Image caption: Part of the user journey for a standard owner to develop a standard.
As a government department that builds digital products and websites, we have to meet a number of standards.
Some of these apply across government, for example, the Service Standard, Tech Code of Practice and Functional Standards, and some are specifically related to how we work in DfE.
These standard areas include things like security, performance, accessibility and data, and help to ensure consistency and quality to the digital products and websites we build. They also reduce risk and give the department a framework to measure compliance.
Anyone working directly – or indirectly – on a digital, tech or data project in DfE needs to be able to find, understand and apply relevant standards.
Why we are doing this work
We believe that if standards are easy to find and understand, teams and individuals will apply the right standard at the right time and in the right way. As a result, DfE products (which make up services) and websites will be compliant, and reduce the reputational and legal risks of non-compliance.
We are starting with finding, managing and applying standards. Later, we will work on how products and websites can report on compliance.
What we know so far
We have found standards relating to things like security, data protection, development tools and architecture stored in lots of different places in DfE. We also have user-centred design standards, these include user research and accessibility standards, which are stored in separate places.
There is no consistent place to find standards in DfE. They are all written in different ways, with different features and are applied at different times in the lifecycle of a product or service. We know it can be challenging for teams to find and apply standards at the right stage of delivery, which means that we have a lack of compliance and consistency.
It’s also challenging for standard owners to draft standards, when, for example, an owner may have an identified need for a standard but the form they are using (originally created for a tech standard – and works well for writing tech standards), doesn’t quite fit the user need. It is also not clear to standard owners where standards should ultimately be stored.
Where we've started
A group of design and architecture professions have come together to form a product team. This includes our Heads of Profession, business analysts, user researchers and content design. We will work together in this problem space and apply a collaborative and iterative approach.
Identified business requirement and user groups
Taking the business requirement of making sure that, as a department, we are compliant with government and DfE standards, we have identified 3 main user groups for standards.
Standard owners
Standard owners identify the need for a standard, or standards across the department. They are likely to be a lead role or Head of Profession.
Standard owners draft and submit standards for approval to the standards forum. They also publish standards in the Standards manual.
Standards forum
Members of the standards forum review and approve or reject standards. They assess whether standards are written clearly and can be understood. They will also ensure standards are seamlessly integrated across all aspects of digital, data and technology in DfE.
The forum will periodically review existing standards and exceptions. It is made up of Heads of Profession, Leads, Deputy Directors and representatives from the Service Health Check App.
Users of standards
Users of standards across DfE need to be able to find, understand and apply relevant standards.
We are working with standard owners across all professions to understand:
- what they need when drafting a standard
- who they consult with when drafting
- how standards are currently reviewed
- where standards are currently published
We considered the work done and research from the Service Health Check App (an internal project for reporting compliance) and proofs-of-concept on technical standards, which showed us that standards need to be presented clearly to enable them to be used. We will build on this in research with standard owners when we look at how standards are drafted, reviewed and published.
What we’re doing now
Looking across current standards that exist, we are:
- exploring how standard owners draft and submit standards for review
- looking at the categorisation and grouping of standards
- journey mapping how standards are reviewed by a standards forum, to be approved or rejected
- designing a single source of truth for standards to be published, found and shared with service teams
Next steps will also include looking at the review and approval or reject process, before a standard is ready to publish.