Special Interest Groups

Special interest groups are hosted and supported by the Cross Government Software Engineering Community and exist to provide a forum for community members to explore specific topics of interest in more depth.

If you’d like to join a special interest group please contact the relevant SIG lead.

Sustainable Software

Community Goal Coordinate work drive change across the Civil Service in the field of Green Software Engineering. See the private community space for more information [Link only available to Software Engineering Community members]

	Sustainable Software SIG
Contact	Rachael Robinson (rachael.robinson@cabinetoffice.gov.uk or on x-gov slack)
Meetings	Monthly
Slack Channel	#green-software-development on UK Government Digital slack

Inclusive Recruitment

Our aim [Link only available to Software Engineering Community members] is to increase the diversity of software engineers and other technical disciplines across government. We plan to do this by creating resources to support the development of more inclusive hiring practices, advocating and signposting people to these good practices and building a community where people can share ideas and discuss improving practices.

	Inclusive Recruitment SIG
Contact	kulwant.lall@digital.justice.gov.uk
Meetings	Every 4-6 weeks, for 1 hour. We will review progress on creating resources, prioritise what resources to create next, and leave space to discuss ongoing recruitment campaigns if people want feedback on their own processes or job ads

Open Source Software

Aim: To bring together practitioners from across government who are working to promote open source development in their organisations. The group meets to discuss and share issues, tools and blockers relating to open source (and inner source) development. The goal is to develop shared best practices and approaches to doing open source in a government context and to drive adoption across HMG.

	Open Source Software SIG
Contact	jim17197@gchq.gov.uk, alex.smith@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Meetings	Every four weeks on a Friday
Meeting notes	Open source meet-up notes
Slack Channel	#open-code on UK Government Digital slack

Heads of Engineering

Aim: To bring together Heads of Engineering from across government to share best practice, discuss common challenges and work together to improve the quality of software engineering across government.

A series of talks and discussions will be held to share knowledge and experience. Supported by the CDDO (Central Digital and Data Office) and a group of volunteers from across government. ( Stephen Ford CDDO, Shaun Hare DVSA, David Heath GDS, Andy Poole UKHO, Sebastian Schmieschek CDDO, Hen Wager HMCTS)

	Heads of Engineering SIG
Contact	cross-government-software-engineering-heads-of-engineering+managers@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Slack Channel	#heads-of-engineering private channel on UK Government Digital slack, contact the organisers for an invitation to the channel
Meetings	For the meeting schedule, visit https://uk-x-gov-software-community.github.io/events/

Logging and Observability

Community Goal Coordinate work drive change across the Civil Service in the field of logging and observability

	Logging and Observability SIG
Contact	John Clarke (John Clarke@ukho.gov.uk or on x-gov slack)
Meetings	TBC
Slack Channel