We’re often asked for suggested reading materials on digital government topics. The links below include resources that are a helpful introduction to digital service delivery and technology modernization. For Government of Canada-specific materials, you can read our Roadmap 2025 and How the Canadian Digital Service started reports.
Creating digital organizations
- Internet-era ways of working, by Tom Loosemore
- You might not be as agile as you think you are, by Julia Lindpaintner and Stephanie Rivera
- The public service’s digital literacy problem, by Ryan Androsoff
- ‘I don’t know how to use a computer!’, by Leah Lockhart
- Histoire d’un rituel : le stand-up (History of a ritual: the stand-up), by Pierre Pezziardi (in French only)
- Digital transformation is a leadership problem, by Mike Bracken
- Why Governance is Good, by Cate McLaurin
- Les conditions d’adoption du numérique dans le service social (Conditions for adopting digital tools in social service), by Matti Schneider (in French only)
- Construire des communs numériques pour les acteurs publics (Building digital commons for public actors), by Matti Schneider (in French only).
- Innovation publique : et si on arrêtait le jargon startup ? (Public innovation: and if we stopped with startup lingo?), by Ishan Bhojwani (in French only)
Modern technology implementation
- Do we still need systems integrators?, by David Eaves
- The benefits of coding in the open, by Anna Shipman
- What is DevOps?, by Pivotal Software
- Pourquoi la sécurité des produits numériques n’est pas celle des projets informatiques (Why the security of digital products is not the same as the security of IT projects), by Laurent Bossavit (in French only)
- Detecting Agile “BS”, by the Defence Innovation Board
- Why internet-era CTOs hire developers, by James Stewart
- Exploring API Security, by Nadia Webster
- Turning the rules of government into code using OpenFisca, by Nadia Webster
- What do design sprints, game design and government have in common?, by Hazel Bradshaw
Impact measurement
- No more digital bullshit please on impact vs effort metrics, by beta.gouv.fr (misleadingly in French only)
- Comment utiliser métriques pirates et tunnels de conversion au bénéfice de vos usagers (How to use pirate metrics and conversion funnels to benefit your users), by Matti Schneider (in French only)
- Statistiques descriptives au service de l'intérêt général (Descriptive statistics for the public good), by Matti Schneider (in French only)
- Team Objectives, by Marty Cagan
Digital procurement
- Outdated procurement rules hindering digital government, by Luke DeCoste
- Prerequisites for modular contracting, by Waldo Jaquith
- De-risking custom technology projects, by Robin Carnahan, Randy Hart, and Waldo Jaquith
- Modernising the state through State Startups, by Matti Schneider
- Governance Vacuums and How Code Is Becoming Law, by Bianca Wiley
In addition to the articles above, newsletters from Code for Canada, Public Digital, The Commons, and the The Brookfield Institute are a great resource. You can also subscribe to the CDS newsletter to hear regular updates on our work.
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