News and Updates

Innovative work, news, and ideas from people and teams in government

The 18F Engineering Sandwich for Cloud-based Web Apps

The 18F Engineering Sandwich for Cloud-based Web Apps—18F Engineering is often thought of as a technology shop, but that’s too broad. There are very few technology choices we actually make at the project level, so, more often than not, we combine a limited set of technologies to make our applications. To explain this, we’ll use the metaphor of a sandwich shop. — via 18F

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Sep 06, 2022

Helping People Discover Benefits With the New BEARS Locator

Helping People Discover Benefits With the New BEARS Locator—Back in March, we shared about the work we were doing to develop BEARS, the Benefits Eligibility Awareness Resource Service. USAGov’s new online locator tool, available in English on USA.gov and in Spanish on USAGov en Español, helps people find government benefits and services geared to major life events. It officially launched in early August, and we wanted to give you an update. — via USA.gov

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Aug 30, 2022

Senior Executives Part 5: Use Stories as Leading Indicators

Senior Executives Part 5: Use Stories as Leading Indicators—Executives often rely on productivity metrics to measure success, but these measures can obscure whether the software is actually working for users. Stories are a better resource to build a strategy between a senior executive and a product team. This is part five in a series on how senior executive and tech teams can be better allies. — via 18F

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Aug 25, 2022

GSA Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) Program

GSA Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) Program—Since 2012, over 200 Presidential Innovation Fellows have supported initiatives at more than 50 agencies, providing expert advice in specialized disciplines such as artificial intelligence, data strategy, product management, human-centered design, software development, and digital strategy. These efforts have enhanced agencies’ abilities to provide the best customer experience for their stakeholders and the public. The PIF program plans to celebrate the anniversary over the next year with activities to highlight the program’s impact and community since it launched. — via General Services Administration

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Aug 23, 2022

Measuring and Justifying the Government Experience

Measuring and Justifying the Government Experience—Private sector organizations use revenue as the primary measurement to justify improving experiences. Many government services don’t have revenue as a lever, so how can we justify work to improve experience? The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) leveraged a few metrics on their team that fall into three categories: laws and regulations, improving the experience for users, and saving time for employees. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue

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Aug 19, 2022

FedRAMP Launches OSCAL Developer Data Bites Series

FedRAMP Launches OSCAL Developer Data Bites Series&mndash;FedRAMP is excited to launch an Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) Developer Data Bites series! It will cover a variety of technical topics regarding users’ utilization of OSCAL for FedRAMP, FedRAMP automation updates or changes, and open forum conversations with subject matter experts. The first OSCAL Developers Data Bites session will be held on Thursday, September 1, at 12:00 pm, EDT. The series will continue on a bi-weekly basis. — via FedRAMP

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Aug 18, 2022

U.S. Department of Defense Releases First Departmentwide Social Media Policy

The DOD released a policy that for the first time spells out, from the highest levels of the defense community, how DOD military and civilian personnel should use official social media accounts to best advance the mission of the U.S. military and further instill trust in the credibility of the DOD.
Aug 15, 2022

Modernize Your Identity Management Process Through ILM

Modernize Your Identity Management Process Through ILM—GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy is pleased to announce the Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM) Playbook, designed for identity program managers, and enterprise and application architects interested in modernizing their identity management process for federal employees. This practical guide helps federal agencies understand how to shift their focus from managing employee access based on credentials to managing the lifecycle of identities as outlined in section III of OMB Memo 19-17. This will help agencies achieve an enterprise Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) system that is agile enough to support technology modernization and aligns with the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) architecture. — via General Services Administration

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Aug 12, 2022

White House and GSA Celebrate Record Years in Prize Competitions, Citizen Science Efforts

White House & GSA Celebrate Record Years in Prize Competitions, Citizen Science Efforts—On July 20, GSA’s Open Innovation Program and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) co-hosted the Open Innovation Forum in partnership with Digital.gov. The event was themed around building equitable partnerships and it celebrated OSTP’s biennial report to Congress that covers the federal government’s prize competitions, crowdsourcing and citizen science initiatives in fiscal years 2019 and 2020. — via General Services Administration

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Aug 03, 2022

Outreach

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Partner Toolkit

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recognizes the need for governments, states, territories, tribes, crisis centers, and partners to speak with one voice to ensure there is a clear understanding about what 988 is and how it will work. We encourage you to use these communication outreach materials and build upon them with your community coalitions to meet the needs of your specific audiences.
Jul 22, 2022
2022

Senior Executives Are the Allies Tech Teams Need, Part 1

Senior Executives Are the Allies Tech Teams Need, Part 1—Successfully delivering software in government requires people to work differently. Without clear answers for how to do this, well-intentioned executives and teams default to existing processes that risk undermining their own success. This is part one in a series on how to evolve that relationship. — via 18F

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Jul 20, 2022