This blog follows on from my earlier Minimum Viable Blog on the Welsh Government Report and Recommendations on the approach and postcode lottery for Blue Badge Applications in Wales (actually everywhere in the UK except Northern Ireland). The idea here is to contrast the earlier blog with this one using Wardley Mapping to explain the story and to raise the overall situational awareness. Wales is no different to Scotland in this problem and absolutely England to. I was lucky enough to attend Map Camp this week, I am a long term fan and also a complete novice so this blog is one of the hardest I have ever done as I am not an expert I am starting my journey as a Wardley mapper (for those that know me they know I am a process mapper extraordinaire). Apparently according to Simon Wardley process maps are not maps and I would agree with traditional tools but with our software I would argue we are producing at least process models and maybe even process maps. To understand the distinct difference, you probably do need to read some details on Wardley Mapping and fortunately Simon (I think I can call him Simon now I have met him and discussed a few things) has released the method open source on Medium. If you want to find out more please have a look at his book of 500+ pages on the methodology released open source for people to build on here. For over a year now I have been using his slide on the best improvement approach and how agile is not the right tool for every job to highlight the potential folly of the GDS cult of Agile. Please do not misunderstand me here (for anyone maybe reading this from GDS) the work of GDS has been fantastic and the resources they have made open for others to use has helped many organisations to deliver better and faster. Please though do mention all the techniques being deployed as there is a risk that people follow just agile always and for everything. For over a year now I have been using his slide on the best improvement approach and how agile is not the right tool for every job to highlight the potential folly of the GDS cult of Agile. Please do not misunderstand me here (for anyone maybe reading this from GDS) the work of GDS has been fantastic and the resources they have made open for others to use has helped many organisations to deliver better and faster. Please though do mention all the techniques being deployed as there is a risk that people follow just agile always and for everything.

Lean approach

I am a pragmatist and not a cult member. I believe in the benefits of Lean and this to me has huge benefits. I believe in the short cycles and iterative approach of Agile and most importantly I believe these approaches and others are complimentary and can deliver excellent outcomes together and work together with other methodologies to deliver continuous improvement and delivery to help drive organisations forwards. Lets please remember the doctrines and Agile manifesto were born out of the lean thinking derived from the Toyota production system. There are many tools in the tool box and depending on the particular problem some are better than others at solving our challenges.

A short blog based on Wardley Maps

In the previous blog we talked about the challenges of Blue Badge administration as identified in the Welsh Assembly report and recommendations The major point of the report highlights the differences in assessment and appeal processes across the 22 Local Authorities in Wales and it also considers extensions/clarifications/changes to the scheme. There are other recommendations on things such as enforcement but I would consider the issuing of the badges to be the primary problem and once that is correct then maybe the enforcement issues can be tackled. Let’s address the ‘postcode lottery’ and get the badges issued consistently to the right people and then we can tackle misuse. I decided to try mapping a high-level view of the current process in a Wardley Map to aid the discussion and decision making. For a point of clarity the challenges identified in the Wales report exist equally in England and Scotland (but not Northern Ireland). I think that both Wales (22) and Scotland (32) with a relatively low number of Local Authorities have a real opportunity to do something better and coordinate across those Authorities in something closer to the Northern Ireland model (a single process and also a single issuing authority for all Authorities). It would be amazing if the English Authorities could also consider the challenges raised and even if just a small set of them collaborated to try to improve consistency across boundaries. There are a number of benefits to this (more later) and one key strategic benefit is the greater voice and influence they could have with DFT in terms of shaping the national service for their unique requirements. Blue Badge is a strange service where England and Northern Ireland have a set of rules, Wales and Scotland have their own different sets of rules. The thing that makes that even more odd is that Blue Badge users can use them in any area in the UK despite the different qualifying criteria.

Blue Badge In Wales – The current process

This is where the short blog technically ‘starts’ apologies for the context setting above. The aim of this Wardley Map is to aim to visualize the current process to help potential decision making around where the Local Authorities and the Welsh Government may want to go next. Some caveats around this map • All models are wrong and imperfect but working with a model is better than trying to work without one • I am not an expert in Blue Badges in Wales or the rest of the Country. My knowledge is gained from working with Daniel Fyfield from DFT; numerous Local Authorities on their Blue Badge processes and from the 2 workshops in Wales • I am not an expert in Wardley Maps in fact this is my first one • I have created and iterated this map alone in a hotel room in Scotland. Ideally the map needs to be collaboratively iterated with the key stakeholders

Finally, the map!

