Virginia creates a state digital service led by a former Medicare digital chief

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has created the Virginia Digital Service, an in-house team of engineers, designers and technical experts led by Andrea Fletcher, former chief digital strategy officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), StateScoop reported.

The team will improve state websites and systems and make sure taxpayer money is spent well by "preventing bad state contracts". It will also help the state respond to federal cuts affecting health coverage and benefits such as SNAP.

After a failed project

Spanberger proposed the team this summer and funded it through a budget amendment. The case grew stronger after she said the Department of Social Services had lost $52 million on a failed project to replace the state's child support enforcement system.

"State government should work for the people it serves, and that means making sure Virginians can access the services they need quickly, easily, and reliably," Spanberger said.

Fletcher led the CMS Digital Service as its first chief digital strategy officer and helped create the agency's first Open Source Program Office.

The model

Digital service teams, first in the UK and then in the US federal government and many states, combine technologists with the authority to shape how services are bought and built. Their most valuable work is often unglamorous: helping departments write better requirements, break large contracts into smaller ones and test with users before committing. A team charged with preventing bad contracts is aiming at the place where most public IT failures begin.