5 steps towards a government “Citizen Information Officer” — Step 5
Step 5: Use a playbook approach
(remark: this article is part of a series, click here to go back to the introduction section)
The last step in this journey is to institutionalize the agile approach. This means agreeing on a best practice approach to redesigning citizen services in our program.
When the program accelerates beyond the proof-of-concept phase, there will be many use cases that need to be processed. For that, I advocate a playbook approach, i.e., a repeatable approach that brings business and IT together in realizing actual result. My suggested approach is depicted below:
This approach is a logical merger of different market standard methods. The top row of the picture above positions Design Thinking for understanding the current pain points and redesigning the citizen experience. The result is a clear To Be view of the new process and operating model changes.
The bottom row positions classical architecture approaches like TOGAF to validate the functionality to be developed and optimize the platform technology. We add room to validate the business costs (i.e., what will the outcomes be for the citizen versus the investments needed) before the project is started. For execution, a set of agile sprints can be used to come to a proof of concept. After validation, the new product can go live, and changes can be introduced in the front- and back office of the organization. Let us not forget the communication to the citizens and measure the value achieved. The cycle can then restart for the next citizen service to be digitally redesigned.
The above combination is what modern methods like SAFe 5.0 are offering. The presented playbook is an interpretation of SAFE but based on actual work delivered to clients. For overall guidance on processes and governance, CMM and COBIT can be used. These frameworks provide the mechanisms to organize the collaboration between the CIO and the business.
In parallel, the CIO continues to optimize the end-to-end platform technology and the business starts changing its operating model. As more and more services are being redesigned, the capabilities of the workforce can shift from processing forms to validating and fine tuning the auto approval algorithms.
This concludes the 5 steps, but please read the closing notes next to wrap up this story. Click on the link below to continue reading:
