After a relatively quiet month, everything dialled up and now lots of things on at the moment including:

• The new squads model bedding in. Some‘teething issues’ but nothing major and feedback remains really positive 😄.
• ⭐ More work in the containerisation space across our team, things progressing well and we look forward to reaping the benefits including upgrading to the latest version of our .Stat suite very soon.

The work/mahi

We have been talking with The Pacific Community (SPC) counterparts about their work with the .Stat suite. We have been using .Stat for a number of years, but have not managed that service collectively as an evolving concern, leading to legacy drift.

It was another great conversation with the collective, talking about the technical platform, their process transoformation, automating statistical production where appropriate. This means we direct transformation effort beyond a core platform proposition, as a more holistic service journey evolution through which we truly improve as an organisation 💥.

It was great for the team to talk to technical team members, Data Management Officers, Data Infrastructure Engineers, and business stakeholders.

Once again, leaning into listening, learning from international counterparts, and reusing where appropriate, helps us stride further, quicker, and ultimately helps us contribute back eventually.

Copilots watching stars

The team have completed a pilot in, erm, Github Copilot. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we are rolling out to other teams, aligning with our ambition to innovate, automate.

The demos have been compelling throughout the pilot period and analysis is pointing to a 22% approximate time savings for our technical teams We all know where this is going! 💯

The rest

The kids are back in school and kinde after a lovely summer break, even Wellington gave us a good season weather wise, being (almost eerily) still and warm throughout the last few weeks. Our little miss 5 starts school and the transition has been seamless really and she is thriving ☺️.

Beyond that, we are watching from afar, the new ‘normal’ in global geo-politics. Everything from key traditional alliances, to economic frameworks, bending…not quite breaking but it feels close. The hyper news cycle of today only amplifies and can make the volatility feel ubiquitous - very strange times indeed.

The play

We went to see Damien Rice at The Opera House in Wellington earlier in the month - our first gig in a looonnnggg time, a date night too having found a brilliant babysitter, and assurance that our little Miss 5 was ‘ready’ 😂. The gig was great, I was pleasantly surprised by the flow of it, and Damien’s inbetween song banter lightened things, which was good.

He is from Celbridge, a town just down the road from where i am from in Ireland and indeed, I used to work in a hotel many moons ago where his first band (I think) ‘Juniper’ would play weddings etc. It’s been great to see him enjoy such success - I would have been jealous back in my band days!

Sin e an scéal (that’s the story) 😄. Laters.