improving federal government services
TRANSCRIPT
Improving Federal Government Servicespeople. practices. impact. culture.
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Sarah Allen 18F@ultrasaurus | [email protected]
What is 18F?A brief history...
to transform how theU.S. Government builds, buys, and shares digital services.
Mission
Put the needs of the American people first.Design-centric, agile, open, and data-driven.Always be shipping.
How?
Delivery is the strategy.
Changing Culture
“Most people will shift their thinking only after new behaviors have led to results that matter—and thereby been validated”
—Harvard Business Reviewhttps://hbr.org/2012/07/cultural-change-that-sticks/ar/1
Delivery is the strategy.
Just start.MVP.Iterate. Learn.Do it again.
transforming how the U.S. Government builds, buys, and shares digital services.
Think like a designer.human-centered approachdecisions are driven by the needs of the people
transforming how the U.S. Government builds, buys, and shares digital services.
Agile practices.build, measure, repeatquick feedback loops“fail small”
transforming how the U.S. Government builds, buys, and shares digital services.
Data-driven.analytics to support user needsmeasure everythingAPI-first
transforming how the U.S. Government builds, buys, and shares digital services.
Open by default.working in the openopen sourcetransparency & evangelism
transforming how the U.S. Government builds, buys, and shares digital services.
Be the change.lead by exampleinstructionhands-on assistance
Unlike most government programs, 18F does not rely on annual appropriations from Congress.
We recover costs from federal agencies, who pay us for services rendered.
California has 500,000 allegations of child abuse and neglect every year.
Federal Government provides funds for state child welfare, including for IT systems.
Estimated cost of upgradingthe legacy CA system:
$400M-$500Mincluding 50% federal match.
Estimated cost of upgradingthe legacy CA system:
$400M-$500Mincluding 50% federal match.
“Too Important to Fail” High Risk of Failure
18F’s RFP Ghostwriting team...
transformed 1500-page RFP into two initial 70 page, modular RFPsrevised the state’s Terms & Conditions for greater competitivenesswant to work with us? [email protected]
State Government leaders, CfA,and others working together ...
want to work with us? [email protected]
We also make software...
We start with a problem…
only 37% of federal employees surveyed believe
creativity & innovation
are rewarded.
Employee Viewpoint Survey 2014
almost 1M federal employees believe
creativity & innovation
are rewarded.
almost 1M federal employees believe
creativity & innovation
are rewarded.
These employees are the target audience.
Cross-team collaboration increases the impact of federal workerswhile providing professional development opportunities.
Delivery is the strategy.
Design human experiences.
Software drives scale.
How?
Cultures Evolve Over Time
“Cultures do evolve over time… the best you can do is work with and within them, rather than fight them…. When a few key behaviors are emphasized heavily, employees will often develop additional ways to reinforce them.“
—Harvard Business Reviewhttps://hbr.org/2012/07/cultural-change-that-sticks/ar/1
Culture Change
Focus on Key BehaviorsWork With and Within Existing CultureIdentify Positive Culture Traits
Mission-driven service.
What is our culture?
Mission-driven service.
Data-driven learning.
What is our culture?
We need to rapidly disseminate lessons learned from early adopters..., participate in open source communities, leverage public crowdsourcing, and launch shared government-wide solutions and contract vehicles.
— Digital Government StrategyMay 2012
Stakeholders at Every Level
Unions
Employees
Supervisors & Managers
Senior Executives
Supporter Senior Administrators
Employees
Supervisors & Managers
Senior Executives
Senior Administrators
It often starts with one person.
Employees
Supervisors & Managers
Senior Executives
Senior Administrators
who forms a team
Open Source
What is Open Source?Open source software is software whose source code is available for modification or enhancement by anyone.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OPEN SOURCE
OPEN SOURCE SINCE 1970s
OPEN SOURCE PUBLISHING
GOVCODE.ORGHELPS WITH GOVERNMENTPROJECT DISCOVERY
How do we use Open Source at 18F?● We create it● We consume it● We contribute to it● We create a community around it
We create it● With a few exceptions, everything
we do is open source● We work in the open
We create it● With a few exceptions, everything
we do is open source● We work in the open● Our projects are available for other
people to modify and use for their own purposes
Code can be “forked” and reused
We consume it● All our work is built on open source
platforms: Ruby + Rails, Python + Django/Flask, NodeJS, Ubuntu Linux, Elasticsearch, Postgres, MySQL
● We use hundreds of modules & libraries (gems, packages, etc)
Gems!
We consume it● All our work is built on open source
platforms: Ruby + Rails, Python + Django/Flask, NodeJS, Ubuntu Linux, Elasticsearch, Postgres, MySQL
● We use hundreds of modules & libraries (gems, packages, etc)
● We “fork” other civic engagement open source projects
We contribute to it
We contribute to projects we use,modifying and improving the code.
We create a community around it
