Welcome all to Salsa Digital's presentation on Rules as Code and how it can be used on GovCMS to create more personalised experiences that empower our citizens… What a mouthful.
Hi, my name is Alfred Deeb, founding director at Salsa Digital and Open Government advocate. I am here as your presenter today and during Q&A we will be supported by my two colleagues and Rules as Code advocates, Con Fountas and Steve Worley. I'm also really pleased and honoured to have the great Pia Andrews in the room with us today. In late 2021, Pia had casted her vision that inspired us to go on the Rules as Code journey.
So today we have a six-part agenda with lots to cover over the next 30 minutes. We'll open up by starting with why, setting the context for Rules as Code. Then we'll explain what it is, how it works and share some real world use cases. We'll then go on to provide some useful information resources that hopefully gets you to start thinking about how Rules as Code can help you create more personalised experiences for our citizens. And then finally we'll finish up with an open mic for Q&A.
For those of you that attended the GovCMS DXP Community Showcase in late 2022, some of this presentation material, but not all, may be familiar and thus serve as a refresher.
Okay so I'd like to open up by taking a step back and by starting with why. We understand that among many responsibilities, the government is responsible for delivering information and services to citizens. As a GovCMS Community we also understand that GovCMS represents a program and a platform that enables government agencies, you, to deliver such information and services to our citizens both reliably and securely. Okay, well, great but is that enough?
In late 2022, GovCMS recognised that there was an opportunity to take the program further and thus approach the market initially as an expression of interest to learn how it could offer government agencies a sweeter tool to deliver even better, more personalised digital experiences for our citizens. The expression of Interest provided six examples of enhanced user journeys of which, one in particular, really stood out to us specifically the “evaluation of eligibility obligations and entitlements”. “This is the stage where a citizen is figuring out what they need to do to either access an entitlement or to comply with a government policy or legal requirement”. This was the user journey and use case that excited us the most because in our opinion it represented the most authentic opportunity to deliver a personalised experience that, arguably, matters the most. And that is when our citizens are perhaps the most vulnerable and in need to help understand their eligibility and entitlements to government services and benefits.
If you consider a common experience for benefits access today, what you'll realise is that it's generally pretty poor. There's a real stigma associated with accessing benefits, it leaves a citizen feeling undignified, uncertain and frustrated. Furthermore it also creates frustration, friction and inefficiencies for public servants and governments too — second guessing information, second guessing who's responsible, etc.
To illustrate, let's take a real world recent example relating to COVID-19. During the COVID pandemic, many were left with what would appear to be a simple question — “do I need to get another COVID vaccination?” The citizen's user journey would typically involve the following multi-step process.
Step 1, they go to Google and then they search “do I need a COVID vaccination?”. From there, they're presented with hundreds if not thousands of result pages. Their next step is that they click through to what is, hopefully, the right authoritative response be at health.gov wau or ATAGI. Then step 3, they'll read through lot and lots of content access, multiple pages and multiple links, then they're left to use their discretion to determine what information applies to them and whether they've interpreted the rules correctly. This user trait is really poor and they're overwhelmed with lots of information and ultimately left with uncertainty. So, surely there's a better way, I hear you ask.
Spoiler alert, introducing Rules as Code.
What is Rules as Code? In its simplest form, Rules as Code is the process of taking legislation, regulations and/or policies and turning them into machine readable codes so they can be read and used by computers. These coded rules are then simply exposed as an open API to enable external systems i.e. digital systems such as GovCMS to present content that is contextualised, resulting in more personalised user experiences.
We now contrast the common experience presented earlier with a more desired experience as Illustrated. User Journeys can become, significantly, more improved with experiences that are more dignified and unambiguous. Experiences that are intuitive and clear. Such experiences also improve efficiencies for governments too. A single source of truth removes ambiguity among public servants and the ability to selfs serve reduces the burden of inbound calls and/or inquiries, etc. So taking our COVID example presented earlier, a more improved user journey could look like the following:
Step 1 - I visit a vaccination website powered by Rules as Code. I'm presented with an intuitive, friendly user interface where I can answer a few non-personal identifiable questions. I then receive personalised information that I know is correct for me and my situation. As a user experience:
One, I was able to self- serve in a non-undignified way and two, I was able to experience an intuitive simple user friendly interface. And ultimately, above all else, I was left with clarity and certainty on whether I needed to get another vaccination or not.
