Breaking the cylinders of excellence (for YOW! Nights)

Nobody interacts with government because they want to - they interact with government because they have to, and most people come away from online interactions feeling more confused than when they started.

That's why the Digital Transformation Office (now the Digital Transformation Agency) was created in 2015 – to change the way government delivers services, by relentlessly focusing all delivery activities on user needs, and modernising technical delivery methods.

In this talk we'll learn about the problems with the traditional approach to digital service delivery in government, the cultural and structural barriers to changing service delivery in government, and how Open Source platforms, APIs, and Continuous Delivery enable the DTA to help government deliver simpler, clearer, faster public services.

Transcript

1. Breaking the cylinders of excellence
   To deliver clearer, simpler, faster public services
   Lindsay Holmwood
   
   Head of Technology
   
   @auxesis @DTO
   
   dta.gov.au
   

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2. dta.gov.au
   The problem
   

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3. dta.gov.au
   1509*
   * public federal government websites we know about
   

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4. dta.gov.au
   People have no
   “mental model”
   of what government
   wants them to do.
   

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5. dta.gov.au
   “I just wing it to be honest. As I need it, I research it. Which is
   probably not ideal. I need the big picture. I need to talk the big
   picture and then how to help kids navigate particular areas.”
   – School counsellor
   

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6. dta.gov.au
   People design their
   businesses to minimise
   government bureaucracy.
   

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7. dta.gov.au
   “I was talking to the guys in Japan in September saying
   I’d be able to start (selling their label) by December [laughs].
   This whole thing has been a case of scaling back my
   expectations.”
   – Clothes store owner
   

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8. dta.gov.au
   People pay others to deal with
   government for them.
   

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9. dta.gov.au
   “If you can afford it, pay an expert to deal with the government. It’ll
   bury you and distract you from your own business”
   – Retired businessman
   

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10. dta.gov.au
    People with experience
    still have trouble.
    

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11. dta.gov.au
    “My biggest frustration is being on hold with the immigration
    department. I need to speak to them at least once a week.
    Last Friday I was on hold for 1 hr 20 minutes.
    My longest wait has been 2 hrs 30 minutes.”
    – Internal immigration agent
    

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13. dta.gov.au
    The challenge
    

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14. dta.gov.au
    Do the hard work
    to make it simple for users
    

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15. dta.gov.au
    Understand the
    who, what
    when, where
    of user interactions
    with government
    

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16. dta.gov.au
    Design
    & Technology
    

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17. dta.gov.au
    Clearer, simpler, faster services
    

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18. dta.gov.au
    Digital
    Transformation
    Agency
    

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19. dta.gov.au
    We're here to make government
    services simpler, clearer and faster
    for everyone
    

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20. dta.gov.au
    1/
    
    We collaborate with agencies to
    transform services so that they
    meet user needs
    

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21. dta.gov.au
    2/
    
    We create whole-of-government
    platforms to support service
    transformation
    

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22. dta.gov.au
    3/
    
    We develop policies and
    standards to help government
    transform services consistently
    

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23. dta.gov.au
    What have we
    done well?
    

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24. Delivery hubs in Sydney and Canberra
    

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25. dta.gov.au
    

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26. dta.gov.au
    

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27. dta.gov.au
    A prototype of how
    government services and
    information could be
    joined up
    
    gov.au/alpha
    

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28. dta.gov.au
    

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29. dta.gov.au
    

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30. dta.gov.au
    We publish and own our
    performance stats
    

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31. dta.gov.au
    

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32. dta.gov.au
    

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33. dta.gov.au
    Digital Service Standard
    Setting the standard for delivering
    services that are better for users,
    and efficient for government
    

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35. cloud.gov.au
    Creating a new platform to make
    delivering and operating government
    services easier
    

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36. July
    cloud.gov.au
    14 apps in production
    50 apps in development
    across transformation programme &
    
    service delivery programme
    

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37. October
    cloud.gov.au
    47 apps in production
    225 apps in development
    across transformation programme &
    
    service delivery programme
    

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38. What does
    delivery look like?
    