Next the story of the map 1. Both the Local Authorities and the Blue Badge users have the primary user needs. The users need to be able to apply both on and offline, the LA’s need to be able to received and assess those applications to award and issue the right Blue Badges 2. With online applications there is a mix of delivery (certainly across the UK). For all there is the ‘new’ online DFT application process enabled by the recent project delivered by Daniel and team. This has been delivered by working with all stakeholders using modern techniques (Slack, YouTube, Surveys and other collaboration) in a way I have never seen Government work with Local Government. I cannot say this enough but credit to the team for the way this service has been delivered with APIs and total collaboration. Some Authorities also have their own online applications as well as the DFT offering. The placement of the DFT solution is showing this is a product and that the direction of travel for this product is to continue to improve with enhanced features planned. The placement of the LA systems shows they vary between custom built solutions to low evolution products (in my opinion they can only be low evolution as the DFT service is so new and a big change). 3. At level 3 is the 2 products potentially used by Authorities for offline applications. I would suggest this is more a case of Authorities using either their own or DFT here not both. The placement of the DFT product is lower than their online solution here as I am led to believe it is not as evolved yet. The direction of travel for this service I still think is for it to evolve further hence the arrow indicating this. The LA systems here again are varying between custom built solutions and low evolution products. 4. At the 4th level (in terms of visibility to the users) are the Local Authorities business rules for assessment of Blue Badges. I can only place these in the custom-built category as they are bespoke to each Authority. They are on a range as some will be more evolved than others. 5. At level 5 supporting the local rules are the legislation. The legislation is the primary driver of the local business rules. I consider the legislation a product and it is open to debate how evolved that legislation is in terms of being a product. I place it on the low end as feedback from stakeholders has stated the lack of clarity in the legislation in parts causes issues. 6. At level 6 is the Welsh Government guidance in terms of supporting decisions. I have placed this in custom built to reflect the fact it is guidance only and the adoption of the guidance is variable. 7. Level 7 is the actual decision based on the earlier elements in the value chain. This is assessed as custom built when looking at the Welsh LA’s as a group as they all adopt their own rules. Potentially if looking at individual Authorities the placement would be different in terms of evolution. 8. Level 8 is appeals which are completely bespoke with each LA deciding on an appeal process they adopt 9. Finally, there is the API to the badge production product and the issuing of badges. I may possibly have put this too high on the product evolution scale (based on some stakeholder feedback) but I am running out of time to edit again!

What conclusions can be drawn?

• First of all, I would conclude that constructing the Wardley Map helped me to visualise the current situation far easier than trying to describe the problems and challenges with words alone. • I think the diagram highlights quite how custom built the current solutions are when you look across the Welsh Local Authorities (actually across all Blue Badge issuing Authorities in the UK) just as the report found • The diagram also highlights for me the issues for users and supporting agencies in terms of the variability of processes across Wales which does also support the findings of the report • The diagram does also highlight that there would be significant improvements delivered by changing the process in the right ways • It also highlights the need for wider stakeholder contribution to the map to iterate it and to ensure there is a map created that reflects the expert’s knowledge • I would also conclude that there is a tension caused by the legislation and its clarity and the optional guidance. I think it shows there is a need for clear unambiguous mandatory rules from the government for any changes they decide to make • I would also highlight that the custom-built appeals element clearly stands out as potentially unfair and certainly not consistent which cannot be right for the users There are many other conclusions I am sure other people far more knowledgeable than me can conclude.

What would I recommend?

I still think there are a number of things that need to happen to deliver a much better solution and to improve the service for users and for Local Authorities. • First of all their needs to be a collaborative project created to coordinate efforts and to communicate across stakeholders • Local Authorities to collaborate to map and agree a consistent process (including appeals) and business rules for all Authorities across Wales to use • Local Authorities to consider the benefits of adopting a common system to be used by all that services their process in the most efficient and effective way • Local Authorities to then decide based on assessment of the market whether there are products that can service that need or if they need to custom build a solution to deliver maximum efficiencies. Please only do this when you have redesigned the processes and understand the challenges you are trying to solve • Welsh government need to provide clear unambiguous changes to ideally legislation or guidance and to consider if guidance only (due to time to change primary legislation) that they make it ‘mandatory’ • Welsh Government need to provide funds to enable changes to happen. If new rules place additional burdens on Local Authorities then they must be funded as change will always come at a cost • I would also highlight that working together would reduce the burden on smaller Authorities with very limited resources Hopefully others can see the benefit of the map and I am certainly a convert to the approach for looking at the strategic direction. I welcome your feedback and would love to set up a webinar or workshop to consider this further. I would love it if Scottish Authorities and English Authorities would also consider the report and recommendations in the same way (maybe some already are?)