Research plan

Methods and timeline

Our research falls within four distinct areas:

• interviews with government employees who have first hand experience working on mature digital transformation projects;
• research of industry case studies to learn how digital transformation happened for leading companies in the private sector;
• research of case studies to understand the types of "transformation services" consultancies are delivering to US government agencies; and
• research of the legal and policy constraints that decision makers in government face that will both hinder and support their efforts toward modernization.

Where we're at

After six weeks of less than full time on this project, we have been synthesizing insights gathered from interviews and industry research. A few take aways:

Interviews: We're learning from folks we speak with - mostly government employees at the federal level - that running projects that are agile by default and open by default can't happen without having particular tools already in place. We've begun to narrow our interview focus to learn more about what these core dependencies are.

• Next: We'd like to create clusters of interviews that will present several perspectives about a particular project. We'd also like to diversify our conversations: so far we've spoken with a number of folks working within the federal government. We've begun recruiting interviewees at state and local levels because we are learning that working on digital transformation at these levels looks very different. We recently sent out a recruitment message to all 18F staff asking for suggestions and have received any leads that we'd like to follow up on.

Industry research: through quick google searches, we find many hero narratives in which an ingenious CEO takes a risk and saves a company. We also find many guides toward digital transformation written by consultancies that offer such services and we often find them too promotional for us to treat as authoritative. It's hard enough for us to understand where the trustworthy information lies while having dedicated time to search it out. We've developed a new sympathy for government staff trying to better understand what all of this stuff means.

• Next: We're looking forward to reviewing selected case studies of major US companies that are successfully using digital to delivery their products. WE're looking forward to connecting what we learn with the lessons gathered during interviews.

Legal and policy research: We've learned that government staff struggle finding authority to justify change to their higher ups. We also have learned that governance documents play a role in defining how teams within government work, and can stand in the way of teams changing their practices.

• Next: We're looking forward to learning more about these as well as other legal and political parameters that shape the ways that agencies are able to introduce change into their offices and sustain it for the years to follow.

Consultancy research: Forthcoming. . .

Sprint 1 (first two weeks):

1. Look up existing writing on the topic of digital transformation in government

• Ask 18F colleagues to add relevant links here

2. One-on-one interviews with staff at different agencies

• Ping 18F colleagues to add relevant contacts we should consider talking to here

Methods for future sprints TBA based on findings of Sprint 1

Interview recruitment