The Digital
Principles
Nine "living" guidelines designed to help digital development practitioners integrate established best practices into technology-enabled programs.
Intro to the digital principles
The Principles for Digital Development are nine living guidelines that are designed to help integrate best practices into technology-enabled programs. They include guidance for every phase of the project life cycle, and they are part of an ongoing effort among development practitioners to share knowledge and support continuous learning. The Principles for Digital Development cover nine core areas that are critically important to the long-term success of digital technology programs.
Involving the consultation and contributions of hundreds of practitioners over the course of a decade, the Digital Principles are a community-created product, and are not meant to be stagnant nor compulsory. Rather, the Principles are meant to help guide the creation of technology-enabled programs to improve overall outcomes.
The Digital Principles are designed to be practical, not just theoretical. Incorporating the Principles into the procurement of digital technology can support procurement practitioners do their job better.
The 9 Principles can be viewed here: https://digitalprinciples.org/principles/
Procurement Applicability
- Incorporate the relevant Principles into request documentation
- Consider which of the 9 Principles are most critical for your procurement and build these into your project as essential criteria
- Ask potential respondents to indicate how they would plan to adhere to the Principles in delivering a project
- Research which potential suppliers have already endorsed the Principles
- Use the Digital Principles Maturity Matrix as an evaluation tool
The Digital Principles Maturity Matrix
The Digital Principles Maturity Matrix is an interactive tool to assist a requester align proposal evaluation with the Principles for Digital Development throughout all phases of the project lifecycle. By creating a living, dynamic rubric of detailed statements tied to specific activities under each of the 9 Digital Principles, requesters can better realize the full potential of the Digital Principles, as well as provide clear guidance to potential partners and suppliers as to how priorities will be identified, assessed and evaluated.
Download both the Maturity Matrix User Guide and the Maturity Matrix here: