Handbook by 18F designed for executives, budget specialists, legislators, and other “non-technical” decision-makers who fund or oversee state government technology projects that receive federal funding and implement the necessary technology to support federal programs. It aids in setting projects up for success by asking the right questions, identifying the right outcomes, and equally important, empowering decision-makers with a basic knowledge of the fundamental principles of modern software design.
Government solicitations to procure custom software are often long, complicated, and take months. By using 18F’s agile contract format, agencies can hire an agile software contractor with a quickly-written dozen-page solicitation, allowing for immense savings in time and money.
It is frequently assumed that when rules are implemented as code, a rules engine is necessary. However, it is possible for policy people and engineers to effectively work together to code logic that drives technological system without needing a mediating rules engine at all.
In this blog post, we’ve detailed some of the steps we take to help capture the best data possible when conducting interviews. This post is intended as a guide for people who need to conduct user interviews and for people simply curious about how we work.
Sheev Davé, Product Manager at Notify.gov (GSA), provides an overview of what makes an effective multilingual translation through the principles of designing tools that have the ability to have conversations, meeting communities where they are, use of plain language and prioritize tricky topics, key life events and using trusted delivery sources.