Service principles

These 12 principles help us create and run great interoperability services. They were developed in collaboration with campus partners and are rooted in industry best practices. These principles are always evolving and we welcome your input.

Service Principles

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1. Understand users and their needs

Design and test solutions with users to make sure you’re solving the right problems in the right ways.

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2. Solve whole problems

Work across organizational and technical borders to understand and solve a whole problem for users.

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3. Provide cohesive experiences

Align touch points to ensure that users have a joined up experience across all channels.

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4. Make sure everyone can use the service

Provide a service that everyone can use fully, regardless of disability or internet bandwidth.

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5. Build a diverse team and assign a leader

Set up a multidisciplinary team to build and run a service sustainably, with a decision-making leader.

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6. Iterate and improve frequently

Reduce risk by having the capacity, resources, and flexibility to iterate and improve regularly.

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7. Create a secure service

Decide what data is collected, stored, and shared. Consult with experts on security risks.

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8. Define success and publish data

Determine what performance indicators make sense for your service and make it available.

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9. Pick tools and tech with care

Understand the total cost of owning the technology. Make choices now that allow future changes.

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10. Ensure interoperability

Maximize functionality to allow systems to “talk” and “understand” the info passed to one another.

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11. Operate a reliable service

Minimize service downtime and have a plan for outages. Keeping users informed and supporting their needs.

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12. Test with leaders end-to-end

Understand how the service works in real life. Leaders need to know the look and feel of every interaction.