Digital Iceland
Digital Iceland's Processes
Digital Iceland's Processes
Here you can find a summary of the main processes that are underway from project management to publication and development.
Digital Iceland projects can be categorized into three groups. Within these projects there are different milestones that lead the project group forward and contribute to good progress, clear cooperation and quality through the project. Implementation and development projects with Digital Iceland always start with an application
Implementation projects are those projects that do not require a specific development team as they are standardised in their installation.
The milestones in the implementation projects are:
Approved application
Main contact point and timetable
Access and instructions
Reviews and tests
Definition of done
Launch
Reviewal
Development projects are those projects that require the involvement of a tendering team.
The milestones of development projects are:
Approved application
Role and priorities
Contract with a tendering team
Access and instructions
User stories
Prototype
Reviews and tests
Definition of done
Launch
Reviewal
Product development projects are those projects that focus on the continuation of the development of Digital Iceland services. Product managers manage the roadmap of different services and collect feedback and priority rankings.
The milestones in product development projects are:
Role and priorities
Contract with a tendering team
Access and instructions
User stories
Prototypa
Reviews and tests
Definition of done
Launch
Reviewal
For further information on the reviwal process, please visit here
Development at Digital Iceland is done Agile, where a release is divided into smaller increments so that user reactions and feedback can be received as soon as possible.
All code is open source, except for that which is kept closed for security reasons. Digital Iceland's technology stack is hosted in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud solution.
All code is peer reviewed and tested by different teams as appropriate. Emphasis is placed on automated testing and smaller and faster releases.
The Digital Iceland development manual can be found here and documentation of solutions and other technical data can be found at docs.devland.is and is accessible to everyone.
Digital Iceland maintains a status page status.island.is where you can subscribe. There you can see an overview of operational issues in case of incidents or planned maintenance of Ísland.is solutions. When incidents occur, a defined response process is followed, where the organization in question is alerted along with other related parties as appropriate.
New solutions are released throughout the year apart from summer vacation period. All code is reviewed by a team other than the programming team (peer review) and tested by different teams as deemed appropriate. Emphasis is placed on automated testing and smaller and faster versions.
Data protection covers the rights of individuals regarding the processing of their personal information.
Data used in Iceland.is services are generally stored by the institutions themselves and are accessed with the user's permission through authenticated web service communications.
You can read more about Digital Iceland's privacy policy here.
Development projects within Iceland.is are always collaborative projects. To ensure the right team composition and to better clarify responsibilities and expectations, roles are defined at the beginning of each project.
Public entities
Project manager
User specialist
Technical specialist
Data protection officer
Project sponsor
Tender team includes at minimum
Delivery manager
Designer
Programmer
Digital Standards
We define user personas, their needs and their expectations. We conduct UX research and testing with real users to ensure our services are tailored to their needs. We then design and develop those services based on the research.
All teams ar interdisciplinary and able to design, build, and manage digital services. Teams are independent and have authority to make decisions with the service owner. It enables them to respond quickly and deliver quality work to our users.
We use UX design and Agile methodologies whenever we develop a new service. The design is always in sync with the Digital Iceland design system, which provides consistency in user experience across all governmental agencies.
We aim to review and improve processes regularly. We make sure all teams have the ability, resources, and technical flexibility to do that. We are focused on learning and understanding which tools and systems are necessary to design, deploy, host, manage, and evaluate our services.
We care deeply about privacy. We analyze which personal data our services require, evaluate security, conform to data protection laws, and respect user privacy. We seek advice from professionals when needed.
Our codes are open, i.e. free to use by the public and/or to change as needed. Open source software reduces cost, prevents repetition of work, and increases transparency. We also use open standards, which save time and money.
We guarantee accessible services for all users. That means our solutions have to be easy to use by users with disabilities, the elderly, and those who, for some reason, have difficulties using digital services. Our services must be accessible no matter how much knowledge people may or may not have when it comes to the digital environment.
We test all digital services through all stages of development in a test environment identical to the real one. All services must be clear, simple, and easy to use no matter the device. We test everything related to the services while we develop.
We apply key performance indicators to all our projects and evaluate progress accordingly. Digital services need to be evaluated for constant improvement.
Our goal is that all government services will be available at Island.is. We develop new solutions for Island.is and use existing resources between projects.
This text was translated from Icelandic using a machine translation. Be advised that content generated by machine translation can be inaccurate or flawed.