“For many of us in the design and software development profession, building a working prototype is not a big deal. For the dedicated civil servants in the federal government, it can be. Over these two days we demonstrated that with the right support and the right people in the room, ideas can be tested, iterated upon, and realized without months of requirements gathering, large waterfall contractual agreements, and other impediments.”
Good guide of what to cover in initial kick off or inception phase
“During this Inception we:
- Identified the different types of users and prioritized which ones we’d focus on for our initial proof of concept.
- Listed the goals and non-goals of the project (non-goals are great for parking valuable points that are out of scope for the current iteration).
- Brainstormed ideas for initial features and prioritized them based on user value and build-feasibility.
- Ensured there were no timelines or stakeholder needs that would cause problems in the near future.
- Explored possible risks to the success of this project. We collaboratively grouped them by themes and discussed ways to reduce the risk moving forward.”
Good examples of constraints in government projects:
Departments across the federal government often operate under three constraints that can make these projects a challenge:
- Lack of internal design and development staff dedicated to prototype or solve problems.
- An often arduous vendor solicitation process to hire the right team to help with such projects. (WHD is experimenting with using a modular, agile contract strategy.)
- Internal teams which may lack the time, tech literacy, or processes in place to support change. How do you support change you don’t quite understand?"
Interesting to see that the US Gov digital team are providing an RFP ghostwriting of ICT contracts. It is an interesting concept and one that warrants consideration.