Digital Government Playbook

Digital Government Playbook

Digital Government Playbook - 1

Introduction

4

About

5

Who it’s for Collaborate Steal this playbook Plays

Default to open Open is Checklist Related Get buy-in What

5 5 5 6

7 7 7 8 9 9

Related Appoint a leader Example titles Checklist Key questions Reference Set guiding principles Build a team

9 10 10 10 11 11 12 13

Tips Reference Simplify procurement Decision-making traps Productive procurement Reading Create a unified aesthetic Resources Reference

13 13 14 14 14 14 15 15 15

Choose software before services Software-as-a-service Service Questions to ask Related Go BETA What

16 17 17 17 17 19 19


Introduction

4

About

5

Who it’s for Collaborate Steal this playbook Plays

Default to open Open is Checklist Related Get buy-in What

5 5 5 6

7 7 7 8 9 9

Related Appoint a leader Example titles Checklist Key questions Reference Set guiding principles Build a team

9 10 10 10 11 11 12 13

Tips Reference Simplify procurement Decision-making traps Productive procurement Reading Create a unified aesthetic Resources Reference

13 13 14 14 14 14 15 15 15

Choose software before services Software-as-a-service Service Questions to ask Related Go BETA What

16 17 17 17 17 19 19


Wh y Tips Related Focus on the user Tips Checklist Key questions Resources Think mobile-first

19 19 20 21 21 21 22 22 23

Why mobile Have a content strategy Resources Prioritize accessibility Tips Resources Respect privacy Resources

23 24 24 25 25 25 26 26

Tools Be secure Password management Tips Tools Leverage integrations Update your status

26 27 27 27 27 28 29

Resources

Guides Organizations Books Media Federal State & local

30

30 30 30 31 31 31

Other

31

Contributors

32

Acknowledgements

32

Questions?

32


Collaborate Contact

32 32

Colophon

32

License

33


Introduction “... people expect to interact with government through digital channels such as websites, email, and mobile applications … By building digital services that meet their needs, we can make the delivery of our policy and programs more effective.” -

U.S. Digital Service

With the need to do more with less, to address an aging workforce and more pressure to recruit and retain the next generation of public sector leaders, government must adopt effective digital practices faster than ever before. And users are starting to demand it. According to an Accenture 2015 digital government report: ●

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86 percent of those surveyed “want to maintain or increase their digital interaction with government” 73 percent are “neutral” or “not satisfied” with digital government services percentage who want online transactions for licenses/permits (66 percent), taxes (45 percent), fines/tickets (39 percent), report non-emergency issues (38 percent) 32 percent want to use tablets to access digital government services; 38 percent a mobile phone (51 percent for ages 18-44)

Effective implementation of digital offers the opportunity to impact people’s perception of government. When asked “Which of the following would change positively if government improved digital services?,” citizens responded: ● ● ● ● ●

“My belief that government is forward looking” (73%) “My overall satisfaction with government” (72%) “My willingness to engage with government” (72%) “My belief that government is efficient and effective” (70%) “My confidence and trust in government” (62%)

Therein lies the opportunity for government leaders.


About “Digital Government Playbook” helps government innovators execute efficient and effective digital strategies to best serve their constituents.

Who it’s for “Digital Government Playbook” is for government leaders, elected officials, technology and communications teams and anyone else responsible for delivering digital services to constituents: Government executives ● Elected officials ● Communications, media and public relations managers ● Technology leaders, staff ●

Collaborate This is a work in progress and always gets better. Please add your comments/questions or email [email protected], and we’ll respond immediately.

Steal this playbook “Digital Government Playbook” is licensed under Creative Commons and is free to customize and re-use for your organization.


Plays


Default to open An "open organization"—which I define as an organization that engages participative communities both inside and out—responds to opportunities more quickly, has access to resources and talent outside the organization, and inspires, motivates, and empowers people at all levels to act with accountability. The beauty of an open organization is that it's not about pedaling harder, but about tapping into new sources of power both inside and outside to keep pace with all the fast-moving changes in your environment. - Jim Whitehurst, “The Open Organization”

Open is ● ● ● ●

Open source Open data Open knowledge Open mindset

Checklist ●

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Offer users a mechanism to report bugs and issues, and be responsive to these reports Provide datasets to the public, in their entirety, through bulk downloads and APIs (application programming interfaces)


