https://ames.world/ Recent content on Ames World https://ames.world/images/papermod-cover.png https://ames.world/images/papermod-cover.png Hugo -- gohugo.io en Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/cv/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/cv/ Ian Ames. I help multidisciplinary teams deliver services in a user centred way. Profile I have over 20 years experience delivering projects to a range of Government organisations and companies, including the Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Office, DEFRA, Dept for Culture Media and Sport, NHS Digital and BT. I have experience of a number of agile practices such as Scrum, Kanban, Cynefin, Lean and DevOps. In recent years I have tended to specialise in the early phases of a service lifecycle. https://ames.world/posts/reflections-on-ukgovcamp-2026/ Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/reflections-on-ukgovcamp-2026/ Alright Babs, I’m on the train back from UK Govcamp. This year hosted in Birmingham for the first time, bostin! As usual its been an energising event in the dark depths of January. Birmingham city council offices we’re beautiful the sort of place that inflates you with civic pride that just don’t get built anymore. I was mildly amazed at how well maintained the building was, given Brum’s well publicised financial challenges, its a credit to them they’ve managed to maintain the space, and haven’t sold it for a £1 as so often happens in crisis. https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-160126/ Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-160126/ A new attempt at weekly reflection. https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-281125/ Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-281125/ A new attempt at weekly reflection. https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-141125/ Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-141125/ 2 week streak of stream of consciousness notes! https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-211125/ Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/unorderednote-211125/ A new attempt at weekly reflection. https://ames.world/posts/thoughts-on-responding-to-change/ Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/thoughts-on-responding-to-change/ What does responding to change mean in different contexts? https://ames.world/posts/so-youre-thinking-of-becoming-a-delivery-manager/ Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/so-youre-thinking-of-becoming-a-delivery-manager/ A mega post of advice about becoming a delivery manager https://ames.world/posts/monthnote-september2024/ Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/monthnote-september2024/ September Monthnote https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-020824/ Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-020824/ We’re did this week go? This work malarkey is a right time sink! https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-260724/ Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-260724/ This has been a weird week https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-190724/ Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-190724/ Meetups, Bike rides, and Global IT outages https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-120724/ Fri, 12 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-120724/ Rain rain go away https://ames.world/posts/so-youre-thinking-of-becoming-a-contractor/ Mon, 08 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/so-youre-thinking-of-becoming-a-contractor/ A mega post of contracting advice https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-050724/ Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-050724/ A week of bitty things. https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-280624/ Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-280624/ Meeting lots of folks https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-210624/ Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-210624/ More funemployment shenanigans this week. https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-140624/ Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-140624/ Dutch cycling mega post https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-070624/ Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknote-070624/ First weeknote for a very long time. https://ames.world/posts/what-do-i-do-now/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/what-do-i-do-now/ Self reflection and career planning for 2024 with bonus earworm title! https://ames.world/posts/reflections-on-ukgovcamp-2024/ Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/reflections-on-ukgovcamp-2024/ Despite a pretty awful journey home from UKGovCamp I’m still buzzing from it and thinking about it. I’m also horribly out of my blogging flow so you’ll have to put up with yet another ‘reflections on UKGovCamp’ post I’m afraid. Before I went. I’ve been thinking about my reflections (meta) and understanding the headspace I was in before I went is important to give context. To summarise it in one word: jaded. https://ames.world/posts/a-team-icebreaker-using-midjourney-ai/ Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/a-team-icebreaker-using-midjourney-ai/ Yesterday the team got together to workshop how we move into the next phase of our project. Up until now we have mainly been in Discovery/Alpha mode, exploring the problem space and sketching out potential solutions. As we move to beta we’re onboarding devs into the team and so it was worth us think about our ways of working an how we communicate effectively between design/research and dev. At the beginning of the day I tried out a new icebreaker for the team. https://ames.world/posts/shaping-your-discovery/ Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/shaping-your-discovery/ In the delivery of a digital service, a discovery is a short period right at the beginning of the project to determine what the problem is and whether it is worth solving. Discoveries should be short, usually no more than a few weeks and should seek to provide just enough confidence to proceed or not. Discoveries are intense and its important that they focus on the right things to help the team progress. https://ames.world/posts/slicing-thin-or-deep/ Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/slicing-thin-or-deep/ A key part of agile delivery is working out what small changes can deliver the most value. It can be hard to get agreement on what is small enough to be valuable, getting this balance right is extremely difficult and context specific, hence why MVP’s (minimum viable products) are much maligned. There are two main approaches that can be used, you can either ‘slice thin’ deliver a small part of every step of the user journey; or ‘slice deep’ focus your effort on improving