Action Items by Chapter
| Chapter | Action Items |
|---|---|
| User Centred Data Management | 1. Publish a ‘data standard’ that puts user centred approaches at the heart of the municipality’s data work 2. Publish and maintain a ‘user-centred data management manual’ that includes guidance and best practices for teams across the municipality 3. Publish data stories on the [CITY] website 4. Create a programme of user-centred data management training for key staff |
| Leadership | 1. Appoint a Chief Data Officer (CDO) 2. Create a data council 3. Create a data working group 4. Include data in the performance review process for senior leaders 5. Develop data training for senior leaders |
| Mission-Driven Development | 1. Choose three Sustainable Development Goals to test the approach of mission-led implementation 2. Create separate multidisciplinary teams, each with a single, empowered product owner 3. Regularly report to the Chief Data Officer and Data Council with progress and blockers |
| Data as a Common Resource | 1. Publish a foundational data catalogue, starting with the top 25 datasets 2. Design and test a single process adopting open standards for data and identifiers 3. Conduct assessment of the municipality’s current data infrastructure 4. Define the responsibilities of a data custodian to support transversal outcomes 5. Design and test a single process for departments to request access to data from other departments 6. Develop a plan to move towards the safe implementation of the ‘once-only principle’ 7. Assess all new data projects and procurement of data tools against the data standard 8. Appoint a Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) specialist placed at the CDataO team |
| Data Driven Services | 1. Publish public data on service performance, ensuring transparency and accountability in municipal operations 2. Develop a central forms platform to allow departments to collect and manage data digitally, replacing inefficient manual processes 3. Create and maintain a list of APIs that provide structured access to city service data, enabling interoperability and better service integration |
| Privacy and Data Localisation | 1. Develop a protocol to categorise data by level of privacy risk 2. Set standards for consent, opt-out, and data destruction and incorporate into a data policy 3. CDataO appoints roles responsible for overseeing privacy and sovereignty issues |
| Procurement, Capability and Skills | 1. Conduct a city-wide data capability assessment and repeat it every 18 months 2. Create or update role descriptions for key data roles 3. Design and test a data training course for city staff 4. Design and test an agile delivery training course for city staff 5. Develop an assessment framework to evaluate when to build in-house data tools or host open-source data tools versus when to procure commodity tools from commercial vendors 6. Establish a governance process for technology decisions that balances city-wide strategy with departmental service delivery needs |
| Ways of Working | 1. Adopt agile frameworks across all data-related teams in the city 2. Create a role description for key product management and agile delivery roles 3. Publish a data manual with actionable standards for data-driven project delivery 4. Create a community of practice and hold regular open showcases of the city’s data work 5. Review and streamline city policies to eliminate inefficiencies in data project delivery 6. Implement a user engagement strategy for data-related initiatives 7. Shift from project-based to product-based management for technology related projects 8. Introduce weeknotes across all data-related teams for transparency and collaboration 9. Establish public roadmaps for data projects and services 10. Facilitate regular cross-departmental feedback sessions to ensure continuous improvement |
| Measuring the Impact of this Strategy | 1. Develop success criteria and other data points for measuring strategy implementation 2. Publish a data strategy dashboard on the [CITY] website 3. Publish a roadmap for the data strategy 4. Establish a regular reporting schedule for impact assessments and maturity evaluations |
Appendix A. Example Roadmap
Appendix B. Guidance for User Interviews
Government stakeholders and data owners can leverage data user interviews to launch user research processes whenever time and resources allow. Interviews can be semi-structured and low-cost to conduct. In certain cases, for example when interviewing community members for their feedback as potential data users, it is appropriate to offer stipends for their participation.
At the start of user interviews, it’s best to provide stakeholders with information about how information from the interviews will be used and whether it will be shared with people outside of the user research process. This can help to build trust and ensure frank and helpful responses to interview questions. Also, it can be helpful to give stakeholders an overview of the research questions that data owners are seeking to address with their user research interviews (for example, “How do people seek information about healthy food sources in our city?”)
During interviews, it can be helpful to have two people available to support the interview process; one person to ask questions, and one person to take notes. Interviews can strictly follow an interview guide, or can include some unscripted follow-up questions that may add detail to the responses provided. Questions should generally pertain directly to the core research questions or themes of the user research process.
Following interviews, data owners and teams should collaborate to document and synthesise insights. Often, the best insights are contextualised and turned into potential solutions through collaborative conversations among stakeholders. Interview insights can be anonymised before synthesis workshops to ensure that data users are protected from undue backlash for their feedback.
Once insights are synthesised and tagged or categorised by major themes, teams can collaborate to ideate around potential solutions that address the major categories of challenges. These ideas for potential solutions can respond directly to data users’ requests, or can include more creative interpretations of what data users’ communicated as challenges in their responses. Often, data users’ who have challenges with data request certain solutions because these options are the only ones they are aware of, but stakeholders involved in ideation may have insight into other potential solutions that can more aptly address data users’ concerns.
Common Terms and Acronyms
Common Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agile | An iterative project management methodology that breaks down work into smaller phases called sprints in order to deliver software quickly and adapt to changing requirements. |
| Data Equity | The principles and practices that ensure fair treatment, equality of opportunity, and access to information and resources for individuals in data-related projects. |
| Data Governance | A framework for ensuring data quality, data security and privacy, and data accessibility. |
| Data Stewards | Subject experts with a thorough understanding of a particular data set. |
| Data Custodians | Responsible for implementing and maintaining security controls for a given dataset in order to meet the requirements specified by the Data Owner. |
| Data Localisation | The practice of keeping data within the region or country it originated from. |
| Data Owners | The person accountable for the classification, protection, use, and quality of one or more data sets within an organisation. |
| Data Protection | The practice of safeguarding personal data and sensitive information. |
| Data Visualisation | The graphical representation of information and data. |
| Digital Public Infrastructure | The shared digital capabilities needed to participate in society and markets. |
| Interoperability | Frameworks which allow seamless data integration across systems. |
| Product Management | A role within organisations which is responsible for planning, developing, launching, and managing a product or service. |
| Once-Only Principle | A principle in which governments aim to reduce the amount of information citizens need to provide to public authorities. |
| Open Data | Data that are accessible and freely used by anyone. |
| Roadmap | A tool used to show a product/service will evolve over time - over months, quarters and years. |
| User Centred Design | A methodology and practice which allows teams to design data tools and platforms that meet users’ needs. |
| Weeknotes | A concise way to document your team’s progress, share updates, and communicate next steps to stakeholders or team members. |
Acronyms and Abbreviations
- API - Application Programming Interface
- CDataO - Chief Data Officer
- CIPS - Companies and Intellectual Property Commission
- DSI - Department of Science and Innovation
- DWG - Data Working Group
- FAIR Principles - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable
- GESI - Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion
- HPCDPC - High Performance Computing and Data Processing Centre
- KPI - Key Performance Indicator
- NIPMO - National Intellectual Property Management Office
- POPIA - Protection of Personal Information Act
- RIHA - Estonia’s Riigi infosüsteemi haldussüsteem (Administration system for the state information system)