In an election year, digital news consumption tends to rise. The latest Pew Research shows that about two-thirds of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from news websites, apps or search engines. But this article is not about the legacy media competition with modern digital channels. This story dives into the process behind making government news and content available in the first place.
Who makes a government website? Why does it take so long for this policy change to get updated? Where do I sign up for a federal student loan? To answer these questions, we brought together three web development experts with extensive expertise in government web development: Steve Persch, Director of Developer Relations at Pantheon, Seth Hill, Senior Developer at Aten Design Group and Malik Kotob, Senior Web Developer at Pantheon. Here are the top three challenges that surfaced.
Stringent Security and Privacy Requirements
One of the most significant challenges in government web development is adhering to strict security and privacy protocols. Government projects often handle highly sensitive information, necessitating rigorous security measures. For instance, even minor contributors to federal projects must undergo extensive background checks, including fingerprinting. This high-security bar ensures data protection and introduces considerable time and cost barriers right from the outset.
Data sensitivity further complicates the process. Developers must compartmentalize data, restricting access to only those who absolutely need it. This is crucial when dealing with information such as social security numbers or financial data. Moreover, developers must comply with strict data retention policies and be prepared to address data deletion requests, adding another layer of complexity to data management.
“One detail that stood out to me in the FAFSA story was the expectation that developers could simplify things for those seeking college aid if they automatically brought in the individuals’ IRS data into the applications. That sounds like a noble goal. But what worries me as a developer is that they were presumably shifting backend implementation details of how the FAFSA itself works, which may have eventually delayed the rollout,” said Persch.
Ensuring Scalability and Performance
Scalability and performance are critical concerns for government websites, which often face traffic spikes. For example, WhiteHouse.gov experiences massive traffic surges during events like the State of the Union address. Developers must ensure that these sites can handle such spikes without compromising performance.
Utilizing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) is a common solution. CDNs act as reverse proxies, caching content and serving it to users without repeatedly hitting the core infrastructure. This setup is essential for maintaining site stability during high-traffic periods, ensuring that millions of visitors can access the site without causing downtime.
Being prepared for traffic spikes is a given in any new government project. While revitalizing legacy systems, however, it’s important not to get carried away by taking up more project updates than planned originally under a strict deadline. Pantheon’s Senior Web Developer, Malik Kotob, recalls the practice of gold-plating from his experience of working on large government projects. In software development, gold-plating means spending too much time polishing small software parts.
“You’ve identified what is the minimum viable product, our MVP, that we want to build, but then developers, as well as the stakeholders, can get starry-eyed and say, ‘oh well, we have an opportunity to improve this process while we are at it,’ which often ends up in a missed deadline. With FAFSA, for example, I think they were overhauling over 20 systems and some of them hadn’t been updated in nearly 50 years. Plenty of room for accidental gold-plating!” said Kotob.
Managing Stakeholder Expectations and Timelines
Government projects involve diverse stakeholders, each with different priorities and timelines. Effective communication and realistic time estimation are crucial to managing these expectations. Developers often need to pad their time estimates significantly to account for the extensive planning, consensus-building, and testing required before actual development work can begin.
“For example, a task that takes a developer a day to complete might be communicated as a week internally and a month to external stakeholders. This approach ensures that all parties have realistic expectations and allows for the necessary administrative and procedural steps,” said Hill.
Furthermore, the iterative nature of agile development can be challenging for government clients accustomed to fully finished products. Educating these clients about the benefits of incremental delivery is essential for smooth project execution.
Additionally, government projects must often navigate political transitions, which can add another layer of complexity. When a new administration takes over, significant content changes and updates can be required, sometimes leading to political drama. Developers must manage these transitions carefully to maintain the integrity and continuity of the website.
Working on one such political transition at WhiteHouse.gov, Kotob had to help wipe the slate clean, as far as the web content goes, to facilitate the handover. “There was an outroar that the new administration had just deleted some very important pages. And we, the developers behind the scenes, were saying that ‘no, we had just deleted everything belonging to the old administration’,” remembers Kotob.
Web development for government projects is fraught with unique challenges that require meticulous planning, robust security measures and effective stakeholder management. By understanding and addressing the stringent security requirements, ensuring scalability and performance, and managing expectations with clear communication and realistic timelines, developers can build resilient and effective government websites. These strategies not only help in navigating the complexities of government projects but also ensure the longevity and success of the web solutions provided.
To hear the full conversation among these web experts, visit our YouTube channel. And if you are working on a government project, Pantheon has the tools to ease your workload. Connect with one of our technical experts here.