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Ensure that data from the service is explicitly in the public domain, and that rights are waived globally via an international public domain dedication, such as the “Creative Commons Zero” waiver Catalog data in the agency’s enterprise data inventory and add any public datasets to the agency’s public data listing Ensure that we maintain the rights to all data developed by third parties in a manner that is releasable and reusable at no cost to the public Ensure that we maintain contractual rights to all custom software developed by third parties in a manner that is publishable and reusable at no cost When appropriate, create an API for third parties and internal users to interact with the service directly When appropriate, publish source code of projects or components online When appropriate, share your development process and progress publicly

(Source: Digital Services Playbook, Play 13)

Related ●

Digital Services Playbook, Play 13 (U.S. Digital Service)


Get buy-in What The key component to any successful digital project is buy-in, so that the initiative can get financial and moral support. You must first get alignment with all internal stakeholders, including elected officials, management and staff. Government digital efforts are not IT projects. Whether it’s a new website or any other public-facing digital service, these initiatives represent how constituents will perceive government effectiveness and service delivery. To get buy-in, emphasize the mission-critical aspects of government and the best approach to scaling impact: ●

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Community engagement: It’s about meeting people where they are, interacting with constituents when it’s most convenient for them. Service delivery: It’s about how people access services and increasingly this is online. Platform approach: Your website is fundamental to a holistic approach to successful digital operations and serves as the foundation to everything else.

Related ●

Digital Services Presentation to San Rafael City Council (video)


Appoint a leader “There must be a single product owner who has the authority and responsibility to assign tasks and work elements; make business, product, and technical decisions; and be accountable for the success or failure of the overall service. This product owner is ultimately responsible for how well the service meets needs of its users, which is how a service should be evaluated. The product owner is responsible for ensuring that features are built and managing the feature and bug backlogs.” - U.S. Digital Services Playbook

Example titles ● ● ● ●

Product lead/owner Chief digital officer, digital director Chief innovation officer, innovation director Communications officer

Checklist ● ●

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A product owner has been identified All stakeholders agree that the product owner has the authority to assign tasks and make decisions about features and technical implementation details The product owner has a product management background with technical experience to assess alternatives and weigh tradeoffs The product owner has a work plan that includes budget estimates and identifies funding sources The product owner has a strong relationship with the contracting officer

(Source: U.S. Digital Services, “Digital Services Playbook,” Play 6)


Key questions ● ●

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Who is the product owner? What organizational changes have been made to ensure the product owner has sufficient authority over and support for the project? What does it take for the product owner to add or remove a feature from the service?

(Source: U.S. Digital Services, “Digital Services Playbook,” Play 6)

Reference ●

What is a Product Lead? (18F)


Set guiding principles “” Start with a set of values to guide your digital modernization efforts. These will be a point of reference for go-forward strategic, tactical and technical decisions. For example, San Rafael, Calif., approaches its vendor partnerships with these principles: ● ● ● ●

Authentic and responsive engagement Transparency Accessibility (user-centered design, mobile-friendly, ADA compliant) Continuous improvement and learning


Build a team Establish a multi-department, metrics-driven digital implementation team.

Tips ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Cross-agency Give them freedom (overtime, etc.) At start, give them ‘get out of jail card.’ Give them autonomy. Question decisions - peer review. Prepare your team for criticism. Make them feel appreciated, doing something really awesome (take to lunch, etc.)

Reference ● ●

Let’s Get Digital, San Rafael! Casting a Wide Net for Innovation (Government Technology)


Simplify procurement Decision-making traps ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Traditional RFP process Over-specifying Copying another city’s requirements Buying before trying Closed communication Unproductive criteria for valuing a vendor (like each team member’s resume) Large group of uninvolved stakeholders

Productive procurement ● ● ● ● ● ●

Be flexible Ask to try before you buy Consider monthly/annual ‘subscription’ options Consider staff time invested in decision process to your bottomline SaaS eliminates need for RFP, large/one-time purchase Forced into a more traditional procurement process? Consider RFI to see alternative options.

