GovTech Solutions: Speaking the Language of Public Service

Government tech debt carries unique risks beyond typical business impact. Accessibility failures violate federal law and can trigger lawsuits from advocacy groups. Security vulnerabilities in systems handling citizen data create regulatory exposure at the federal and state level. Outdated platforms that cannot integrate with new federal systems can disqualify vendors from contract renewals. Unlike private sector companies that face market pressure, government vendors face legal and regulatory pressure that can end their business entirely.

Start with the highest-traffic citizen-facing pages and fix WCAG 2.1 AA violations there first. Implement automated accessibility scanning in your CI pipeline so new violations are caught before they ship. Then work through lower-traffic pages systematically. The key insight from GovTech's experience is that accessibility fixes often improve the experience for all users, not just those with disabilities -- faster load times, cleaner layouts, and better keyboard navigation benefit everyone.

Yes, but it requires careful planning. GovTech used an incremental module approach for their Java 8 to Java 17 migration specifically to avoid triggering a full re-authorization. The key is to document every change against your System Security Plan, make incremental changes rather than wholesale replacements, and work with your Third Party Assessment Organization (3PAO) throughout the process. Significant architectural changes may require a significant change request, but this is far less costly than a full re-authorization.

Never use the phrase "tech debt" with non-technical government stakeholders. Instead, talk about citizen service quality, compliance risk, and mission readiness. "Our permit portal takes 12 seconds to load" becomes "citizens are abandoning permit applications and calling support lines." "We have 847 security vulnerabilities" becomes "we are at risk of failing our next audit and losing our FedRAMP authorization." "We are stuck on Java 8" becomes "we cannot meet the federal API mandate deadline." Frame every problem as a threat to the mission, not to the codebase.

Citizen-impact metrics translate technical measurements into outcomes that matter to government stakeholders. Examples: average time to complete a permit application (measures page load and UX), percentage of pages meeting accessibility standards (measures compliance), number of security findings per audit (measures risk posture), and citizen satisfaction scores from post-interaction surveys. GovTech created a "civic tech debt score" that weighted these metrics and presented it alongside their quarterly business reviews. The score gave leadership a single number to track without needing to understand the underlying technology.

GovTech saw meaningful results within 4 months by prioritizing compliance and accessibility first -- these had immediate legal and client-retention impact. Performance improvements followed in months 5-10. However, the full transformation took 20 months. The key lesson is to structure your remediation so that each phase delivers visible results that justify continued investment. GovTech's Phase 1 focused on settling the accessibility lawsuit and retaining wavering clients -- wins that made it easy to fund Phase 2. Do not plan a 20-month program that only shows results at the end.