Service Design (NZ0017)

Commitment 6: Service design Objective: To develop an assessment model to support implementation of the all-ofgovernment Digital Service Design Standard (the Standard) by public sector agencies (https://www.digital.govt.nz/home/digital-design-service-standard/). The Standard provides the design thinking to support the objective of New Zealanders being able to work collaboratively with government to shape the design of public services. Collaboratively designed services will be more trusted, accessible, integrated and inclusive. The assessment model provides the basis to assess and measure agencies’ performance against the Standard and it supports a mind-set and culture change, both at an individual agency maturity level and in terms of systemwide change. Ambition: People experience more responsive, open, citizen-centric and user-focused service delivery. Status quo: The Government Chief Digital Officer published a new Digital Service Design Standard in June 2018 (https://www.digital.govt.nz/standardsand-guidance/digital-service-design-standard/). The standard sets out principles with supporting guidance for the preferred tools, techniques and approaches to transition from an agency-centric perspective on service design to a more user-centric driven mode of delivery. Approach: The development of an assessment model is a critical foundation piece, ensuring agency up-take, and supporting individual agencies to meet the standard and to enable system-wide change in the design, development and delivery of public services. A suite of guidance and existing directives have been collated to demonstrate ways for agencies to meet the standard. A review of the current state in New Zealand, and the international environment, will be undertaken to provide assessment model options. This is a ‘living standard’ and it will continue to be updated and evolve over time as our understanding of the complexities involved in putting it into practice improves, and as our collective maturity increases. We will seek and foster ongoing stakeholder engagement to provide input to help refine and improve this standard Lead agencies: Government Chief Digital Officer – Department of Internal Affairs
Timeline: October 2018 – June 2020
Commitment 6: Service Design: Develop an assessment model to support
implementation of the all-of-government Digital Service Design Standard by
public sector agencies.
OGP Values Public Participation,
Technology and Innovation
Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfil
the commitment
Start date End date
Identify suitable assessment (conformance) models
for supporting agency uptake of the standard,
including options for assessment and measurement
of performance against the standard
August 2018 March 2019
Publication of preferred assessment model for
implementation
April 2019 June 2019
Public engagement on a refresh and review of the
Digital Service Design Standard
December
2019
June 2020

6. Service design [67]

Objective: “To develop an assessment model to support implementation of the all-of government Digital Service Design Standard (the Standard) [68] by public sector agencies. The Standard provides the design thinking to support the objective of New Zealanders being able to work collaboratively with government to shape the design of public services.”

Milestones:

1. “Identify suitable assessment (conformance) models for supporting agency uptake of the standard, including options for assessment and measurement of performance against the standard”;
2. “Publication of preferred assessment model for implementation”;
3. “Public engagement on a refresh and review of the Digital Service Design Standard”.

Start Date: October 2018

End Date: June 2020

Context and Objectives

The objective of this commitment is to develop an assessment model to support implementation of the government’s 2018 Digital Service Design Standard (the Standard), which is a “set of principles and guidance encouraging public sector agencies to transition to “a more user-centric driven mode of delivery”. [69] The commitment contributes to an issue publicly expressed, including at action plan workshops, that all-of-government services are not user-centred and often require knowledge of which agency is delivering the service they wish to use, [70] despite government’s extensive work to address this issue. [71]

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) seeks to measure whether agencies’ uptake of the Standard and subsequent performance meet the commitment’s ambition that people experience more responsive, open, citizen-centred, user-focused service delivery. This work meets the OGP’s access to information value and, following clarification from DIA that Milestones 1 and 3 engage with the public on the assessment model, the civic participation value. [72]

DIA will identify assessment and measurement models, publish the preferred model for agencies to implement and then engage with the public on implementation of the assessment model ahead of the refresh and review of the Standard. All the milestones are specific enough to verify following DIA’s clarification that Milestone 2 will implement the ‘preferred’ assessment model and about Milestone 3, as noted above. [73]

Many stakeholders are concerned that implementation of the Standard is not mandatory and recommend parallel work in this commitment to lead implementation of the Standard. [74] Otherwise they see no reason for assessment and measurement. Government advises that this assessment commitment is only one of the initiatives that will support the implementation of the standard though. [75] If the commitment is fully implemented as designed, and with parallel action to implement the Standard across the public sector, these assessments will indicate whether system change is taking place and whether more agencies are designing more “responsive, open, citizen-centric and user-focused” services. Without active parallel implementation of the Standard, only minor impact is likely as there will be no need to assess the agencies that chose not to adopt the Standard. [76]

Next steps

If this commitment is carried forward to the next action plan or if there are improvements to the implementation of this commitment, the IRM researcher recommends that:

• the title of this commitment is changed to “Digital service design” as this would replicate the language of the parent Digital Service Design Standard;
• there is parallel implementation of the Digital Service Design Standard in order to prepare for subsequent useful assessment and measurement.

The IRM researcher recommends that consideration of a commitment to engage with the public to evaluate whether government services are more responsive, open, citizen-centric and user-focused as a result of the Digital Service Design Standard and assessment model is fed into the development process for the next action plan.

6. Service design

Limited:

The assessment model to support agency uptake of the voluntary Digital Service Design Standard (DSDS) [64] and measure its performance was not developed because of DSDS issues. Consultations in 2019 with practitioners and potential users, [65] and pilots with government agencies in 2020, showed that “changes to the structure and language of the Standard need to happen because it is too long and onerous” and “the design principles don’t have measurable metrics.” [66] The conclusion that an assessment model could not be created was supported by the COVID-19 Tracer app team in the Ministry of Health (MOH), which created a tailored version of the DSDS for its own purposes in 2020. MOH reported that the current DSDS wasn’t implementable because it is too high level and overly “wordy.” [67] Agreement is now being reached on a two-stage approach to implementing the DSDS, including developing a minimum set of mandatory standards that will be monitored and enforced. Some stakeholders propose that this work include using New Zealand’s “Rules as Code” (i.e., digitising legislation) to improve digital service delivery, [68] as well as the NZ Government Web Accessibility Standard [69] and Principle 7 of the Digital Service Design Standard (Work in the Open). [70]