Reading ●

What I Learned ‘Buying’ Our New City Digital Services


Create a unified aesthetic Resources ●

U.S. Web Design Standards (18F)

Reference ●

San Rafael, Calif., Design Principles & Guidelines


Choose software before services “The technology decisions we make need to enable development teams to work efficiently and enable services to scale easily and cost-effectively. Our choices for hosting infrastructure, databases, software frameworks, programming languages and the rest of the technology stack should seek to avoid vendor lock-in and match what successful modern consumer and enterprise software companies would choose today. In particular, digital services teams should consider using open source, cloud-based, and commodity solutions across the technology stack, because of their widespread adoption and support by successful consumer and enterprise technology companies in the private sector.” -

U.S. Digital Service, “Digital Services Playbook,” Play 8

Traditionally, government has treated technology acquisition the same way it does infrastructure - a long specification and procurement process, coupled with a large upfront payment, followed by incremental maintenance costs over several years. But technology is not the same as a bridge or road, especially in this day and age, with platforms and software-as-a-service disrupting how we buy, deploy and experience continual upgrades through a predictable, subscription-based pricing plan. No longer is it acceptable to build public-facing digital services that only upgrade years later through another cumbersome procurement and development process.


With SaaS, users experience the value of economies of scale, with an iteratively better product (new features, security updates), without continuously having to manage a bespoke service.

Software-as-a-service

“Software as a service (SaaS; pronounced /sæs/) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.” - Wikipedia Attributes: Faster time to deployment/launch, often immediately ● Remote, web-based access ● Frequent and/or recurring software updates across one platform ● Subscription-based pricing options (monthly/yearly) ● Pricing transparency (+ freemium, ‘try before buy’) ● Centralized, cloud-based hosting ● Support (chat, email, phone) ● Service level agreements (ex: 99.99% uptime guarantee) ●

Service Attributes: Longer design/development time ● Highly customizable ● Opaque pricing, often requiring detailed specifications and negotiations ● Must have a great internal product owner/leader to manage vendor relationship ●

Questions to ask ● ● ● ●

Do you need customized development? Do you have budget for recurring/ongoing customized development? If yes to above question, will this be maintained internally or by a third party? If internally, do you have great developers/designers/IT managers that can maintain AND continually upgrade? (If no to this question, you should use SaaS.)

Related ●

Government (Software) as a Service (ELGL)


Go BETA “The objective of this phase is to build a fully working prototype which you test with users. You’ll continuously improve on the prototype until it’s ready to go live, replacing or integrating with any existing services.” - GOV.UK

What BETA is the pre-release phase of a technology project. Also referred to as ‘alpha,’ pilot’ or ‘test.’

Why ● ● ● ● ● ●

Lets you incrementalize (start small and evolve) Allows government to engage with public, get feedback Is more transparent Limits surprise factor for residents Lower stress on staff updating their processes Encourages experimentation

Tips ● ●

Promote and educate to foster a productive feedback loop. Have fun and try things (be open to new ideas).


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Set a deadline for launching to live.

Related ●

West Carrollton, Ohio, Launches Digital Presence in State of Beta (Government Technology)


Get social


Focus on the user “We must begin digital projects by exploring and pinpointing the needs of the people who will use the service, and the ways the service will fit into their lives. Whether the users are members of the public or government employees, policy makers must include real people in their design process from the beginning. The needs of people — not constraints of government structures or silos — should inform technical and design decisions. We need to continually test the products we build with real people to keep us honest about what is important.” - Digital Services Playbook, Play 1

Tips ● ● ● ● ● ●

Emphasize what you do (payments, jobs, issue reporting) De-emphasize personality/agency-focused approach Follow a common look and feel (pattern library) Use feedback mechanisms (polls, surveys) Employ and monitor analytics Be empathetic

Checklist ● ●

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Early in the project, spend time with current and prospective users of the service Use a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods to determine people’s goals, needs, and behaviors; be thoughtful about the time spent Test prototypes of solutions with real people, in the field if possible Document the findings about user goals, needs, behaviors, and preferences Share findings with the team and agency leadership Create a prioritized list of tasks the user is trying to accomplish, also known as “user stories”


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As the digital service is being built, regularly test it with potential users to ensure it meets people’s needs

(Source: U.S. Digital Services, “Digital Services Playbook”)

Key questions ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Who are your primary users? What user needs will this service address? Why does the user want or need this service? Which people will have the most difficulty with the service? Which research methods were used? What were the key findings? How were the findings documented? Where can future team members access the documentation? How often are you testing with real people?

(Source: U.S. Digital Services, “Digital Services Playbook”)

Resources ●

Civic User Testing Group Book


Think mobile-first Responsive design is 100% mobile-friendly and adapts to all devices (phone, tablets, laptops, desktops, kiosks).

