Australian Government Guidelines promote Collaboration

The Australian Government's "Future Challenges for E-government" puts collaboration with the community central to service delivery and then describes how best to achieve it. The guidelines, published to assist Australian government agencies, are likely to have further reach, being easy to access, elegantly expressed and very easy to use...

The Australian Government believes government agencies are now recognising that the process of collaboration is critical to achieving successful interactions with the community. 'Community collaboration on design and implementation of products, services and systems is growing at a rapid rate.'

Assisting in this process is the section in the guidelines on "Elements of Good Government Community Collaboration" where sections such as 'Early focus on users' can be accessed easily online.

'The user should be the starting point in any collaborative process. There must be a deliberate intention to understand the user, the context in which they work and how this may be impacted by any proposed change. This includes understanding how users think and feel, not just what they do, or say they want. Effective product design involves users at all stages, from concept options to prototyping to building and testing. This saves time and effort and can avoid disasters by highlighting issues and problems before it is too late for corrective action. User input at the end of the process can be helpful to refine minor design features but will only confirm a failure if the product design has been based upon flawed assumptions. Over time the involvement of users in the design process changes, from providing information to evaluating progress, as the internal design team gradually develops a deeper understanding of user needs and wants, and how the product can respond.'

Associated Link: Elements necessary for good government community collaboration

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