Implementing the Digital Code of Practice with collaborative tools

In 2023 the B.C. government launched the Digital Code of Practice, a practical guide to creating ethical and inclusive digital services that truly make life easier for people living in British Columbia.

It all starts with a set of 10 practices, high-level values for digital delivery that are part of core policy. The Code gives practical guidance to put these principles into action. Because all teams are unique and what they find valuable will vary, it’s up to each team to decide how the Code fits the context of their work.

Therefore, the next step for the team that developed the Code was to create additional support resources, helping people connect the lessons to the decisions they make in their daily work. Like a teacher with a textbook, they set out to help the written documentation connect with its audience.

Building foundations: Facilitation kits

Our first goal was to get people talking about the Code with their colleagues and exploring how they can implement its practices as a team. This led to the Digital Code of Practice facilitation kits, which are available to B.C. government employees by request. So far over 100 kits have been distributed to teams across government.

The kits provide everything needed to host a Digital Code of Practice workshop, including a virtual whiteboard template and a detailed facilitation guide. The workshop includes an overview of the Code and discussion activities that help the group put the Code in context by considering which practices are most important to their work.

The workshop also asks the team which practices they want to learn more about. The idea here is to identify areas where there might be room for learning and improvement. But how is a team supposed to know how to improve?

Planning for improvement: Alignment guides

This is where another supporting resource comes in: the Digital Code of Practice alignment guides. You can find these on the webpage for each practice.

These guides describe five states of alignment for each practice in the Code.

• Initial: Struggling to make progress
• Developing: Building the knowledge and resources needed to succeed
• Delivering: Self-sufficient and reliably meeting expectations
• Optimizing: Practicing data-driven continuous improvement
• Innovating: Driving continuous improvement across government

These guides are intended to help delivery teams understand where they are – and where they want to be – on a spectrum of alignment with the Code. They provide a framework for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your team and creating a plan to improve.

To use the guide:

Find your current state

First, the team chooses a level that fits where they are now. For example, a team that’s ticking all their boxes and has all the resources they need might decide they are Delivering.

Set your goal state

Second, they choose where they want to get to. That same team might decide they want to start gathering more data about their work and using it to identify how they can do better. They might decide that sounds like Optimizing.

Create an action plan

Finally, they create an action plan by deciding what Optimizing would look like in their context and creating a list of practical steps they can take to realize that vision.

Keeping perspective

Despite the challenges facing the public service today, it’s critical that we keep our focus on what’s most important: providing services that make life better for people living in British Columbia. A big part of doing that is building internal capacity for digital delivery. Internal is important!

We need to make sure teams in the BC Public Service know what good digital services look like and understand what’s required to build them. That’s why we created the Code of Practice facilitation kits and alignment guides, and we hope they continue enabling teams to make services work better for everyone in B.C.

Visit the Digital Code of Practice page for more information.