A binding approach for digital projects

The development of modern IT infrastructure requires up-to-date, standardized processes and methods. This will establish a binding process model for the development of digital projects in Berlin’s administration. The model is intended to enable an agile, open and needs-driven approach while ensuring development according to IT development standards – including interoperability, modularity, open source & open data, accessibility, data security, cybersecurity and user-centricity. Compliance with the principles of women’s policy and equality policy is to be ensured by designing ICT systems in a gender-sensitive and non-discriminatory manner. The principles of gender mainstreaming* and gender budgeting* must be consistently taken into account in awarding contracts and in development.

As part of this model, both the fundamentals and the relevant templates are developed for individual work stages. These relate to problem analysis and any standards that still need to be developed as individual strategies on open data, open source, cybersecurity and information security, digital inclusion and participation – user research, service specifications, prototype development, data provision contracts, etc. In addition, a preliminary process is being developed here to ensure that only projects with a clear problem definition are launched, as well as ensuring sensible requirements management and functioning coordination of all agencies involved based on the standards to be taken into account across the entire administration. External expert input and transformational issues* are to be given greater consideration in the future, and quality assurance in project planning and awarding is to be improved (see Chapter Implementation). Source code development is to be documented in a publicly accessible Git repository*. The result is a standardized process including tools and formats, ongoing documentation and permanent support for large projects which is to enable the gradual emergence of an ecosystem of interoperable components and avoid duplication of effort and errors. In this process, participation steps are integrated on a binding basis.

The procedure is to be published as a manual (for third parties) and integrated in the Berlin project management manual.

Please see glossary for explanations for terms marked with an asterisk*.