Announcing the Digital Service Network’s Government Digital Service Team Tracker
When done well, digital government services can create more accessible pathways to resources, promote greater uptake of essential programs, and foster greater trust in government.
Government digital service teams (DSTs) help facilitate the digital transformation of essential government experiences, and their proliferation across U.S. governments over the last decade prompts a critical conversation about how these teams are funded and layered into existing organizational structures.
To better investigate the ever-increasing number of U.S.-based government DSTs and their varied structures, the Digital Service Network (DSN) is excited to launch its Digital Service Team Tracker.
The DST Tracker is the product of collaboration with our Chief Digital Service Officer community of practice and a team of University of North Carolina Master’s of Public Administration students—Brianna Beadle, Keegan Huynh, Thomas Johnson, and Ian Wheeler. It is maintained by the DSN through independent desk research and direct intake and validation from DST staff across the country.
Defining DSTs
The DSN defines government DSTs as in-house teams of digital practitioners with:
- Expertise in, at minimum, user-centered research and design, agile product management, and data-driven decision making. Many DST practitioners also have experience in digital government policy, change management, cybersecurity, and/or cloud-based solutions.
- A mandate to create and improve, and/or help other government actors create and improve, public-facing online government experiences.
Though broadly similar in their missions and methodologies, DST structures and funding mechanisms can be as diverse as the needs of the constituents they serve. DSTs can be centralized, supporting government-wide priorities; decentralized, supporting agencies across a government as an internal “consultant” of sorts; or agency-specific, designed to serve the needs of the particular agency in which they are embedded. They might be fully-funded or operate on a cost-recovery model.
Scholarly research on DSTs suggests that governance structure and resourcing strongly influence the impact of these teams’ efforts. DST practitioners identify factors like partisan support, funding mechanisms, and policy mandates as determinants of their teams’ size, priorities, and longevity.
Tracking U.S.-based government DSTs
The tracker is a living database for those seeking to understand and explore:
- Where and at what level of government current and disbanded DSTs are/were located across the U.S.;
- How U.S.-based DSTs are/were enabled, structured, and funded; and
- Primary documentation and examples from U.S.-based DSTs.
The tracker will be maintained in conjunction with the DSN’s Digital Transformation Policy Scan, allowing users to explore digital policies and teams as they emerge across the country.
Capture your team’s information in the DSN’s Digital Service Team Tracker
Constituent needs and expectations are evolving to digital products and on-demand service delivery. Although decades of outsourced information technology services have undermined in-house government capabilities and public trust, DSTs are an alternative approach to reinvigorating both.
Publishing otherwise internal information about DSTs in the tracker will reduce barriers for new and emerging teams by making various approaches to structuring and funding government DSTs more available and accessible.
If you would like to see your DST’s information captured and verified alongside others in the field, fill out our DST Tracker intake form.
Have questions or ideas? Connect with the DSN at digitalservicenetwork@georgetown.edu.
We look forward to growing this database with your support and collaboration.
__________________
References:
Mergel, 2017. Digital Service Teams: Challenges and Recommendations for Government.
Clarke, 2019. Digital government units: what are they, and what do they mean for digital era public management renewal?