VICTORIA

TR

EA

SU

RY

AN

D F

INA

NC

E

CODE FOR VICTORIACase Study

In 2016, three teams of three technologists were paired with three Victorian government agencies and departments. Tasked with solving civic problems with technology, they worked for six months to create change through innovation.

PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION

IntroductionDigital transformation is driving some of the biggest changes we are experiencing in society.

Code for Australia believes that governments can capitalise on the opportunities digital transformation presents, and work together with the public to find new solutions to old problems.

The Code for Victoria program was an initiative funded by the Public Sector Innovation Fund and run by Code for Australia that created opportunities for ordinary citizens to use their skills to help improve Australian society, and transform government from the inside out.

Victorian Government departments and agencies were invited to nominate technology-based challenges. Three of these departments were then paired with a team of technologists for six months to tackle the challenges collaboratively.

The Department of Treasury of Finance (DTF) was one of the three departments chosen by Special Minister of State, Gavin Jennings and in August 2016 was paired up with technology fellows, Ken Mok, Benjamin Minerds and Elmer Ibayan.

Over 26 weeks and 10 sprint cycles, the team worked with DTF to find, manage and communicate data in relation to public construction and infrastructure procurement.

This is the journey of what they discovered, what they created and most importantly what was learned along the way.

1

PAGE 2 THE CHALLENGE

2

Victoria’s infrastructure investment is increasing.

The Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) identified that the lack of consolidated data of supplier performance related to public construction and infrastructure hindered its use to inform future procurements, to assist government interpret data to understand trends and to improve oversight. This was considered important as Victoria’s infrastructure investment is substantially increasing,

growing from an average of $5.2 billion per year over the previous 7 years, to around $7.4 billion per year from 2016-17 onwards. Paul Humphreys, an analyst working in the Construction Supplier Register was tasked with maintaining the current manually intensive system. Data was time-consuming to enter and extract, limiting its effectiveness as a tool to inform policy development, and to inform decision-making of Ministers, senior executives, and others. It was clear innovation was needed, yet there was no defined path ahead, so when Paul asked if he could submit an application in the first round of the Code for Victoria Innovation Challenge, DTF approval was readily given.

Discovery: diving into a sea of data

While the fellows initially tasked with the challenge of creating measures of supplier performance and contract management, through their discovery process, they quickly discovered a bigger problem. Ben Minerds explains that this was in “the underlying transfer of data in government” - a challenge that would have to be solved before approaching the reporting on that data.

Because the structure of the Code for Victoria program allowed for a discovery period, the team was able to pivot their attention, and reframe the challenge in a new light: how might we improve the accessibility of contract and supplier data so that supplier performance reporting could be carried out.

PAGE 3 TRANSFORMATION

“It was amazing to see what the fellows could accomplish... Not what someone might be able to do, but what can be achieved in a space of time with a good environment and good people working on it together. ”

- Paul Humphreys

Speed of InnovationThe speed at which the fellows

worked demonstrated some of the benefits of agile project management

Feedback CycleThe fellows used an iterative

approach to constantly engage DTF in the design of the solution

Questioning AssumptionsInducting fellows lead to DTF answering

questions which revealed hidden assumptions.

3

Using agile methods and with a focus on user-centred design, the fellows worked collaboratively with the DTF team on skills and knowledge transfer.

Speed of Innovation

The fellows were able to quickly produce prototypes and mock-ups of their work which served as a baseline to gather feedback and iterate upon. Because fellows work in the open, they shared their work freely despite it only being in its early stages.

Feedback Cycles

The fellows used Open Houses, or showcases, where they opened their work up to the department every couple of weeks to show their progress, and to seek and collate feedback. This allowed the fellows to make small shifts in their direction. The constant reassessment and evaluation by the fellows and the DTF team meant the product never veered away from the ultimate goal of being relevant to its users. The process also demonstrated the benefits of working collaboratively, where team members are involved in the decision making process.

Questioning Assumptions

The process of inducting the fellows into DTF meant a lot of questions were asked of the department which challenged some of the ways they thought about their processes and desired outcomes. As Ken Mok put it, “asking stupid questions and insisting on clear answers helped to define what their challenges were.

PAGE 4 SPEEDBUMPS

4

No challenge is without its hurdles: here’s how empathy helped the team overcome the obstacles they faced.

Lessons learned by the fellows...

Fellow, Ben Minerds, says it best: “We were a very expres-sive and vibrant team and it was a reasonably quiet and toned down workspace so there was a little bit of adjusting for us, and a little bit of adjusting ourselves to the culture.”

Cultural adjustments

Classifications on information meant that getting access to data, people and tools was slow for the fellows. Perseverance and learning how to navigate the bureaucracy proved useful in these situations.

Information access

Ben Minerds: engaging content makes production & consumption more enjoyable, internal motivation is incredibly important and the MVP payoff in about the first month is priceless.

Ken Mok: Most problems will be people problems not tech problems. Throwing tech at it often makes it worse. Be an active listener, talk to every-one, be humble, be naive, ask stupid questions.

Elmer Ibayan: Be patient in dealing with people and persevere in achieving the goal that your team agreed on, every step of the way.

PAGE 5 THE OUTCOMES

5

What the team achieved in twenty-six short weeks.

The technology itselfThe fellows successfully built a functioning prototype that automatically collects information from published government contracts. The tool then displays the data in a format that’s easy to view, search, download, and most importantly, analyse.  

New ways of thinkingThe fellows adopted a user-centred design approach to their work and used AGILE methodologies to progress through the challenge. Through being embedded in the department, and actively involving DTF in the design process, DTF picked up new ways of defining problems, breaking down work tasks and collaborating.

Creating empathy with fellowsThe program also provided a unique opportunity for the fellows to understand the nitty gritty of the public sector, and to build empathy for the government. For Ken, the dedication of people blew him away: “Everyone cared in their own way - I never met anyone who I thought was just there for a job.” While Ben, who’d been active in the Open Data movement for a number of years, gained an appreciation of government policies and processes. “Seeing it from the other side really opened my eyes to why it sometimes does take so long.”

6 months, 10 sprint cycles and 17 interviews later...

The program succeeded in providing a prototype that demonstrated that issues identified in the challenge can be solved, exposed the team to new ways of learning and gave the fellows a unique learning opportunity.

PAGE 6 THE ROAD AHEAD

6

“Change only happens when ordinary people, from all walks of life, get together and make change. When we, as talented citizens, roll up our sleeves and put to practice our democracy.

- Alvaro Maz

Created by Code for Australia

codeforaustralia.orginfo@codeforaustralia.org

To find out how Code for Australia Fellowships are tackling other public sector challenges, head to:

codeforaustralia.org