The CDT received limited resources as part of the Governor’s 21/22 Budget to demonstrate the state’s ability to make immediate investments in IT that will yield results quickly by improving government services. As a result of the lessons learned and IT successes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state proved it can stabilize critical state services and deliver new services to the public with speed and agility.  In addition to delivering programmatic benefits directly to the residents of California, these efforts also demonstrated the ability to: 

1. Quickly deliver initial services to meet program needs, with incremental and continuous system improvements.
2. Ensure critical services are fully operational without unreasonable downtime.
3. Maintain competitive procurement and oversight in the timely implementation of systems and services.
4. Implement new technology and simplify business processes.
5. Develop accurate predictive data modeling to help save residents’ lives.
6. Improve the public experience in consuming state services.

CDT will now lead a process to apply the lessons and methods to fund new initiatives that will quickly deliver business value to internal and external stakeholders.

State entities will submit proposals to solve important business problems, identifying the benefits to California residents and state employees, and the highlighting the commitment of the executive business stakeholders to fully support and invest in the effort. 

The CDT will review the completeness and the quality of each submission. Those that are complete and aligned with the TMF goals, will advance to readiness assessment.  The CDT, with a civic tech vendor partner, will engage with the department to assess the soundness of the idea, and the organization’s readiness and commitment to execute if awarded a TMF grant. 

Proposals that pass the readiness assessment will be invited to pitch their idea “Shark Tank” style to a committee comprised of Undersecretaries and Chief Deputy Directors.  Evaluating factors such as executive business commitment, agency mission impact, feasibility, opportunity enablement, and transferrable solutions, the selection committee will identify proposals to receive an initial TMF Discovery grant. 

Proposals selected will begin a 2-4 week Discovery Sprint with a civic tech firm.  The outcome of the Discovery Sprint will be a project proposal that identifies the solution path, market viability, resources, schedule, and cost.  If the project proposal continues to align with the TMF goals (scope, schedule and cost) an TMF Implementation grant will be made.

If the Discovery Sprint reveals that the required project does not align with the scope of the TMF, the CDT will help the department transition to a traditional project planning and funding model.  The department will be able to use the Discovery Sprint outputs in the Project Approval Lifecyle.