GOVOG

Digitised · is not · transformed

GovernmentOperations Generator.

Most governments digitised their services without transforming them. GOVOG shows where public services lose people's time, and what to change first.

Request access See the problem

01DigitisedPaper to portal

The form moved online. The process did not.

Most digital government put a screen in front of the same procedure: the same steps, the same desks, the same waiting. The citizen fills in a web form instead of a paper one, and then waits exactly as long.

02HiddenSeven services

Nobody sees how a service really runs.

Procedures describe what should happen. What does happen is spread across agencies, systems and desks, and no one holds the whole picture. In this demonstration, the slowest service runs past its own legal time limit.

03One caseOne application

One application, many desks.

A single construction permit passes from office to office, is checked and checked again, and waits at every hand-over in between.

04WaitingWork vs waiting

Hours of work. Months of waiting.

Blue is work; the rest is the application waiting between desks. Most of the time a case is open, nobody is working on it. That gap is what GOVOG finds, and helps close.

Digitised is not transformed: the same procedure behind a new screen, a service nobody sees whole, one application passed between many desks, and a case that waits far longer than anyone works on it.

The cost

Every extra step is paid for twice.

Once by the official who performs it, and once by the citizen who waits for it. Four views of one demonstration government.

Steps cases went through

11,740

Every dot is one step an application passed through. The nine in blue are one permit, from request to decision.

Moving parts in one service

13 of 13

  • vorgang_nrcase
  • dienst_typeservice
  • aktiwiteitstep
  • begin_tijdstart
  • end_tsend
  • medewerkeractor
  • behoerdeagency
  • eenheidunit
  • quellsystemsystem
  • wijzechannel
  • besluit_kodeoutcome
  • zielgruppesegment
  • subjekt_idperson

Agencies, units, systems, channels and people: more hands touch a single case than anyone expects.

Distinct steps in seven services

39

ACT-3076Applicant lodges permit application

Each one a hand-over the citizen waits through.

Problems found

40

  • 11 confirmed
  • 29 waiting for a person to review: nothing is acted on without one

What it finds

Every kind of failure. One picture.

Delays, information asked for twice, approvals that change nothing, offices that have run out of capacity. Each bar is one kind of problem; each arc joins two that share a cause. Choose one, or let the diagram walk through them.

The whole picture

40 problems in the demonstration government. 29 wait for review.

Every problem comes with the evidence behind it.

Process9Data7Citizen4Risk4Legal3Resource3Technology3Decision2Financial2Service2Organization1

Ask

Ask what is wrong.

In plain language: why a service is slow, where citizens carry paper between offices, which approvals add nothing. Every answer shows what it rests on. A question it cannot answer gets a clear no, never a guess.

AnswerAnswer 1
Why does “Obtain a construction permit” take 97.8 days?
  1. Questionduration/why .*(take|long|slow)/Obtain a construction permit
  2. Areas checkedProcessDataCitizenRiskLegalResourceTechnologyDecisionFinancialServiceOrganization
  3. Evidence85 items returned

5 areas · 85 evidence items

0.4 days of work. 97 days of waiting for each other.

  • Queueing between agencies87.2 days
  • Handoffs and re-entry3.4 days
  • Rework after incomplete files4.4 days
  • Verifying the same fact twice2.3 days
  • Work the law actually requires0.4 days
  • Fact39.5 days are spent waiting before “Environment Agency assesses impact”event log
  • InferenceEnvironmental assessment is at 118 per cent of its establishment, so arrivals queue rather than clearevent log and establishment data
  • InferenceEstablishment was set independently of the volume the service carriesestablishment snapshot

Open the findingsExplore the process

Turns this answer into a one-page note, ready to print.

Trust

Four cases. Only one should be flagged.

A tool that flags everything is useless to a ministry. In four look-alike cases, only one asks the citizen for something the state already holds. GOVOG flags that one, and leaves the others alone.

AAsked twice

What GOVOG did

Flagged the identity copy.

Correct answer

Flag it. Identity verification is mandated; submitting a copy is not.

The citizen is asked for a copy of a document the state already holds and can check itself.

Correct

BAlready connected

What GOVOG did

Flagged nothing.

Correct answer

Flag nothing. The registry is already integrated.

The office already checks the register directly. Nothing to fix, so nothing is flagged.

Correct

CRequired by law

What GOVOG did

Flagged nothing.

Correct answer

Flag nothing. Section 3a mandates presenting the original in person.

Looks exactly like case A, but the law requires the original in person. Flagging it would be wrong.

Correct

DUnclear rule

What GOVOG did

Held back, and asked a person.

Correct answer

Do not flag. The rule is written too vaguely to call it unnecessary.

When a rule is unclear, the honest answer is to hold back and let a person decide.

Held back, as it should

The correct answers are hidden.

Principles

What GOVOG refuses to do.

Four promises, built in rather than written in a brochure.

01

Invent a number.

If it cannot cost something, it says so. A blank cannot be quoted in a minister's brief; a plausible guess can.

02

Call silence a clean result.

If it was not given what it needs to look, it says so, instead of reporting that all is well.

03

Recommend what it has not proven.

Anything not yet proven waits for a person, however serious it looks.

04

Touch a production system.

It observes and proposes. Only people decide, and only people change a live system.

Standards

Adopted, not invented.

GOVOG is built on the open standards European governments already use, so nothing is locked in and nothing has to be replaced.

  • Recordsapplications, steps and datesXESgtip/interop/xes.pyOCEL 2.0gtip/interop/ocel.py
  • Lawthe instrument and the provisionELIgtip/standards/eli.py
  • Requirementwhat must be shown, by what evidenceCCCEVgtip/cccev.py
  • Evidencewhere each conclusion comes fromPROV-Ogtip/standards/profile.py
  • Entityagencies, people and servicesSEMICnot yet profiled

Where it stands

Said plainly.

  • NowEarly accessGOVOG is opening to a first group of government partners. Access is by request.
  • DemoA synthetic stateEverything on this page runs on Verdana, a government built for demonstration. A partner's own results stay with that partner.
  • AlwaysPeople decideEvery change is reviewed and approved by people. GOVOG never changes a live system on its own.

Team

The people behind it.

Early access

Bring it to your government.

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