“… Jacobs and the rest of the VA Digital Service team received the Service to America Medal for Management Excellence (SAMME) for their work on Vets.gov. According SAMME, the VA Digital Service team “created online digital tools for veterans to more easily access benefits and services, delivering a high-quality and seamless user experience.”
The VA Digital Service team also worked to consolidate Vets.gov into the more heavily trafficked VA.gov website, an effort that launched on Veterans Day in November 2018…”
“USDS focuses on four objectives to maximize its impact: transforming critical services; rethinking how the government buys digital services; expanding the use of common platforms, services, and tools; and bringing top technical talent into public service. Practically, this means USDS emphasizes user-centered design, responsive software development frameworks like agile, modern procurement practices, interoperability between agencies and attracting the IT talent to perform all of this.”
“To attract top-tier IT talent from the private sector, USDS emphasizes “a tradition of public service in the technology industry that will support the ongoing improvement of government digital services,” according to its mission webpage. It tapped into the Silicon Valley zeitgeist with a Steve Jobs-starring video to inspire technologists to public service…” Read the full article here.
Source: USDS Continues IT Transformation at VA – By Connor Collins, February 20, 2019. GovernmentCIO.
