How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool

In 2016, CivicActions was one of 11 vendors selected for the Agile Development Prequalified vendor pool, designed to provide state agencies with access to user-centered design and agile software development services. In 2017, the California Department of Technology is expected to expand the pool to include up to 30 vendors.

The prequalified vendor pool is an incredible opportunity for design and development firms to more easily expand their offerings to government and help build amazing, user-focused digital services for the residents of California.

In an effort to inspire other technology companies to participate, CivicActions will share what it learned and help others understand how they can best navigate the process.

Transcript

1. How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool Experiences and Ideas Robert L. Read, Owen Barton, Elizabeth Raley, Jen Harris, Steve Curtis
2. Of course, this is not legal advice, and in no way we can guarantee a result. In the spirit of openness we are humbly sharing what worked for us. How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions Disclaimer
3. 1. What We Did 2. What We Recommend 3. Discussion How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions Overview
4. It’s all history… You can view all notes, interviews, and discussions at our repo: https://github.com/CivicActions/agile-california (Please open this URL if you are following along) How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions Our Work
5. What We Did
6. 1. Team 2. Process 3. User Focus 4. DevOps 5. Document Everything! What We Did How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
7. • Product Manager (prioritizer) (Robert L. Read) • Interaction Designer / User Researcher / Usability Tester (Jen Harris) • Delivery Manager (Steve Curtis) • Agile Coach (Elizabeth Raley) What We Did | Team How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions • Technical Architect (Owen Barton) • DevOps Engineer (Owen Barton) • Front-End Web Designer (Heather Rodriguez) • Back-End Web Developer (April Rose) Challenge Team Composition: = User-Facing: Engineering Facing:
8. 1. Team 2. Process 3. User Focus 4. DevOps 5. Document Everything! What We Did How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
9. Agile process…in two day Sprints! • Short sprints • Disciplined planning and flexible compromise • Time-box each sprint even if it delivers disappointment • Follow all Scrum ceremonies What We Did | Process How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
10. The Backlog What We Did | Process How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
11. Compressed Sprints produced tension • It felt like rushing. • Often hard to accept a timebox • Feels inefficient due to number of Scrum ceremony meetings. • Constant re-prioritization required. However, offered tremendous benefits: • Rapid learning: first demo provided feedback. • Capitalized on learnings quickly. • “Always releasable” product decreased risk of bombing with no solution whatsoever. What We Did | Process How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
12. 1. Team 2. Process 3. User Focus 4. DevOps 5. Document Everything! What We Did How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
13. Users are Critical • We lined up real, volunteer foster parents and caseworkers and interviewed them during our first sprint. • We also tried to have users in all our sprint demos. Note: Users gave us permission to place their interviews, and even audio and video, in our public repos. You must protect privacy.) What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
14. Modern UX Techniques 1. User Interviews 2. Personas 3. Empathy Map 4. Story Map 5. Design Studio 6. Wireframes Using of all of these techniques might not have been possible in a shorter challenge. What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
15. Eight user interviews (plus Sprint demos) You can read and listen to all of our interviews in the project repo. What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
16. Personas What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
17. Empathy Map What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
18. Story Map What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
19. Design Studio What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
20. Developing Wireframes Ongoing and concurrent with development. What We Did | User Focus How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
21. 1. Team 2. Process 3. User Focus 4. DevOps 5. Document Everything! What We Did How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
22. Focus on DevOps / Deployment throughout • Single script fully automated deploy or sandbox from scratch • Had deployment of “Hello, World!” app working very early (day 2) • Jenkins, Slack integration, deploy on tests pass, switch DNS What We Did | DevOps How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions • Used real deployment for demos, 6+ deploys per-day • Same deployment is still up! • Didn’t rob DevOps to pay Development
23. Leveraged Open Source Technology • Docker Toolbox • Jenkins • LAMP stack • Drupal 8 • MapBox, JQuery, Datatables • Bootstrap • Selenium tests (Firefox/Chrome) What We Did | DevOps How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
24. 1. Team 2. Process 3. User Focus 4. DevOps 5. Document Everything! What We Did How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
25. Documentation • Just as agile practice is distributed through the team, Documentation is the shared responsibility of the whole team • Overseen by Product Owner and Delivery Manager • Putting everything, including Scrum notes, in GitHub from the start was highly valuable • GitHub Repo was working nexus of communication, not something built at the end • But we did have to carefully read the RFP and review it throughout What We Did | Document Everything! How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
26. USDS Playbook Checklist What We Did | Document Everything! How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
27. Retrospectives “Rose, bud, and thorn” State hypotheses and objectives for upcoming Sprint. Fully open, transparent. What We Did | Document Everything! How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
28. What We Recommend
29. Recommendations CivicActions believes in “Fierce Openness”. We humbly offer these recommendations in the spirit of cooperation with no promise of applicability. Find your own unique style; one size does not fit all. During the competition, we published our user interviews immediately and invited other firms to make use of them. What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
30. What to Expect: AMBIGUITY. Expect for the Challenge to be less than perfectly clear and somewhat open-ended. Expect ambiguity in the both the rules and the purpose. What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
31. Get Real! • Talk to real customers. • Build real software. • Make real deployments. • Really be open and collaborative. • It is not an exercise; it is a real project. What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
32. The Real Story Once upon a time, prospective vendors were asked to build a tiny case management system and communication system. But in talking with Caseworkers and Parents we discovered what was really needed was something different than what we were asked to build: • People really need to be able to arrange geographic pick up with a map using public transportation. • People really need to have Official Court Status automatically reflected in a status change. What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
33. The Real Solution Did we magically accomplish this revised scope? NO -- Only about 20%. We built a map with geolocated data. But the learning is real... What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
34. Tried to Make Learnings Real by Sharing ...and this webinar What we did | Process How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
35. Focus on Breadth, Not Depth • You might want to deliver an “impressive” app - don’t focus on this! • Instead demonstrate breadth of process (USDS plays): ◦ User interviews, UX design, all agile components (grooming, planning, scrums, demos, retros), iterate ◦ Fully documented automated testing, sandbox & deployment scripts ◦ Cross-browser/device, security, accessibility and software licensing reviews/documentation, ◦ Production quality deploys (infrastructure as code, CDN, SSL, monitoring/alerts) Be prepared to constrain functionality and/or the technical quality of your development to ensure you have time to address the breadth What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
36. Team Composition • # Developers ≅ # Customer Facing • Deployment Expertise • Front-End javascript expert • Front-load design, but involve engineers. • Get engineers meeting with customers whenever possible. • Leader must manage customer communications as well as team What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
37. Coach’s Duties Have the team agree to all from the outset • Maintain formal sprint discipline • Find users • Always Demoable • Constantly refined backlog • Strict on time; compromising elsewhere What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
38. Remember... • Applaud often! • Strive for real, if limited utility • Part of your product is the learnings it produces by the end • This challenge should leave your team stronger than when it started • Everyone should learn something • The team that cooperates the most competes the best What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
39. But above all…. Focus on the User. What We Recommend How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
40. Discussion How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions
41. Thank you. How CivicActions Earned a Spot on the California Agile Government Pool | 2017-02-21 | @civicactions