one part of the end to end service journey. https://ames.world/posts/10-things-i-learned-from-marine-navigaton/ Sun, 03 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/10-things-i-learned-from-marine-navigaton/ 25 years ago a young and naive me went to university to study Marine Navigation, My hope was that I could use the skills I learnt to travel the world and get paid whilst doing it. To my horrow I learnt fairly quickly that the reality is that most ships are in port for less than 24 hours and most time is spent at sea. After university I found myself in the crazy world of IT and since digital delivery and product management. https://ames.world/posts/product-prioritisation-is-triage/ Wed, 09 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/product-prioritisation-is-triage/ Practical tips for product prioritisation from triage. https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode5/ Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode5/ Weeknotes whilst at NHS Digital https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode4/ Fri, 02 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode4/ Weeknotes whilst at NHS Digital https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode3/ Sun, 27 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode3/ Weeknotes whilst at NHS Digital https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode2/ Wed, 26 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode2/ Weeknotes whilst at NHS Digital https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode1/ Sat, 08 May 2021 12:12:52 +0100 https://ames.world/posts/weeknotes-nhs-digital-episode1/ Weeknotes for the first two weeks at NHS Digital https://ames.world/posts/user-manual-of-me/ Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/user-manual-of-me/ A user manual describing the conditions I like to work in, I use this format when starting new teams so everyone knows how everyone else likes to work and we can work out our ways of working to suit. https://ames.world/posts/hase-pino-tandem-review/ Fri, 04 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/hase-pino-tandem-review/ The Hase Pino is a semi-recumbent tandem. https://ames.world/posts/what-does-great-collaboration-in-local-government-look-like/ Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/what-does-great-collaboration-in-local-government-look-like/ Some examples of great collaboration from accross local government in the UK. https://ames.world/posts/shedlife/ Mon, 31 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/shedlife/ A post about my home office, the humble shed. https://ames.world/posts/what-would-a-great-onboarding-experience-look-like/ Tue, 05 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/what-would-a-great-onboarding-experience-look-like/ How to make onboarding awesome. https://ames.world/posts/reflections-on-map-camp-2019/ Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/reflections-on-map-camp-2019/ Reflections on what I saw and learnt at Mapcamp 2019. https://ames.world/posts/10-things-i-learned-from-remote-working/ Wed, 16 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/10-things-i-learned-from-remote-working/ The most useful things I learnt in my first fully remote job. https://ames.world/posts/story-crowdsourcing-game/ Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/story-crowdsourcing-game/ An icebreaker game I ran at Agile in the Ether, designed to demonstrate cognitive load. https://ames.world/posts/ipv4-addressing/ Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/ipv4-addressing/ A technical overview of how ipv4 addressing works. https://ames.world/posts/tcp-ip-protocol-suite/ Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/tcp-ip-protocol-suite/ A technical overview of the TCP/IP network protocols. https://ames.world/posts/the-osi-model/ Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/the-osi-model/ An overviw of the Open Systems Interconnection model used for computer networking. https://ames.world/posts/data-communication-fundamentals/ Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/data-communication-fundamentals/ An overview of the basics of data communication concepts https://ames.world/posts/network-fundamentals/ Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/network-fundamentals/ Overview of the fundamental features of a computer network. https://ames.world/posts/essential-steps-for-an-effective-project-kick-off/ Fri, 22 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/essential-steps-for-an-effective-project-kick-off/ A walkthrough of the phases of an effective project kick off. https://ames.world/posts/mountaineering-and-a-rant-about-risk-management/ Fri, 23 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/mountaineering-and-a-rant-about-risk-management/ A post about how overly-burdensome risk mitigation strategies can increase your risk profile. https://ames.world/posts/improving-find-for-the-find-property-information-service/ Wed, 31 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/improving-find-for-the-find-property-information-service/ How my team identified an improved our address based search at HM Land Registry. https://ames.world/posts/hidden-plymouth-route2-millbay-mini/ Fri, 26 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/hidden-plymouth-route2-millbay-mini/ A walking route in Plymouth, UK taking in some of its histrorical sites. https://ames.world/posts/hidden-plymouth-route1-stoke-to-mutton-cove/ Mon, 15 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/hidden-plymouth-route1-stoke-to-mutton-cove/ A walking route in Plymouth, UK taking in some of its histrorical sites. https://ames.world/posts/how-our-digital-team-works/ Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/how-our-digital-team-works/ An overview of my teams working practices at HM Land Registry. https://ames.world/posts/5-reasons-open-plan-offices-suck-for-agile-teams/ Thu, 13 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/5-reasons-open-plan-offices-suck-for-agile-teams/ A list of reasons why open plan offices are terrible for agile teams. https://ames.world/posts/are-sprints-sustainable/ Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/are-sprints-sustainable/ Some reflections on the limitations of agile sprints. https://ames.world/posts/user-research-is-the-most-frustrating-thing-ever/ Tue, 16 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/user-research-is-the-most-frustrating-thing-ever/ A tongue in cheek post about how user research can make your team feel, but you should do it anyway. https://ames.world/posts/the-evolving-visualisation-of-workflow-in-our-team/ Wed, 11 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://ames.world/posts/the-evolving-visualisation-of-workflow-in-our-team/ An overview of how our teams workflow evolved whilst at HM Land Registry.