GOVIS Events - 2024
Transforming Government through Digital Public Infrastructure
Mon, 2nd December 2024, 12-1pm, G.02 & G.03, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 15 Stout Street Wellington 6011 - and online
From GOVIS, in partnership with AWS & Silverstripe
What is the strategic opportunity to transform the New Zealand government through Digital Public Infrastructure?
We heard from Pete Herlihy about Digital Public Infrastructure. Pete works as a Principal Product Manager with AWS. While based in New Zealand, Pete's role is global in scope.
Pete's presentation slides, and the poll and Q&A results from Slido are available here.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) are the foundational digital capabilities a nation provides to facilitate inclusive, efficient, and secure digital interactions within society, such as proving identity, paying for goods and services, proving an entitlement, or sharing data and information. In countries with high-quality DPI it is cheaper and easier to deliver digital services – enabling flow-on innovations and savings to governments, businesses and society.
At the GOVIS Trust to Innovate conference in August, Pete Herlihy gave a global overview of DPI, and described how other countries are now reaping the benefits from their early DPI investments (you can watch his presentation here). At this event Pete came back for round two, with some specific suggestions on how New Zealand could take a more strategic approach to DPI. It was an interactive event, and we gathered detailed feedback from our audience using a number of polls in Slido (see link above for the results).
This is what we hope will be the first in a series of events called Transforming Government - where GOVIS takes a look at some of the ways that digital technology can enable positive change in the way that government operates and delivers services.
Pete Herlihy is a highly experienced and relentlessly user-centred product manager with a strong technical background. Currently a Principal Product Manager with Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in New Zealand, Pete has global responsibility for stimulating the creation and reuse of open-source digital public infrastructure (DPI) within the public sector and in particular within the Global South. Prior to joining AWS in 2021, Pete was a founding team member of the UK’s Government Digital Service where he worked for over 10 years. Over his time in the UK Government, he built and led small, diverse, multi-disciplinary product teams to deliver five of the UK government’s biggest digital successes: GOV.UK, Petitions, Register to vote, GOV.UK Notify, and Emergency Alerts – many of which have gone on to be reused by other governments around the world.
Wellington Test Meetup - Digital Accessibility
Tue, 26th November 2024, 12-1:15pm, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 15 Stout Street Wellington 6011 - and online
From GOVIS, in partnership with TTC Global
Why is Digital Accessibility important, and how are public sector agencies approaching accessibility testing?
This was our final Wellington Test Professionals Meetup for 2024. We took a look at Digital Accessibility, and heard presentations from the Health and Disability Commissioner, and the Department of Conservation.
Resources:
Video recording is here
Presentation slides are here
Information about the Web Standards clinics run by DIA is here - note that these are open to both public and private sector practitioners
The list of web accessibility suppliers approved on the government's Marketplace site are available here
1. What does digital accessibility mean to the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC)?
Dr Esther Woodbury and Dr Jon Warren spoke to the trials and tribulations of HDC in relation to this question.
Esther is a disability and human rights specialist, who has worked in tertiary education, community, and government organisations. Esther holds governance roles in disability organisations and is currently the Principal Advisor Disability at HDC.
Jon has extensive experience in the health sector, spanning public, private, academic, and regulatory roles. He has spent over ten years working abroad, including remote consulting for developing countries. Currently, Jon is Principal Advisor Education at HDC.
2. Incorporating accessibility reviews and testing into the development cycle of a large website frontend - as part of a technical modernisation project at the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Bon Wilton Scott outlined the strategic approach the project took for accessibility and took a detailed look at how exactly the project incorporated accessibility into its development cycles.
Bon is a Product Owner and Senior UX Advisor at the Department of Conservation (DOC). He is the product owner for the DOC website and Discover the Outdoors interactive map. Bon champions easy to use and accessible digital information and experiences to all users.
Information Management Forum - 14 November 2024
Thu, 14th November 2024, 2:45 - 4:30pm, Datacom Office, L12, 55 Featherston Street - and online
From GOVIS, in partnership with Datacom and Avepoint
At this event we came together for drinks and nibbles, and to hear from knowledgeable voices in the Information Management space. Following their successful IM Forum launch, Datacom have joined forces with GOVIS to bring together professionals from across the public service. We want to connect with our community, and share what we have all been learning.
See here for the presentation slides, and for answers to the Slido questions that were unable to be answered during the event.
Sessions included:
1. Tackling the ‘too hard basket’ - Implementing SharePoint Online
Olwyn Crutchley, Director of Information Management for Ministerial Services, shared her experience on rolling out SharePoint Online and the key takeaways for their organisation.