These personalised experiences can go far beyond just websites. As illustrated in the diagram shown, the government can use Rules as Code to create legislation as a reusable utility to enable experiences across multiple channels including mobile apps, voice devices and/or system interfaces. There are several benefits that Rules as Code paradigm represents, but perhaps the biggest is that codified rules are centralised as a single source of truth and then made available as a reusable utility that can drive and serve many applications. As opposed to each application having to individually interpret the rules and update the business logic each time there is a change. Thus, we see Rules as Code as being a new type of public infrastructure for public good that we hope as a GovCMS community can pioneer and lead the way to help create.
And we're not alone in this vision. The Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) is a specialised initiative within the OECD, an international organisation, comprising about 38 countries, founded in 1961. The primary goal of this organisation is to create better policies for better lives. So OPSI is focused on enhancing public sector innovation and governance through research guidance and collaboration. The OPSI released a Rules as Code white paper in October 2020 as a resource for public servants to help them understand and engage with Rules as Code and its potential implications for government. Within this white paper, they formed six key principles as shown on the slide for a successful Rules as Code approach. Together with GovCMS, we plan to take the initiative and responsibility for ensuring our implementation aligns with the six key principles. The white paper itself is recognition for the Rules as Code having the potential of being transformative for government.
And as for further validation, the OPSI released a very recent paper reflecting global trends in government Innovation throughout 2023. It was reassuring to have this paper recognise the Rules as Code work that we did with GovCMS as part of the DXP Community Showcase.
As a means of delivering simpler, personalised digital user journeys for citizens. To quote them specifically, “this project, the GovCMS Rules as Code project, represents a global first in use of Rules as Code as a central shared open-source service hosted on a common platform.” I believe GovCMS next month's agency update will provide a link to this report which I encourage you all to read.
How does Rules as Code work? To explain how it works, we thought it would be useful to frame it around an MVP rules code delivery framework we have designed. So as shown in the illustration, the framework is segmented into three streams - implementation, operations and governance. Implementation is a stream of actually converting the rules into code and building related and relevant user experiences. The operation stream is concerned with enterprise grade themes required to make the solution scale, robust, sovereign and secure. And finally the governance stream, mostly non-technical and arguably the hardest, is all of the considerations around custodianship, access, change management and standards.
For the next couple of slides, we'll squeeze through each of these components within the implementation stream.
So step one is the implementation stream which represents the rules logic. So this is the process or methodology of dissecting and converting legislation into conditional statements and pseudo code. Step two is the code repository and rules engine responsible for hosting and serving coded rules. Here we convert the pseudo code from the previous step into machine readable code. The code repository and rules engine we've used and recommended is an open- source modular and scalable technology called OpenFisca. OpenFisca was seated out of the French Taxation Department to expose French tax laws as a reusable utility. OpenFisca has since gone on to be adopted by other jurisdictions around the world including Canada, United States and New Zealand. A third step in the implementation stream is exposing the rules as an open API that complies with interoperable standards to enable any channel, any technology or any system to access the Rules as Code service. The fourth step of the implementation stream is the Drupal integration so that Rules as Code can work natively with GovCMS. Salsa has built an open sourced, a Drupal web forms, OpenFisca module that allows web builders to create Rules as Code power user experiences with GovCMS. You can learn more about this module within the resources subsection of this presentation a little later. And so the final step and arguably most fun of the implementation process is the user experience. This is the process of designing and building the user journeys that ultimately result in better, more personalised citizen experiences.
Once you've completed the implementation, there's the, not to be underestimated, enterprise and governance streams and themes required to host, secure, scale and maintain the solution. Throughout 2024, we'll be working closely with the Department of Finance to work through and mature many of these enterprise grade themes.
