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Skills Wiki for New Government Hires
Tech in Government

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Software Development and Tech Modernization

This section includes resources for developing products and modernizing technology.
TOP RECOMMENDATION:
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USDS’s Digital Services Playbook
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(US Digital Service) A playbook of 13 key digital service delivery “plays,” drawing on private sector and government successes.
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Digital.gov Guides and Resources
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(General Services Administration) How-to guides for product managers in government.
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Directory of Services, Tools, and Teams
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(General Services Administration) A directory of tools and services available to help federal agencies with tech modernization, maintained by the General Services Administration. Includes descriptions and points of contact for each tool or service.

Resources for Product/Project Managers

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Guide to Robotic Process Automation
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(General Services Administration) A guide to automating repetitive business processes without writing code.
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18F Federal Field Guide
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(18F) A guide for federal agencies on how to budget for, procure, and oversee software development projects to reduce risk and wasteful spending, support teams effectively, and improve outcomes for end users.
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Three Ways to Manage Research Projects Remotely
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(18F) A blog post listing ideas for coordinating research among a remote team.
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18F Product Guide
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(18F) A guide for product managers on understanding their role in the context of government versus industry.
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Basics of Scrum, Part I
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and
Part II
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(General Services Administration) A 2-part series of workshops on the foundations of Scrum, a framework used to help teams iterate and adapt solutions to complex problems. Topics include the Agile Dev Model, Scrum Process Framework, Product Backlog and Product Owner, User Stories, and Scrum Team.
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Intro to Kanban, Part I
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and
Part II
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(General Services Administration) A series of workshops on the foundations of Kanban, a project management method that breaks processes into “flows.”
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Agile Principles and 18F Practices
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(18F) A guide to the Agile approach to software development, including reaching out to potential users; deconstructing large projects into much smaller, lower-risk pieces; and empowering developer teams to respond to evolving requirements.
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Is Your Project Using “Agilefall”?
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(18F) A series of questions to help teams determine whether they are adhering to Agile software development methods.
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The Foundations of Agile, Part I
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and
Part II
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(General Services Administration) A series of workshops on the foundations of Agile software development methods for government teams.
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18F Glossary of Agile Lexicon
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(18F) A list of the common terms used in Agile software development practices.

Resources for Software Developers

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Engineering Practices Guide
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(18F) The Technology Transformation Service’s Engineering Practices Guide to best practices and resources for software development. Focuses on cloud-native digital services.
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Unit Tests in Drupal
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(CivicActions) [Non-government] Tips on test-driven development for building cleaner, faster code.

GAP ANALYSIS:
In general, we found the most resources on building technology in government, which is a testament to the open-source, shared-learning ethos of civic tech. Several groups (such as
18F
⁠
,
Digital.gov
⁠
, the
US Digital Service
⁠
, and the
Technology Transformation Service
⁠
) have put together comprehensive websites on key aspects of the digital service delivery process. We could not immediately identify any gaps in the existing resources, and hope that they continue to grow as new technologies and techniques are incorporated.

Previous page:
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Design
This section includes a wealth of resources on the design of digital services, from scoping and building products from scratch to improving customer experience with existing products.
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⁠

Next page:
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Civic Tech: Miscellaneous Readings
This section provides other helpful readings on building civic technology, from overviews of the field to best practices from current and former leaders. None of the below are official government resources.
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