2. Governing Copilot: Purview Tools for the Future
Angel Ramirez (Cloud Engineer) and Wednesday Wilson (Associate Consultant) from Datacom showcased the tools within Microsoft Purview that can help govern Copilot.
3. Roundtable: Retention Does Not Equal Data Protection - Achieving Public Records Act Compliance in a Digital Landscape
AvePoint led a lively tool-agnostic discussion on the critical differences between data retention and data protection, and how to achieve compliance with New Zealand's Public Records Act in a digital landscape.
GOVIS AGM
Mon, 23rd September 2024, 5pm-7pm, Parlor room - Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave Street, Thorndon, Wellington (and online)
Come and join GOVIS for our annual AGM!
Join us from 5pm for drinks and nibbles, and to hear about the year we've had. We had a fantastic conference in August, as well as multiple successful lunchtime forums, and meet-ups spanning multiple different professions within our public service.
As with every year, the most important aspect of this event is getting together with our community and chatting about the future of GOVIS. We want to hear your ideas.
Come along for a chat with the GOVIS committee, or why not put your hand up to join. If you’ve enjoyed GOVIS in the past and would like to get involved in delivering amazing events, the GOVIS committee needs you! GOVIS needs a variety of skills so whether you’re an events pro, finance whiz, project manager with flair, can decipher contracts, are a creative marketing guru, or just want to be part of supporting public servants who work in technology, information and data, the AGM is the perfect time to be nominated. Nominations are not limited to people from member agencies – people are also welcome to stand for the committee as honorary members.
If you’d like to nominate yourself (or someone else) for the committee, or for one of the officer roles (president, treasurer, and secretary) then please the GOVIS Secretary know before 18th September. If you would like a motion to be tabled at the AGM please also let the GOVIS Secretary know prior to the AGM. Nominations and motions can be addressed to the GOVIS Secretary at website@govis.org.nz.
For those who wish to attend online: Details for connecting via Microsoft Teams will be sent out prior to the event to everyone who registers for the AGM. Formal proceedings will commence at around 5.30pm.
View this year's agenda, AGM minutes (2023) and the President's report (2023).
We look forward to seeing you!
Register here.
Lunchtime Forum: Unlocking your Cloud Treasure
Tue, 12th September 2024, 12-1pm, Online
We were privileged to have Devon Stewart-Meadows - Manager of Cloud Services at OSS Group and is the go-to person for enabling public organisations to effectively adopt, govern and modernise cloud capabilities.
The lunchtime forum focused on Cloud FinOps and shed light on navigating the intricate Cloud FinOps landscape, where financial efficiency and operational governance meets public cloud capabilities.
Exploring cost optimisation strategies, operational best practices, and financial governance in cloud environments, this session delves into the intersection of IT capability, operational sensibility and organisational governance to maximise efficiency, productivity and performance.
Insights were gained on leveraging Cloud FinOps principles for strategic decision-making and outcome delivery. We learned how aligning business goals with operational efficiencies can streamline cloud management and drive innovation for enhanced business outcomes.
Presenter: Devon Stewart-Meadows
Devon has led the Public Cloud Services function at OSS for the past two years and has a history of leading public cloud transformation engagements across New Zealand and Australia. Devon is also a triple-finalist in the "Women in ICT" Awards.
Resources
Slides
Video Recording
The framework from the FinOps Foundation referenced by Devon in the webinar is available here: https://www.finops.org/framework/
GOVIS Test Professionals Meetup: Data Privacy and Security in Test Data Management
Thursday 11th July 2024, Ministry of Social Development, 55 The Terrace, Wellington
For many organisations, test data management is the Achillies Heel of Data Privacy and Security. Testing often requires the use of production-like data to validate not just functionality, but also that the functionality will work with the data as it exists in the production systems (clean and unclean data). Anecdotally though, many test environments don’t have that same level of data control that production environments have.
On Thursday 11th July, the GOVIS Test Professionals Meetup were honoured to have the presence of Liz MacPherson from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC), together with Data Domain’s Phil Judd. The focus of the session was the ‘why’ and ‘how of Data Privacy and Data Security in Test Data Management.
From the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Liz gave a clear and articulate presentation (link to the attached PDF) on the “why” - the dangers of not having a high level (production-like) level of data privacy and security with test data. From news articles to legislation, Liz provided clear and compelling evidence of why production-like treatment of test data isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ – an organisation can face compliance and enforcement action if it does not exist, and a data privacy breach occurs. This is on top of the obvious reputational damage that inevitably happens as well. One clear point made by Liz was that ‘as soon as a member of the organisation becomes aware that there is a problem with their data privacy and security – at that point the organisation is liable’. This places a considerable onus on those in the testing profession to ensure that production-like data security and data privacy measures do exist in the testing environment – to safeguard their organisation. With this in mind, Liz referred the meetup to brand new “Poupou Matatapu: Doing Privacy Well” guidance which has just been released on OPC’s website.
