remains high, especially for specific skill sets.
Roles such as Mobile App Developer, UX Designer, Cloud Architect, AI Engineer, Instructional Designer and Data Scientists are all examples of roles that did not exist back in the 1990s. As technology continues to change, so do the roles and skills needed.
In parallel, the UK government's Central Digital and Data Office created the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework in 2017 to provide a description of roles and associated skills. There are over 40 roles, from Data Analyst, Problem Manager to newer roles such as Accessibility Specialists and this is expected to increase further as growth continues.
Whilst providing clarity for career pathways and associated responsibilities, the ever increasing number of roles can be challenging for those outside the tech sector to understand. A common development team can consist of an array of individuals with varied skills.
Illustration of common roles within a development team
To add to this complexity in the range of roles and skills, these further differ if you are working within the private sector vs the public sector. There are many similarities in techniques, but some notable differences which can be challenging for those moving from one sector to another.
Having an understanding of roles and responsibilities is important as it:
Enables individuals to prepare for the role. Businesses can also choose the right person to start work within the public sector, giving confidence in success.
Helps civil servants to discuss delivery requirements with businesses, bounding their roles and responsibilities. It highlights what additional expertise might be required and sets expectations.
Meeting expectations
To understand how those moving from private to public felt they have tailored their role or what they viewed as notable differences, consultant colleagues provided the following insights:
Delivery Managers are more involved in business change than anticipated.
There is a greater emphasis on content design and focusing on user needs.
It can be slower than expected, committees and approval can cause delays and affect timelines.
It can be difficult to identify decision makers.
Stakeholders are difficult to identify without commercial motivation.
Access to data can be challenging.
There was greater flexibility to deliver what was needed and it was easier to be truly agile.
They had more autonomy to drive their areas of focus based on the concept of 'change and adaptability’, with less focus on ‘fixed scope, fixed cost’ and an ‘end date’.
A flat linear structure made working with others easier.
Key quotes
“The main difference I always see in public sector work is its mostly content led! People underestimate ‘the content need’ in the team and having a good content designer is key to so much of our work! I find for my role in Delivery you always end up having to dabble in Change Management as well, making things happen at the operational level and making sure they are planned and well received.” - Delivery Lead
“There were lots of people working on an area but it was difficult to locate or have folks step forward as decision makers (stakeholder navigation becomes harder when an organisation isn't commercially motivated).” - Lead Product Manager
“In the private sector, there was a focus on what would be delivered by the end of the project. It was difficult to apply true agile. The scope was much more fixed and I felt I was held to deliver exactly as specified. In the public sector, it felt that there was more flexibility on what I needed to achieve” - Senior Delivery Manager
On the other hand, those in the public sector are not always aware of what activities or responsibilities hired consultants in certain roles will do.
Public sector role perceptions
Civil servants within the public sector, who work to introduce new technology were asked what they perceived the following common roles are there to achieve.
Developer
Convert an idea into reality.
Build software systems to user specific requirements / specifications.
Document and test their work, may include developing unit tests.
Code review, and improvements to the technical operation of the product.
Negotiate with Business Analysts and Designers to ensure consistency.
Investigate bugs and issues, to identify causes and propose solutions.
Responsible for maintaining the software including new updates and bug fixes.
Product Manager
Defining what works for the business and what changes might be needed.
Prioritising the timeline for delivery.
Prioritising the backlog and ensuring that the team are working on the right thing.
Has the plan or vision for the product and how it can be used within the organisation.
Builds relationships with stakeholders and is the ‘Go to’ person for anything related to the product.
Responsible for the roadmap and the product.
Delivery Manager
Works closely with the Product Manager, ensuring work progresses to target.
Sizes and refines the content of sprints, tracking to ensure they are on target.
Defines timelines and milestones.
Leading and coordinating the team and ensuring the team is happy, productive and efficient, identifying and implementing opportunities for improvement.
Identifies and resolves blockers that may arise.
Budget and stakeholder management.
Ensures products or features are communicated effectively to customers and business.
Responsible for delivering new services to the business.
Designer
Works with User Researchers and produces designs of the user interface.
Understands and designs flow and processes to ensure that the best user experience is designed.
Demonstrates potential designs.
Works with others to ensure good quality designs ready for development.
Works closely with Business Analysts and frontline users to ensure usability.
Responsible for usability and accessibility.
Test Engineer
Validates newly developed functionality working from acceptance criteria or scenarios.
Ensures that requirements are clear, consistent and workable.
Creates test scripts for manual tests and may develop automated tests.
Testing of code and undertaking regression testing.
Identifies and raises bugs.
Responsible for quality assurance, ensuring the quality of development to mitigate risk and the solution meets acceptance criteria.
Scrum Master
Manages team on day-to-day basis.
Similar to a Delivery Manager.
Champions agile ways of working.
Leads scrum for complex projects.
The understanding of these common roles and responsibilities is mixed. As expected, individuals broadly understood at high level these common roles, but had greater difficulty in articulating the role of a scrum master which is less common. There are some crossovers and aspects that are not mentioned for each role, e.g. as expected for Product Managers there is no mention of monitoring the market and developing competitive analyses nor understanding and representing user needs or a product strategy although these are implied.
It's worth noting that it is probable that the understanding of these roles would change further if they were nuanced further, e.g. Backend Developer, Full stack and so on.
In conclusion
Technology is leading to new roles and responsibilities and the government is introducing parallel roles to meet these needs.
For those moving into the public sector, it's important to:
Understand the difference between public sector and private sector roles, the titles of these may align, but in practice they can differ. This supports meeting customer expectations.
Support those in the public sector to break down each role and clearly explain what expertise is available and provide clarity of role scope.
Whilst a better understanding of roles and responsibilities would:
Ensure businesses choose the right person to start work within the public sector, giving confidence in success.
Enable individuals to prepare for the role.
Help Public Sector workers to to discuss delivery and expertise requirements
A greater focus on roles which address governance and change management would support Delivery Management and project success.
From those surveyed, individuals broadly understood at a high level the responsibilities of specific roles, but responses to some roles lacked significant depth. Taking time to support colleagues to explain their activities and outline their practice would be mutually beneficial.
Final thoughts
Perspective plays a major part in understanding roles. For those working in the Public Sector, serving the public interest often shapes the outlook on their roles. Their perspectives focus on the principles of stability, security, and accountability. Conversely, in the private sector, it is a competitive environment that prioritises innovation, characterised by a pursuit of growth and efficiency.