{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
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    "title" : "How Governance Supports Your Agency’s Digital Government Strategy |Digital.gov",
    "description": "How Governance Supports Your Agency’s Digital Government Strategy",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/06/12/how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"How Governance Supports Your Agency’s Digital Government Strategy","summary" : "What is governance, and how can you make good governance usable in your agency? The federal government developed the Digital Government Strategy to deliver better Web services to the American people.","date" : "2015-06-12T10:00:33-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"robert-jacoby" : "Robert Jacoby"},"topics" : {
        
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "governance" : "Governance",
            "product-and-project-management" : "Product and project management"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-06-12-how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/06/2015-06-12-how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/06/2015-06-12-how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/06/2015-06-12-how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy.md","slug" : "how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/06/12/how-governance-supports-your-agencys-digital-government-strategy/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eIt seems that everyone these days is talking about “governance.” But what is it, really, and how can you make good governance usable in your agency?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe federal government developed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government.html\"\u003eDigital Government Strategy\u003c/a\u003e to deliver better Web services to the American people. The strategy is based on the notion of focusing on customers—the American people—and their needs in terms of providing access to high-quality digital government information and services anywhere, anytime, on any device. Governance offers a practical, supporting framework for managing the myriad of content, applications, services, and platforms for managing this complex endeavor. \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2012/08/12/agile-sprinting-to-digital-governance-recommendations/\"\u003eGuidelines were developed for governance\u003c/a\u003e using agile methods in response to the Strategy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/11/600-x-332-Strategy-concepts-on-chalk-board-Melpomenem-iStock-Thinkstock-466815611.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Strategy concepts on chalk board\"/\u003e\u003cp\u003eMelpomenem, iStock, Thinkstock\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis case study provides examples of implementing digital governance from experience with \u003ca href=\"http://blog.samhsa.gov/category/evolve\"\u003eProject Evolve for SAMHSA.gov\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"project-evolve-at-samhsa\"\u003eProject Evolve at SAMHSA\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. Project Evolve (PE) is the Web transformation and modernization project within SAMHSA. Begun in late 2011, Project Evolve is an ongoing effort to improve and consolidate the \u003ca href=\"http://www.samhsa.gov/\"\u003eSAMHSA.gov website\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSite migrations and transformations happened throughout fiscal years 2013 and 2014. Entering fiscal year 2015, the PE Team turned to its governance matters in earnest to help create enterprise-wide solutions that support the goals of the Digital Government Strategy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"functional-work-areas-drive-governance-challenges\"\u003eFunctional Work Areas Drive Governance Challenges\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the start of this fiscal year, the PE Team realized that challenges existed in and across multiple work areas. This was because \u003cem\u003eeach\u003c/em\u003e governance area had some relationship—an interaction, interdependence, or coactivity—with some \u003cem\u003eother\u003c/em\u003e governance area or areas. As we migrated content from dozens of SAMHSA-owned sites into one integrated site, SAMHSA staff needed to be operating in a new paradigm. In the course of identifying content owners, we needed to determine the scope of their content and their roles and responsibilities, both outside and inside the Drupal Web content management system (CMS). Of course, all of our supporting activities would be impacted, including \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/03/19/getting-started-with-usability-testing/\"\u003eusability testing\u003c/a\u003e, communications and change management plans, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/03/23/the-content-corner-building-a-content-strategy/\"\u003econtent strategy\u003c/a\u003e, and training programs. And, we needed to coordinate across teams.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"governance-needs-practical-solutions\"\u003eGovernance Needs Practical Solutions\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe started solving the challenges of governance by changing our thinking about governance. We used a business reference model (used by the federal government) to help us focus on work areas (\u003cem\u003efunctional\u003c/em\u003e governance) first rather than the organizational structure behind it (\u003cem\u003eoperational\u003c/em\u003e governance). In this way we were able to reduce very large project areas to the simplest, component parts (that is, the ones we knew needed \u003cem\u003eimmediate\u003c/em\u003e attention):\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eContent owners (staff identity and their roles and responsibilities of content areas and through workflows)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCurrent content workflow outside CMS\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrupal CMS (content workflows and roles and permissions)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSupporting areas (usability, communications, training, content strategy, change management, and more)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDocumentation (for example, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/06/08/the-content-corner-creating-a-content-style-guide/\"\u003eWeb style guide\u003c/a\u003e, CMS user guide, standard operating procedures)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFocusing on the functional governance areas aided immensely in our ability to help SAMHSA model solutions that supported the goals of the Digital Government Strategy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"mapping-governance-success\"\u003eMapping Governance Success\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly after we had all of the pieces of the puzzle before us were we able to develop a governance strategy tailored to the specific business needs of our customer. We titled it “Governance Convergence” to highlight the set of areas that had immediate and cross-functional relationships and impacts across the project. The document was less than 20 pages and included:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA website governance convergence map (similar to the one shown here) to illustrate relationships and interactions between and among functional governance areas\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExplanations and discussions around the defined website governance areas, and unique challenges in and among each (for example, interactivities and interdependencies)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStrategies for goals and solutions and measuring outcomes\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDraft work plans\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIllustrating the enterprise-wide governance areas in this way helped make real the issues, risks, and dependencies for SAMHSA’s Project Evolve. They were, quite literally, staring us in the face.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/06/600-x-433-Functional-Governance-figure-Jacoby-May-29-2015.jpg\"\n    alt=\"This Functional Governance chart has 5 points in a circular graph showing: Staff: Identify Roles and Content areas; Current Workflow Outside CMS: People, Roles, and Processes or policies; Drupal C M S: Users, Roles or permissions, and Content workflows; Supporting Areas: Content strategy, Usability, Communications, Training, and Change management; and Documentation: Web style guide, CMS user guide, User manuals, SOPs.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch2 id=\"governance-is-a-process\"\u003eGovernance is a Process\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Governance Convergence strategy led us to tactics we could implement right away across multiple functional areas. We are doing that now through active work groups and cross-functional teams that focus on near- and long-term issues and plans.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a content team lead working on SAMHSA.gov, I see every day how governance success is not a destination but a critical business process, with many milestones along the path to improvement. Near-term successes include closer coordination and communication efforts among functional work areas and teams; and enterprise questions being recognized sooner and moving up the chain for quicker resolution. We anticipate a key long-term success being better management controls and touch points over enterprise-related project activities. At SAMHSA, good governance ensures better outcomes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"resources\"\u003eResources\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/digitalgov/digital-services-governance-recommendations\"\u003eDigital Services Governance Recommendations\u003c/a\u003e (a product of the Digital Services Advisory Group, Federal Chief Information Officers Council, and Federal Web Managers Council)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/web/governance/strategy.html\"\u003eDigital Strategy at HHS\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_governance\"\u003eWebsite Governance\u003c/a\u003e article at Wikipedia\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRobert Jacoby, MIM, is a Lead Content Consultant at Aquilent. He works as a content team lead and project management support for Project Evolve on SAMHSA.gov\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}