Understanding the “why” of handling data well isn’t enough though, it is important to know “how” to properly handle data. So, Data Domain followed Liz’s presentation with the ‘how’ for treatment of production data in the test environment. Phil’s presentation (Link to presentation PDF) covered the range from Data Governance and the importance of Data Polices for the organisation, through to actual techniques such as Cloning, Synthetic Data, Sub-Setting and Data Virtualisation. Simple and Advanced Masking approaches were presented, as well as implementation options.
The realisation that as soon as an individual within an agency is aware of a data security or privacy problem, that the organisation is now obligated to act was the key takeaway for me. The role that the Government Test Professional has to play in preventing test data management from becoming an Agency’s Data Privacy and Security Achilles heel is a key one – and one that is at the forefront or protecting their organisation and their client data.
A huge thanks to our presenters – Liz MacPherson from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Phil Judd from Data Domain. A great GOVIS Test Professionals event and one that is very relevant. A huge thanks too, to the Ministry of Social Development, our host venue for the meetup. And TTC – our event sponsor and facilitator.
Navigating your career with SFIA
Tue, 9th July 2024, 12 - 1pm, MBIE Head Office, 15 Stout Street, Wellington
It's that time of year again, where we review the past 12 months and set our skills development objectives for the year to come. And spare a thought for those among us who are now of uncertain employment, and will be trying to communicate skills and experiences to potential employers...
There are a huge range of complicated job titles in the digital world, and they are constantly changing. At best, this makes it difficult to understand what key skills and capabilities you need for your career, and at worst it can make performance reviews with your manager a grueling experience.
So, wouldn't it be great if there was a comprehensive international framework that you could use to assess and communicate your skills?
The good news is that there is just such a framework! Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is a tool that people can use to check the skills that they currently possess and how they can level up in their careers. Even better, DIA and MBIE have purchased a country license so that it is free to use for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.
But what is the strategic picture for the adoption of SFIA in this country? What can you be doing now to further your career in technology, information and data? And most importantly, can this make explaining your job to friends and family any easier?
Come along and learn from our excellent speakers:
Vic MacLennan is the CEO of IT Professionals New Zealand, and (among other things) is a member of the SFIA Global Council. She has been supporting work by DIA and MBIE to make SFIA available in New Zealand.
Professor Elizabeth Valentine is an expert in Digital Transformation Leadership Capabilities & Governance. She has been using SFIA to help her clients and students since 2016.
GOVIS thanks TTC Global for providing the catering for this event. TTC Global are great advocates for the professionalisation of testing in New Zealand.
Post-event resources:
Recording of the event on YouTube - see here
Presentation slides from Vic - see here
Presentation slides from Elizabeth - see here
Work by the Australian Public Service Commission to define SFIA skills profiles for around 200 Australian public service roles - see here
Research paper (June 2024): Digital Leadership Competencies for Digital Government: Insights and Implications from New Zealand Government Agencies - see here
Questions asked on Slido - see here
GOVIS Test Meetup
Tue, 27th February 2024, 4:30pm - 6:30pm, Ministry of Social Development, 55 The Terrace, Wellington
Wellington Government Test Community meets again – with some interesting results.
It has been a while between meetups for the Wellington Government Software Testing community. But that does not mean that it has stood still during that timeframe. In fact – there has been quite a lot developing away in the Wellington Government Software Testing community.
Our local Wellington testing community met at the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to share ideas, information, knowledge – as well as stories over drinks and nibbles. Facilitated by TTC in partnership with GOVIS, this was the first testing-specific government meetup for just over five years. The focus was on getting the community back together and engaging.
And it worked. With just on 55 registrations, there was proof that the community is keen to collaborate.
Over the one and a half hours of the meetup, those present:
Saw the results of the pre-meetup informal survey, created to get a sense of workloads and testing team growth from 2023 through to 2024 across the Government Testing Community. Some real insights gained into forecasted workloads, team size and focus on automation.
Participated in a collaborative Lean Coffee workshop to identify and prioritise (via voting) on those topics that would be of most interest for discussion and information sharing. Interestingly, Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) was the most popular topic – and was our first group discussion.
Had plenty of time for networking over drinks, nibbles and good conversation.
It was a successful first meet for the GOVIS Software Test Meetup community. Our focus is now on planning our next event, using themes and topics from the Lean Coffee to guide us in searching for and selecting our next event speakers. And who knows – thanks to this event there might even be something about testing or SFIA at the GOVIS conference in August!