Now on to real world use cases - who's actually using this stuff? So here we show a handful of real world use cases using Rules as Code to improve the citizen experience in some way shape or form. These real world examples represent a variety of use cases from benefits legibility to compliance checking, service directory, pre-screening enlodgement and even policy impact. Starting bottom left to right, we have 1. Benefits launch Express in the United States. This project enables US citizens to check their eligibility against multiple entitlements. Then we have a policy engine which is a project developed across four countries including Canada, as highlighted, UK, US and Nigeria. It, not only offers benefits eligibility, but also offers the ability to forecast policy reform impacts, which can inform better policy creation and management. I suspect you'll hear more on this during Pia Andrew's keynote. Next is the um FPS Mobility transport in Belgium. This jurisdiction has coded civil aviation rules to enable rapid pre-screening enlodgement of aircraft licences. Then number four, we move on to the French government who've developed a portal that enables French citizens to check their eligibility of up to 500 entitlements. Number five we have AUSTRAC, a homegrown web portal that checks if you need to comply with Australia's anti- money laundering and counterterrorism financing law and why wouldn't you need to comply, right? And then finally number six is a Smart Start from our kiwi friends across the ditch. This is a hyper-personalised web portal that presents all relevant information and services based on a particular stage of your life, be it from having a baby or dealing with a six-year-old.
And now a little detail on some of Salsa's past and active projects using Rules as Code. BenefitMe.NZ, this is the first on the left is um what you see there, this was a project that we had invested in and volunteered throughout 2022 in collaboration with GovZero Aotearoa. GovZero Aotearoa was an initiative responsible for developing open digital infrastructure for public good and greater social equality. BenefitMe.NZ particular is a self-service portal that enables New Zealand citizens to access their eligibility for social security benefits. Here we dissected New Zealand's Social Security Act, coded the rules in OpenFisca and designed a UI using Drupal with CivicTheme.
Second project is COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccination status improve-for-concept. This was a partially sponsored PoC as part of the GovCMS DXP short listing. Here, we simulated a health site that answered two quick questions: am I up to date with COVID vaccinations? and do I have to be vaccinated for my job? We broke down in coded (COVID vaccination rules) from health.gov.au and the Australian technical advice group on immunisation (ATAGI). These rules were coded in OpenFisca, we then built a user experience that would ask the visitor a series of questions that would result in a clear answer to their question. The webform we built using the open source Drupal OpenFisca webform integration module that we had developed.. big mouthful there.. and the UI was built using GovCMS with the open source design system CivicTheme. For those who attended the Community Showcase would have seen this tool in action.
And the third project that we are currently, actively involved in, it's in progress, involves a very ambitious scope to measure intended and unintended impacts of policy. This is an initiative we're collaborating on with a huge collective of member organisations across academia, government and enterprise. There are a number of policy infrastructure prototypes this collaboration is working on. The one that Salsa Digital is leading concerns monitoring for unintended consequences of new tax laws where we can monitor patent deviations, identify impact and inform policy makers so that they can improve tax laws to remove ambiguities or miss-interpretations that had likely resulted. It should be no surprise that Pia Andrews is one of the key drivers leading this ambitious initiative and expect she'll be presenting it during her keynote.
Getting started… So, hopefully, to get you started thinking, we've listed the following but not limited to 12 different use cases in which Rules as Code can be used to power more personalised digital experiences. Perhaps you would already have identified some pattern from real world use cases and/or work we've presented earlier. In any case, there are many many others. I encourage you to scan your eye across each of them and to see if any of them may trigger an idea or an interest.