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39. 30
    60
    90
    120
    2015-10-29 2015-11-08 2015-11-16 2015-11-25
    GOV.AU deploys over time
    

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42. AusDTO/gov-au-alpha
    

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43. dta.gov.au
    Releases are a
    
    non-event
    

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44. dta.gov.au
    Process scaled
    as we added contributors
    

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45. dta.gov.au
    Contributions are
    
    democratised
    

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46. 15 contributors
    Dev &
    Ops &
    Design &
    Research &
    Content &
    Management
    

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47. dta.gov.au
    The unit of delivery
    is the team
    

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49. dta.gov.au
    What did we learn?
    

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50. dta.gov.au
    Government doesn’t move
    at a single speed
    

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51. dta.gov.au
    Government is designed to
    
    be stable
    

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52. Myth: 

    Organisations must choose between
    
    speed and reliability.
    
    

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53. Fact: 

    High-performing IT organisations 

    deploy 200x more frequently, 

    with 2,555x shorter lead times; they have 

    3x fewer failures and recover 24x faster.
    – 2016 State of DevOps report
    

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54. dta.gov.au
    The tension between
    Deliver like a startup
    vs
    
    Be stable like a government
    

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55. dta.gov.au
    Capability continuum
    

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56. dta.gov.au
    “we’re agile, we do standups”
    

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57. dta.gov.au
    “we do CD, we deploy continuously,
    every 6 weeks”
    

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58. dta.gov.au
    Cylinders of excellence
    

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59. dta.gov.au
    “The future is already here —
    it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
    – Gibson
    

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60. dta.gov.au
    Help identify and plug
    
    capability gaps in teams
    

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61. dta.gov.au
    Policy as a weapon
    
    vs
    
    Policy as a tool
    

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62. dta.gov.au
    Read the policy yourself
    

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63. dta.gov.au
    Find subject matter experts
    

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64. dta.gov.au
    Document what works
    
    and what doesn’t
    

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65. dta.gov.au
    

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66. dta.gov.au
    Don’t transform delivery &
    technology at the same time
    

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67. dta.gov.au
    Make the
    
    right thing
    • Select high volume services
    
    • User centred design
    
    • Define and deploy the minimum viable product
    
    • Integrate with back-end process
    
    • Design for straight-through processing
    

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68. dta.gov.au
    Ensure that it’s

    done right
    
    • Organise work in small teams (2 pizza size)
    
    • Develop in-house capability across key roles
    
    • Incremental and continuous deployment
    
    • Time box delivery
    
    • Continuous usability testing
    

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69. dta.gov.au
    Stick with technologies
    
    government knows
    
    (Java & .NET)
    

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70. dta.gov.au
    Change tech methodologies
    

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71. dta.gov.au
    CD &
    
    TDD &
    
    BDD &
    
    PaaS &
    
    Microservices
    

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72. dta.gov.au
    Transform how they use
    
    those technologies
    

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73. dta.gov.au
    Spring &
    
    12-Factor Apps
    

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74. dta.gov.au
    

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75. dta.gov.au
    Security matters
    

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77. dta.gov.au
    Prevention is a battle
    
    you will always lose
    

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78. dta.gov.au
    Detection is your
    
    best defence
    

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81. dta.gov.au
    Embed security people
    
    on big services
    

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82. http://pivotal.io/security/cve-2016-0927
    http://pivotal.io/security/cve-2016-0928
    http://pivotal.io/security/cve-2016-4468
    

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83. dta.gov.au
    Focus on basics
    

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84. dta.gov.au
    Have a threat model
    

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85. dta.gov.au
    Excel macros > APT
    

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86. dta.gov.au
    MFA all the things
    

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87. dta.gov.au
    Required reading:
    
    https://speakerdeck.com/garethr/security-
    monitoring-with-open-source-penetration-testing-
    tools
    

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88. dta.gov.au
    

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89. dta.gov.au
    Tech often doesn’t last
    more than 6 months
    

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90. dta.gov.au
    Go and see
    Understand team’s problems
    
    Hypothesise what they need
    
    Test hypotheses
    

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91. dta.gov.au
    CI/CD
    

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92. dta.gov.au
    Cheap SaaS ↩
    
    Specific SaaS ↩
    On-prem ↩
    

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93. dta.gov.au
    Define clear interfaces:
    
    bin/cibuild.sh
    bin/cideploy.sh
    

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94. dta.gov.au
    

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95. dta.gov.au
    What should we do
    differently?
    

