Government Organizations Embrace Upskilling In-House IT Staff to Meet the Latest Executive Orders
Advancement in technology and an ever-changing political landscape (e.g., the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, as well as billions in funding to support this mandate and a potential administration change after the 2024 election) reveal new needs, opportunities, and demands for government organizations.
“An agency that can’t update its software quickly enough to adapt to a new policy—or at least implement some creative but reasonably consistent and effective hack in the meantime—can’t do its job.”
—Jennifer Pahlka, Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
With a citizenry that is increasingly more comfortable with adopting technology and digital interactions, now is the time for government organizations to deliver digital services that align with people’s expectations. In addition to building trust and amplifying citizen engagement, delivering great digital experiences can increase efficiency by reducing friction for them and for developers. Gartner® Research, Inc. writes in its Top Technology Trends in Government for 2023 report that “By 2026, government total experience (TX) approaches will reduce process ambiguity by 90 percent while increasing satisfaction metrics for both CX and EX by 50 percent.” [SOURCE: Top Technology Trends in Government for 2023; May 2023 by By Arthur Mickoleit, et al.]
To provide those services, organizations and product teams require new skills in software development, such as human-centered design, product management, and agile methodology. This is achieved through outsourcing, by hiring contract or in-house staff, or by upskilling government employees with the end goal of shipping quality software more quickly into the hands of the American public. Yet there are ways to simultaneously leverage contractors and upskill employees so that organizations are able to accommodate current mandates and prepare for potential future ones.
“The technology needs to be your product…You need to own the code and you need to be able to change it to meet your needs. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use contractors at all—in government, you will almost certainly use them. It means that you must have the core competencies to support a living, ever-adapting system.”
—Jennifer Pahlka, Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better