Why mobile ● ● ● ●

Mobile usage is increasing Build once (saves time, money) No need for stand-alone app Search-engine friendly


Have a content strategy ● ● ● ● ●

Make this a priority Write user stories (“I am a resident/visitor/business ...”) Identify content goals Follow a style guide (AP, Chicago, Conscious - age/gender) Use a content management system

Resources ●

18F Content Guide


Prioritize accessibility “build sites that are usable by everyone, not to meet minimum standards” - 18F ●

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Law: Section 508 - requires that government provides equal access to information to disabled employees Standard: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Tips ● ● ● ● ● ●

Ensure keyboard access Use semantic headings (h1, h2, h3, etc.) Label form elements Use alt/img tags Use multimedia captioning (audio/video) Take into account color contrast

Resources ●

Web Accessibility Evalutation Tool


Respect privacy “The American people expect government websites to be secure and their interactions with those websites to be private.” - CIO.gov Protecting user privacy is an important aspect and duty of any public service organization. HTTPS is web security protocol that validates and ensure privacy protections are adhered to. As the U.S. federal government states, HTTPS guarantees: ●

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Confidentiality. The visitor’s connection is encrypted, obscuring URLs, cookies, and other sensitive metadata. Authenticity. The visitor is talking to the “real” website, and not to an impersonator or through a “man-in-the-middle”. Integrity. The data sent between the visitor and the website has not been tampered with or modified.

Resources ●

https.cio.gov

Tools ●

Let’s Encrypt


Be secure ● ● ●

Password management Two-factor authentication (2FA) Back-ups

Password management Easily create strong passwords Can safely share passwords Major tools have freemium plans

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Tips Limit users, permissions Use strong passwords Be diligent about updating your CMS software Subscribe to your CMS security announcements Back-up regularly (daily)

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Tools ● ●

LastPass PassPack


Leverage integrations ● ● ● ● ●

Make sure third-party vendors are appropriate for your city Always ask third-party vendors to verify their API is open Avoid watered down catch-all solutions Data and application programming interfaces (APIs) Get verification of third-party API usage


Update your status To keep residents informed, the city posts monthly ‘Done/Doing’ status reports on accomplishments and upcoming work. Example: https://www.cityofsanrafael.org/donedoing-10/


Resources Guides ● ● ●

The Digital Services Playbook (U.S. Digital Service) 18F Guides (18F) The HTTPS-Only Standard (CIO.gov)

Organizations ● ● ●

ELGL (elgl.org) National Association of Government Web Professionals (NAGW) (nagw.org) Sunlight Foundation (sunlightfoundation.com)

Books Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Question for a New Utopia , Anthony Townsend Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government, Gavin Newsom, Lisa Dickey Start-Up City, Gabe Klein Delivering on Digital: The Innovators and Technologies That Are Transforming Government, William D. Eggers The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society’s Toughest Problems, William D. Eggers, Paul Macmillan The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance, Stephen Goldsmith, Susan Crawford Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government, Aneesh Chopra


Open Data Now: The Secret to Hot Startups, Smart Investing, Savvy Marketing, and Fast Innovation, Joel Gurin Open Government, Daniel Lathrop, Laurel Ruma The foundation for an open source city, Jason Hibbets Beyond Transparency: Open Data and the Future of Civic Innovation, Brett Goldstein, Lauren Dyson Social Media in the Public Sector: A Guide to Participation, Collaboration and Transparency in The Networked World, Ines Mergel Civic User Testing Group Book, Daniel X. O’Neil Open Organization, Jim Whitehurst

Media Federal ● ● ● ●

FCW (fcw.com) FedScoop (fedscoop.com) FedTech (fedtechmagazine.com) NextGov (nextgov.com)

State & local ● ● ●

Route Fifty (routefifty.com) StateScoop (statescoop.com) StateTech (statetechmagazine.com)

Other ●

GovFresh (govfresh.com)


Contributors Luke Fretwell, Kevin Herman, Jeff Lyon, Alex Schmoe

Acknowledgements Thank you to the following for your inspiration and support: Rebecca Woodbury (San Rafael, Calif.), Erika Mattingly (West Carrollton, Ohio), Kirsten Wyatt (ELGL

Questions? Collaborate Use the “Comments feature in this document to add questions/feedback.

Contact ● ●

Email: [email protected] Phone: (510) 671-0593

Colophon ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Computer by Edward Boatman from the Noun Project Credit Card by Edward Boatman from the Noun Project Share by Matteo Dal Passo from the Noun Project Smartphone by Curve from the Noun Project Browser by Designify.me from the Noun Project Lock by Edward Boatman from the Noun Project analytics by AlfredoCreates.com from the Noun Project Settings by il Capitano from the Noun Project

Digital Government Playbook

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