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96. dta.gov.au
    Front-load technical activities
    

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99. dta.gov.au
    Strict interpretation of
    
    the design and delivery guides
    

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100. dta.gov.au
     Create a longer runway by
     
     pulling tech forward
     

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101. dta.gov.au
     Don’t turn down volume of design,
     
     Turn up volume of tech
     

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102. dta.gov.au
     Constantly iterate the service
     standard assessment process
     

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104. assessment points
     

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105. dta.gov.au
     Just waterfall with a
     
     different name?
     

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106. dta.gov.au
     Agile practices throughout
     

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107. dta.gov.au
     Tighten focus in each stage
     

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108. dta.gov.au
     If it hurts, do it more often
     

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109. assessment points
     

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110. dta.gov.au
     Minimum viable documentation of practices,
     
     then over-communicate
     

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111. dta.gov.au
     We set a high bar.
     
     But we need to
     
     bring people up to speed
     

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112. dta.gov.au
     Alien technology &
     
     alien language to many
     

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113. dta.gov.au
     Build primers
     

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115. dta.gov.au
     

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116. dta.gov.au
     What still puzzles us?
     

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117. dta.gov.au
     Business cases with
     fixed-cost deliverables
     

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118. dta.gov.au
     Fixed cost delivery with agile
     
     is a thing
     

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119. dta.gov.au
     “best effort” doesn’t satisfy
     regulatory requirements
     

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120. dta.gov.au
     Government has
     
     expectations of certainty
     
     when you spend taxpayer money
     

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121. dta.gov.au
     

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122. dta.gov.au
     Procurement
     

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123. dta.gov.au
     Complex, interrelated legislation
     

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124. dta.gov.au
     Significant domain knowledge
     required
     

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125. dta.gov.au
     5 platforms
     GOV.AU
     
     Identity
     
     Digital Marketplace
     
     Performance Dashboard
     
     cloud.gov.au
     

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126. dta.gov.au
     

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127. dta.gov.au
     

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128. dta.gov.au
     Some teams pull back from
     Continuous Deployment
     

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129. dta.gov.au
     Continuous Delivery is though
     

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130. dta.gov.au
     Extra set of hands for sign off
     

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131. dta.gov.au
     Inside the DTA?
     
     Escalate the commitment.
     

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132. dta.gov.au
     Don’t put manual testing on the
     critical path for delivery
     

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133. dta.gov.au
     Push manual tests into
     
     automated ones
     

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134. dta.gov.au
     Have specialty skills on-hand
     Accessibility &
     
     Performance &
     
     Security
     

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135. dta.gov.au
     

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136. dta.gov.au
     Difficulty seeing outside
     the cylinder
     

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137. dta.gov.au
     Discovery can get limited to
     
     what can be directly controlled
     

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138. dta.gov.au
     People expect to deal with
     government as a whole, not with
     separate agencies or departments
     

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139. dta.gov.au
     Services should be available
     end-to-end online
     

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140. dta.gov.au
     Users’ interactions with
     government should be as good as
     those with modern businesses
     

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141. dta.gov.au
     There’s huge failure demand when
     users can’t get things done easily
     

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142. dta.gov.au
     Government is just catching up
     
     to everyone else
     

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143. dta.gov.au
     The opportunity is immense
     

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144. dta.gov.au
     Australia can become the best
     
     in the world at delivering
     
     clearer, simpler, faster
     
     public services.
     

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145. dta.gov.au
     Thank you!
     ❤ the talk? Let @auxesis & @DTO know!
     

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