End of Commitment Report – Ongoing redesign of the digital media systems to improve or optimize citizen experience and browsability.

Name of Evaluator

Manuela Rossi

Email

mrossi@iie.bolsacba.com.ar

Member Name

Córdoba (Ciudad), Argentina

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... Title

Action plan – Córdoba (City), Argentina, 2021 – 2023

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Ongoing redesign of the digital media systems to improve or optimize citizen experience and browsability.

Action

The commitment aims to make a continuous improvement of the digital system of the Municipality of Cordoba, focusing on the digital services frequently visited by citizens. In order to achieve this, we work with an iterative methodology in which hypotheses are raised about the difficulties that people have when accessing a digital service. That hypothesis is validated with available data and a way of improving the platform /tool that supports the technological service is proposed. The solution is developed and applied under a solution that adds value to the citizen. A new hypothesis is generated again and an improvement opportunity is identified. In this way, we try to generate short-term impacts in terms of the accessibility to services by citizens and an improvement in user satisfaction.

Problem

The citizens of the City of Córdoba have great difficulty accessing the services or public goods offered. In the vast majority of cases, this difficulty is due to the lack of information or the lack of clarity provided by the Municipality of Córdoba. Likewise, it is observed that citizens have difficulties interpreting and self-manage the different digital services offered.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Progress has been made in the implementation of the 3 milestones of the commitment, which have been successfully completed as of the date of the report.

• The first milestone was successfully completed, with the purpose of creating management data dashboards for the citizen. It was made available on the Transparent City Portal from the Digital TransformationGovernments are working to increase access to and quality of government services, improve transparency, and create opportunities for participation by using information and communications technologies.... More Observatory.
• The second milestone was also successfully reached. In this sense, 12 development and implementation actions were developed with the aim of improving usability and user experience in the use of platforms and the digital ecosystem.
• The third milestone was also successfully reached since it was redesigned with the aim of optimizing the platform’s navigability and improving the user experience.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Digital Transformation Observatory
• Links on 2nd Milestone
• Tax Portal of the Municipality of Córdoba
• Cordoba.gov.ar 

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

• Milestone 1:
  External factors: for the publication of data boards in the Observatory of Digital Transformation, due to the definition in conjunction with the officials and agents that are the authority for the application of the services, the assembly of the boards to be published, generated a certain dilation in the times of implementation. Even so, based on scheduled meetings with the officials in charge, the task could be carried out.
  Internal factors: the team at the Digital Transformation Center in charge of preparing and updating the dashboards allocated time and training for the correct extraction of the data and the preparation of the dashboards, mainly due to the lack of a data dictionary.
• Milestone 2:
  External factors: A style manual was established for the development of sites and the development of platforms with the objective of establishing guidelines for the construction of the digital ecosystem to implement changes in the user experience and usability of applications.
  Internal factors: one of the factors that had to be taken into account for the implementation of this initiative was the training of development teams to adopt the new development guidelines with a focus on user experience and usability. To resolve this aspect, two manuals were prepared that were periodically updated: the website development manual and the digital platform development manual.
• Milestone 3:
  Internal factors: there was a technical difficulty in the development of a web service that would allow the integration of the taxPlacing transparency, accountability, and participation at the center of tax policy can ensure that burdens are distributed equitably across society. Technical specifications: Commitments related to c... site with the conversational chatbot, which could be resolved and finally executed.
  External factors: the changes that were made to the Tax Portal platform had to be agreed upon with different officials who are the enforcement authority on the matter.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The first milestone was implemented according to the deadlines that had been established. Regarding the second milestone, it was achieved before the planned deadline, mainly because the Municipality of Córdoba adopted a massive digital transformation scheme that allowed working with several platforms and websites simultaneously. Regarding the third milestone, there were delays but it was possible to execute the task correctly and incorporate new interoperability activities with the digital ecosystem that optimized the expected results.

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Regarding milestones 2 and 3, they have allowed the government to obtain information on the level of perception that citizens have regarding the Procedures Guide and Citizen App services.
From 2 individual dashboards of ratings for both services.

• Citizen assessment board for the Procedures Guide
• Citizen assessment board for the Citizen App

In the same way, a form was prepared to survey the data and information needs of citizens in the Transparent City Portal.

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Information boards were generated for monitoring the Plan of Goals of the Municipality of Córdoba. This dashboard is published in the Digital Transformation Observatory corresponding to the first milestone. Direct access to the Goal Plan monitoring board.

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Outstanding

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The commitment made it possible to improve the performance of the digital platform development teams, mainly by reducing the effort for the design and layout of digital platforms. Having a standardized user manual allowed for reducing costs in hours of functional analysis aimed at defining design issues on the front of the platforms.
Additionally, the commitment made it possible to incorporate the language of data and the use of information for decision-making among the different companies that are part of a work process for the implementation of a digital service. Although at first the incorporation of information in the measurement of the quality of the provision of public services could generate resistance, finally a positive synergy was generated which allows cross-monitoring, both from the citizen to the government, and between the citizens themselves, agents, and officials who make use of the management dashboards.

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

From the progress made in the commitment, the citizen improves his interaction with the municipality and this can be perceived from the increase in the average valuation of the procedures.

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

A lesson learned from the massive digital transformation process that the Municipality of Córdoba has been adopting is that it not only improves the quality of life of the residents but also provides valuable tools and resources to the municipal administration for the of assertive decisions, as well as achieving greater transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and traceability of administrative acts.
It can be confirmed that from the incorporation of online services to the citizen and internal agents, they become the best way to obtain quantity, quality and updated information, which allows improving the adoption of evidence-based public policies.