Category number one, social welfare benefits and eligibility, is the use case that got us all here today and was triggered by one of the six user journeys GovCMS presented in their EOY as I had represented earlier. To elaborate on a few more that may not seem obvious, let's look at category number four, urban planning and development. This is where local governments could use Rules as Code to code zoning laws and regulations. Developers and architects could then use these coded rules to automatically check if their building plans comply with local zoning regulations, expediting the approval process and reducing administrative backlogs. Now let's take a look at category number seven, educational policies in administration. Schools and educational institutions could use Rules as Code to navigate and implement educational policies more effectively. This could range from managing admissions based on Coda criteria to ensure compliance with educational standards and regulations. And one more example is category number nine, customs and international trade. So coding rules relate to customs and international trade can simplify the process of importing and exporting goods. Traders and customs officials could use these tools to instantly determine tariffs taxes and compliance with international trade agreements. As you can see there are many many use cases beyond benefits eligibility for which Rules as Code can apply.
So there's a lot of information to take in. You should seek comfort knowing if there's very little of this that makes sense then please remind yourself that it is a relatively new space and can take time to sink in. It's a new paradigm. But if you've been able to grasp, but then we encourage you to start thinking about what might be a good rule set that you can start with. When thinking about a rule set, we'd really really encourage you to start with a rule set that is already well defined and ideally very small and simple. The goal initially is to experiment and to learn.
And what better process to experiment with and learn Rules as Code other than the DTA service design and delivery process. As a reminder, the service design and delivery process is the way of delivering government services that makes it easier and quicker to build the right thing for users. All of which of course is focus on starting with user needs, not government needs. This delivery process is just as relevant for creating personalised user experiences using Rules as Code as it is for developing traditional websites. At the risk of me telling you all what you already know, the discovery stage is the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the problem space Rules as Code can help solve, along with developing the hypotheses on how to solve it. The alpha stage is where you can develop Rules as Code prototypes to test the hypotheses and the beta stage is where you can build and test Rules as Code based on validated hypotheses in the alpha. And then finally live stage of course is where that you maintain and iterate for continuous Improvement.
And now to help you get started we've got a ton of resources to share the first is a very newly established Rules as Code Guild. This is kind of like a community of practice where individuals or member organisations come together to learn and share on all things Rules as Code. It's really really new, only launched yesterday. It will evolve. We'll encourage you to go to RacGuild as you can see there on the screen RacGuild.org and visit the resources page to access a number of case studies, white papers, blogs and tools. If the topic also interests you, you may consider signing up for notifications on upcoming webinars, new case studies, resources, etc. And if you're really really excitedly interested, you may consider registering your interest for becoming an individual member or member organisation. It's free. The second resource is the community slack, similar to the Guild, this is a space where you can go to hang out with other individuals and organisations interested in Rules as Code and a safe space to ask questions, see what topics are being discussed, exchange ideas, etc. To receive an open invitation to the channel simply email info@racguild.org. And then finally, Salsa's very own Rules as Code insights newsletter. We released a Rules as Code insights series last year and since doing so have released one publication per quarter on average. Here we mostly cover interesting rules as code case studies from around the world. We also blog and share our Rules as Code delivery methodology as it develops and improves. You can subscribe to that by simply going to salsa.digital/rules-as-code again as you see there on the screen.
And now as I come towards the end of my presentation I'd like to leave you with some final words, quoting the great Simon Sinek, author of The award-winning book Starting With Why. “Dream big start small but most of all start and together we can create better more personalised digital experiences for our citizens one Rules as Code at a time”. That last bit was my quote #cheesy.
And finally… finally… really really finally… start a conversation, share your ideas, qualify your ideas. You can of course approach Salsa at any time, however, we really encourage you to reach out to the GovCMS in the first instance. They'll be able to observe trends on what people thinking, identify and plug where there are gaps, identify and connect where there are patterns and perhaps also identify further resources, information or tools that might be needed to help you on your journey. And of course they'll be able to share and connect what others within the APS, are thinking about what to do with Rules as Code. By starting a conversation, we will be learning and growing together hashtag not as cheesy.
That concludes my presentation and we go off to question time for the purpose of this recording that part unfortunately is not captured. And so yes and then what you see here is just attributions to recognise all the beautiful work and icons that we used in this and yes I thank you for seeing this presentation through. Thank you very much. Ciao for now.
Reviewed 16 February 2024