Make Mobile Gov with the Mobile Application Development Program
Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device.
The 21st century imperative to deliver government information and services to the public anytime, anywhere and on any device makes mobile a critical tactic in the federal Digital Government Strategy. Today, GSA’s Digital Services Innovation Center and the Federal CIO Council launch the Mobile Application Development Program to provide agencies with tools they need to make great mobile products available to the public.
The program–developed with and by 25 agencies across government–will help agencies in each stage of mobile development.
- Plan –Build a mobile strategy, see what other agencies have done, use new acquisitions tools to find top mobile developers.
- Develop –Create great mobile apps and sites using mobile user experience guidelines. Jump start development by leveraging pre-existing code.
- Test –Make sure your app works on all devices by leveraging automated and in the wild testing support. Test for security & accessibility.
- Launch –Let people know yours is an official government app by registering it. Get your app in the app stores and leverage API’s for promoting your apps.
What’s In It?
The program is chock full of useful resources and tools. For starters, there is
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The Mobile Code Sharing Catalog provides agency mobile developers with whole frameworks for a mobile web site, modular code to solve common problems, and open-sourced apps to modify or use as a template. AND, agencies and other developers can submit code for reuse.
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RFP-EZ helps link agencies and small businesses for tech projects below $150,000–definitely a sweet spot for many mobile products. The idea is to help agencies reach the talent in startups more quickly and at reasonable cost. We worked with the RFP-EZ team at SBA to include mobile statement of work templates. Now when agencies create a new project in RFP-EZ, they can jumpstart their efforts by choosing the “Mobile Application Development” project type.
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Agencies can easily create mobile ready websites using Sites.USA.gov. This GSA-hosted content management tool supports open content, is secure, compliant and uses only responsive themes that work well on any-sized screen.
The Federal Apps Directory helps verify that apps and mobile sites are actually government mobile products–and provides an API so agencies can easily create galleries around their mission areas.
Just Do It
You can use these and many more tools and resources today. Last, we need YOU to help us as we continue to develop new tools to help you develop citizen-focused mobile products. Tell us what you need via email.
