Final Report of the Fellowship
Well, here we are again, sitting down for a chat about digitalising paper processes in government. Thank you for joining me again.
We are now at the end of our Fellowship between Code for Australia and VicRoads.
This is partially a status article on where we got to in our fellowship work: the design and creation of a digital service instead of a paper process, for Roadworthy Certificates in Victoria — and partly, unavoidably, my personal feelings and experiences of the fellowship. So by no means is this an official release document of a polished piece of software but more of a general chat from one Fellow to you.
Our goal at the beginning, echoed well by our hosts, was to create a prototype or proof of concept. It was also acceptable for our hosts and surrounding team to even just learn of a new way of working — being ‘out in the open’ and ‘agile’. It was low pressure. It was perfect. It allowed us to aim for something doable within 6 months; the first two months of that being research. We knew we could fulfil at least the baseline ‘working differently’ goal, and were confident we could get a prototype, a kind of sales-piece perhaps, for the department to buy into the creation of the real thing.
Because, partially, we had a very clear, focused problem to solve, and also we had what felt like the full support of our government hosts, we found that by month 3 we had progressed quickly. Coding had begun at the beginning of 2018, and we had an interactive piece up within a few weeks. At around this point, discussions started coming up regarding, “do you want to aim to get something testable and useable in the field?”, “do you think you could just focus on this one certificate process and give us something we can really use?” — I think those were the kinds of questions being asked. It was left open to us to decide if this was feasible and we started discussions with the IT team.
Long story short, we decided to go for it and make something approximately MVP to test in the wild — something that could be used to issue real, legal Roadworthy Certificates and Test Reports (what you get if your vehicle fails the examination) by actual licensed vehicle testers, during a limited trial. This means our software is going to be live, used by select people, given thorough road-testing (haha) in a variety of mechanic stations, and maintained and improved by the IT department here.
Although that’s a short simple paragraph it is actually a major success. It’s further than we were expected to go within this 6-month Fellowship, and gratifying to see something we created actually going live within the time we are here.
As I write there are a little over two weeks left to go, and as I think I’ll be creating some fun instructional posters and guides and other wrap-up, I’m writing this ‘end-report’ early. But the main things you can take away from this is:
- We created a ‘proof of concept’ that will be used to create real, legal roadworthy certificates during a short trial period. It will also gather feedback to inform the full featured product.
- We contributed to the culture and uniting the area of business we were embedded in, sharing new ways of working and a common-goal project that everyone has been invested in.
- We learnt a lot about processes surrounding vehicle safety, registration and licensing in Victoria. I also went through the roadworthy and vehicle transfer process with my own car. Hands-on service journey research!
Also I think it is important to highlight how much I learnt from the other fellows. Service design and sustainable design, thorough critiquing of designs, accessibility, licensing, emotional stability and strategies to move through the fellowship, shared experiences of the design, development, and interactions with government, among so much more. The fellows are some of the most wonderful resources that you have as a fellow yourself. They are in the same position; and connecting with previous fellows who have come through this already and survived was incredibly valuable.
I also had the unique experience of being offered a temporary home by my teammate fellow while I was house-hunting, for which I am eternally grateful. The fellows have gone above and beyond in so many ways that I have not experienced in other workplaces. The level of differences and hard-to-wrangle independence the fellows have has been really cool to be a part of, and created interesting friction and better ideas and solutions.
The fellows, I can’t say this enough, the fellows are part of what brings you out of the box of government, the people who will talk you through it if you’re lying on the floor in some level of existential angst, the people who weekly come together and eat and share ideas or their presence.
Forgive my cliches and emotional gushing but they’re just the lifesavers and support you need in this job.
Code for Australia itself has been the most supportive, open, trusting organisation I’ve been a part of. I think I can see why new fellows are brought into new projects, as Alvaro said in a blog post once, the naivety of going about your business in government like there’s no problems and no walls is such a strength. I think this changes over the fellowship, awareness of boundaries reinforces boundaries; awareness of protocol and bureaucracy has changed the way I think about what is possible. Not that you can be innocent of processes forever — and we are still apparently working very differently to long-time employees. It’s always hard to see this from the inside.
Grace asked for this blog post as part of a status report on just where we are finishing up with regarding our digital solution, so I hope that this conveys, alongside the emotional wandering, a success which makes this project case-study-worthy apparently: a usable testable digital product for making roadworthy certificates, which can be extended to cover other vehicle safety schemes. It’s going to be replicable, scaleable, and functional.
I think I can say we are proud of it.
