Christmas baubal with 'Merry Xmas' on it in front of a Christmas tree

With Christmas approaching faster than interstellar comet 3i/Atlas, Digital, Data and Technology (DDAT) held their inaugural Christmas Quiz – well done to Simon, the victor and to Heledd, who displayed a previously unrecognised talent as quiz-master.

Here what’s else we’ve been up to this week:

  • Alex and Kim experimented with Sharepoint Modern as a platform for our intranet and demo’ed it to the rest of the intranet project team.
  • Shaun, Mary and James have been working on clear web-page titles to meet the user needs identified in our intranet content audit.
  • Sophie and James worked closely with colleagues in the Translation, Digital and SoNaRR (State of Natural Resources in Wales 2025 report) teams to review content ahead of the soft launch date this week. Working together to share and action feedback allowed them to check the content from a technical, accessible and general user engagement perspective.
  • Sophie had a wonderful few weeks on her Dysgu Cymraeg course, where she’s learning to speak, read and write in Welsh. She wrapped up the year with a Christmas quiz about Wales and our unique festive traditions! ‘Such a lovely way to end the year - Nadolig Llawen bawb!’
  • Shaun agreed and finalised the landscape sensitivity guidance that’s been going on for a while.
  • Jane and Sam have continued their work on the forest management plan project. They:
    • met with SMEs to learn more about the current process and talk through some parts in more detail
    • mapped out high-level question flow
  • Jane was also back in the nest with Team Birds – ‘thanks for having me!’.

Team Birds (hold on to your hats – it gets complicated)

Team Birds:

  • Finalised 4 sections of the change form and sent to the subject matter experts for review, they are:
    • changing the ecologist
    • adding someone to the licence
    • removing someone from the licence
    • changing contact details of someone on the licence
  • Held in-depth discussions about when the user would need to ask two referees to complete the reference form and attach the completed reference form to the change form (a form, within a form – it’s as complicated as it sounds). They need to do this to show they are qualified to work with the protected species. The rules are complex and so is the process the user is asked to follow. We need to map out the reference process, the reference form and collect data. The species team happen to be reviewing their internal process around references so it would make sense to do this now – it might delay publishing the change form, but it would mean we’re looking at the service end to end. It could also be used for the ‘apply’ and ‘renew’ forms. We have asked if we could be part of the internal review.
  • After meeting with subject matter experts last week, we learnt lots about the process for adding techniques and equipment to a licence. We have built the route in the prototype and fried our brains at the same time. We have a complex routing system behind the scenes which is hidden from the user who has a seamless service at the front end. Mapping this out will be a fun job!

With that, it’s Merry Christmas / Nadolig Llawen from your friendly NRW digital team.

See you in the New Year!