The Ministry of Public Administration partnered with the National Training Agency to source young, tech-savvy software developers, including tertiary level students, who serve as software developers for this project. On July 21, 2015 the Diamond Division held its first iNter@CT Conference themed “Technology Adoption and Innovation in the Public Sector”. At this conference, the Diamond Buzz project was introduced to clients. iNter@CT was supported by the private sector and public sector partners including Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI), Microsoft, F1RST and the National ICT Company.

CARIRI and Microsoft then co-hosted a series of workshops at the Microsoft Innovation Centre for services participating in the TTDS programme. These workshops focused on generating ideas for introducing technology into service operations and using social, mobile and other collaborative technologies to deliver better services to citizens. At these workshops, Diamond Buzz software developers were also paired up with TTDS participants to work on solutions that will address the technology gaps identified.

The launch saw executives and senior managers across the public sector, coming together to share technology and innovation ideas and benefit from each other’s experiences in technology adoption. The Ministry of Public Administration also promoted its new online networking-based interactive Community of Practice forum which is used by TTDS participants to sustain conversations around public service modernization efforts. The Diamond Buzz project presents an incremental approach to technology adoption by government in order to meet increasing demands by citizens for easier ways of doing business with the public sector.

The project offers three services to TTDS clients: The Diamond Buzz project starts during the service improvement phase of the Diamond Standard Programme where ‘diagnostics tools’ are applied to evaluate project ideas. Approved technology ideas are developed and implemented as part of a suite of selected corrective improvements. Ninety three (93) public officers participated in the innovation workshops that were designed to build innovation capacity on how to apply technology to deliver modern services. They used the training to identify, develop, evaluate and approve ideas. Thirteen ideas that met the Diamond Buzz criteria were scheduled for development over the course of one year.

We introduced the Diamond Buzz project to our clients at the launch of our community of practice branded as iNter@ct. Ninety three (93) public officers participated in the innovation workshops that were designed to build innovation capacity on how to apply technology to deliver modern services. They used the training to identify, develop, evaluate and approve ideas. Thirteen ideas that met the Diamond Buzz criteria were scheduled for development over the course of one year. The Diamond Buzz project presents an incremental approach to technology adoption by government. The project starts during the service improvement phase of TTDS where diagnostics tools are applied to evaluate project ideas.

Approved technology ideas are developed and implemented as part of a suite of selected corrective improvements.

1. The developed idea is further evaluated by larger TTDS project teams to determine feasibility.

2. The executive management approves a Project Charter submitted to the Ministry of Public Administration.

3. The idea is evaluated by Diamond Buzz to ensure it meets selection criteria i.e. citizen impact, competency fit, approved funding, counterpart support availability and implementation feasibility.

4. Confirmed projects are developed in collaboration with the client’s IT department and TTDS project team.

The Ministry of Public Administration partnered with private sector, public sector and quasi organizations to deliver a fresh interesting look into ICT practices across sectors. We hosted an interactive ‘service innovation’ workshop that employed the Medici Effect framework to identify technology ideas. We leveraged our strategic alliance with the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) to develop a unique service innovation workshop targeting common technological gaps in the public service. More than ninety (90) public officers were trained. Technology workshops were held in partnership with Microsoft Trinidad Limited and CARIRI. Teams evaluated their ideas and revised them based on feedback from public officers from other organisations. Diamond Buzz offered postconference support from CARIRI and from the Microsoft Innovation Centre to all TTDS services. Teams also utilised the community of practice branded as iNter@CT to discuss their projects and general TTDS topics.

The Trinidad and Tobago Diamond Standards (TTDS) framework encourages services to directly engage their customers through focus groups, surveys and user panels. Many teams developed ideas based on feedback received from users during their customer research phase. Teams collaborate across ministries to refine their ideas projects are initiated. During the project phase as ideas are developed they are tested with the users through the user panels. More than 100 users of the water taxi service provided ideas for a proposed e-ticketing system. A User Experience test was developed for the Scholarships and Advanced Training Division calculator project which was tested by scholars. Students at the Tobago Information Technology Limited Company will be engaged to test the online registration system before it is launched. Using the Diamond Buzz approach has increased public participation in government decisions about technology that affects users.

The goal of Diamond Buzz is to provide a structured environment to foster ICT development in collaboration with the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago in addressing identified operational challenges within government. The Diamond Buzz approach has six main objectives that will support the project outcome. In fact, the team has already met most of its objectives:

• To create ICT solutions for public services and their users

• To help gather requirements for complex projects

• To help develop ICT skills amongst young citizens

• To identify existing technologies within organizations that can meet their needs

• To drive a user/citizen centric approach to public service delivery

The Diamond Buzz project is now two years old and a thorough project evaluation will take place. However we have received more request for the services of the Diamond Buzz and the project has been endorsed by the executive.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

1. There is s need for stronger technical teams working on the projects. Team members with diverse technical experience and background will improve quality of solutions and project delivery timeframes.

2. Lack of counterpart support in client agencies. Actions are being taken to strengthen integration and partnerships with client agencies.

3. Need stronger partnership with Universities. Partnerships with universities will help to get more young coders involved.

4. Reliability and adaptability. Solutions can be adapted for re-use across a variety of government services

Leadership commitment - executive and ministerial support must be provided across the lifetime of the initiative. This will ensure that the initiative is a clear strategic priority for the ministry and the government. Service delivery improvement policy is currently in draft form and speaks to the use of ICT to improve service delivery in the public sector. Additional staff needed at the operational level to execute with defined skillsets and expertise/competencies identified.

We have discovered that several projects attempt to address similar issues e.g. customer feedback management, website upgrades and multi-channel access options. Public organisations have the same ICT gaps especially with respect to citizen access and responsiveness. There are opportunities for several of the projects to be created as blank templates for quick replication in the future. Each project includes a phase for the creation of documentation for IT personnel to be able to manage the solution after it is handed over by the Diamond Buzz team. We also noted that the calculator created for the Scholarship service can be replicated with minor modification to the Government Assistance for Tertiary Education (GATE) service as they also require nationals accessing tertiary education funding to work in Trinidad and Tobago for a stipulated number of years. This model can also be replicated across jurisdictions and even has potential for applicability to the non-governmental sector.

Many lessons have been learnt in the seven months since the Diamond Buzz team first teamed up with services at the service innovation workshop. The team added more structure to its processes by revising the project charter template for greater clarity and made a decision to provide greater support in the development of project management documentation. Criteria for the selection of projects were developed – direct user impact, available budget, available skillsets and support. This helped the team decide which projects could be given priority. We think it also exposed services to place greater priority on simplifying life for their customers as opposed to internal stakeholders. Initial projects highlighted a need for greater technical oversight and steps have been taken to meet this need. At the end of the day, we really want citizens of our nation to be able to complete transactions feeling satisfied.

FUTURE OF THE DIAMOND BUZZ In the immediate future, we envision that the work of the Diamond Buzz project will focus on: - Developing solutions to solve public sector problems - Harnessing open data sets to deliver public value - Adapting successful past projects for replicability and scalability across the public sector - Partnering with universities and other academic bodies for future work