The US government's suggestions for digital strategy development

Here are my favourite bits from the US’ digital services governance recommendations.

Source: Digital services governance recommedations | whitehouse.gov | Product of Digital Services Advisory Group, Federal Chief Information Officers Council, and Federal Web Managers Council, August 2012
Discovered through: How governance supports your agency’s digital governance strategy | Digital Gov | Robert Jacoby, June 2015

Check the case studies.

“Department of Homeland Security did not know how many websites it had, how many Content Management System (CMS) platforms it supported, how many people were in the web workforce, how many hosting solutions it had, how much training was provided to its workforce, how it measured performance on the web, etc.”

How about you, do you know how many websites you have, your web workforce capabilities, and have metrics in place to measure you sites peformance?

Do an audit of your governance

“Step 2: Assess What You Have
Inventory the existing governance structure(s) and processes related to digital services. The assessment should encompass efforts from top to bottom -- headquarters level through bureau or office levels -- and document:

How existing governance structure(s) are set up, specifying:

Layers of approval;
Processes in place;
Decision-making groups related to digital services and their respective authorities/responsibilities; and
Other structures and considerations that affect digital services governance in your agency;
What is successful about the existing governance structure(s) and processes; and
Where are gaps, redundancies, or challenges.

The ‘Information-Centric’ approach moves agencies from managing “documents” to managing discrete pieces of open data and content that can be tagged, shared, secured, and presented in the way that is most useful for the consumer of that information.

The ‘Shared Platform’ approach helps agencies, both internally and when working with other agencies, to reduce costs, streamline development, and apply consistent standards and approaches (e.g., creation and delivery of information).

The ‘Customer-Centric’ approach influences how agencies create, manage, and present data through websites, mobile applications, raw data sets, and other modes of delivery. This approach also allows customers to shape, share, and consume information, whenever and however they want it.

The platform of ‘Security and Privacy’ ensures the safe and secure delivery and use of digital services to protect information and privacy.

Consider decision making levels and authority

The level at which various types of decisions will be made (e.g., strategic, tactical, production, operational).

For example, strategic decisions might be handled by senior officials, whereas production decisions (e.g., Web content) may be dealt with by the responsible official or manager.

Test whether the roles and responsibilities are practical by employing use cases and thinking through the steps involved in producing a digital service. The use cases will help agencies identify and address potential bottlenecks, ensuring that the final process is both effective and efficient.

Consider if the service is needed

Creating digital services no one uses wastes time and money, so the governance structure must include mechanisms for determining what people want.

Suggested metrics

Create metrics to determine whether the governance structure is improving digital services. Performance indicators could include:

Reduced cost (e.g., the agency saves money on avoiding duplicate solutions, maintenance and employee work hours)

Reduced cycle time (e.g., the governance board completes reviews/approvals 5 days sooner than previous boards)

Decreased redundancy (e.g., there is a single approval process instead of multiple approvals from multiple boards)

Increased flexibility (e.g., the agency now has multiple solutions and sources of knowledge available to them for implementing digital services)

Improved quality (e.g., internal agency customers can share tools that perform better)

Increased rate of product creation (e.g., the agency develops a new mobile app every quarter)

Create metrics to determine outcome and value improvement for the customer experience (external)

Reduced time per transaction (e.g., customers do not have to enter as much data or wait as long for agency response for services)

Higher quality and lower error rates (e.g., better, more accurate services and information are provided)

Increased customer satisfaction (e.g., customer satisfaction with a website, or with specific aspects like navigation, have improved)

New customer interactions (e.g., customers interact, engage and collaborate with us in new and innovative ways)