Today, we’re pleased to be able to announce the new Technology Code of Practice. Departments will use this Code to design, build and buy technology that meets user needs.
As of today, all government technology services that need Cabinet Office approval will be measured against this new standard. This includes all the technology that allows civil servants to do their jobs, from desktop and mobile devices to the networks that departments use.
Using the Code to assess technology plans is one of the main ways that we’ll continue to drive reform of government technology.
We did it together
Over the past few months, we’ve been updating the Technology Code of Practice. The Code sets the standard for how government should design, build and buy technology, and is used by our Standards Assurance team to assess departments’ technology plans.
We’ve been as open as possible about our plans for the new Code. We’ve published two separate drafts for public review, and the feedback we received from government departments, the tech industry and other interested parties has been a huge help. We couldn’t have come up with something we’re this proud of without all your involvement!
We hope the open approach we’ve taken, developing policy in public and not being afraid to admit where we need help, will set a standard for policy development in the future.
What next?
One of the interesting outcomes of writing the new Code is that it’s highlighted some issues where we think our existing guidance isn’t clear enough, or doesn’t go far enough. There are a couple of areas where we think we can and should do more, and they are:
- more guidance on cloud adoption, to supplement the cloud first policy
- guidance on how to use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which will be a key component of the cross-government services we want to see
We’ve already started looking at these issues to work out how we can help. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you about them. Comment below or email us and tell us your thoughts.