Toolkit

Modernizing government services means balancing complex regulations with people’s needs. Though government programs are governed by layers of federal, state, and local policy, implementation often falls on overburdened government staff working within legacy technology systems.

Embedding policy experts directly onto agile delivery teams helps bridge this gap between policy requirements and practical implementation. Working side-by-side with technologists, designers, and program staff, policy experts translate local, state, and federal policies into actionable decisions for delivery teams. Ultimately, these efforts accelerate modernization initiatives, help maintain compliance, and ensure public services meet people's needs.

This toolkit provides practical steps for embedding policy experts on delivery teams and utilizing their abilities to the fullest.

Step 1: Bring in a policy expert at the start

Policy experts help connect the dots between regulations and real-world needs. When they join a project early, teams spend less time interpreting regulations and more time designing solutions that work for people and comply with the law. Policy experts help teams interpret regulations while they learn about the current program, challenges, and technology systems.

Policy experts spot risks and opportunities that others might miss, offering a holistic view of how policy shapes workflows, data needs, and people’s experiences. Early alignment between policy experts and agile teams saves time later by preventing rework or compliance surprises.

Embedding policy experts early also strengthens a team's readiness for agile development. Policy experts can facilitate relationships with legal counsel or policy officers on the government side to ensure the delivery team receives consistent policy interpretations and decisions. Establishing that relationship helps move development forward when questions and ideas arise.

Pro tip: Treat policy experts as core team members, not consultants. Include them in sprint ceremonies and user research so they can provide context in real time.

Step 2: Review requirements and create plain-language resources for delivery teams

Once embedded, policy experts help delivery teams make sense of the legal and programmatic landscape. They can start by reviewing all relevant statutes, regulations, and guidance together. Then, policy experts can create plain-language resources for delivery team members, including briefing documents and presentations. This is helpful because a shared understanding among delivery team members reduces confusion during the design and build processes. 

Pro tip: At the start of your project, create a shared policy resource repository in your document management system (SharePoint, Confluence, etc.). It should include key materials like policy glossaries, plain-language summaries of program rules — such as how to calculate benefits, verify eligibility, or issue notifications — and links to relevant statutes and regulations. Storing these resources in one place enables delivery teams to quickly find answers and maintain continuity across sprints and staff transitions. Resources should be updated throughout the project.

Step 3: Enable informed technical decisions with policy analysis

Agile delivery teams need to turn complex policy into clear, testable systems logic and program operations. Policy experts can help translate policy requirements into business rules, workflows, and product decisions, such as:

• Defining eligibility rules and validation steps

• Clarifying documentation or enrollment verification requirements

• Identifying where automation can reduce burden without violating policies

Then, policy experts can document what’s required by policy. Knowing the regulatory must-haves — the legal requirements that absolutely need to be in place — is essential when scoping a project on tight deadlines. These requirements define what belongs in a minimum viable product and what can wait until after launch. Agile projects evolve quickly, so knowing the requirements makes it easier to adjust scope or priorities as new information emerges. Teams can re-scope confidently when they understand which requirements are fixed and which are flexible.

Clear policy requirements also help address staff risk aversion when new workflows or product features depart from legacy processes. Even if an existing process isn't ideal, staff know it's legally compliant. Policy experts can also help improve processes by sharing other options that have been vetted for compliance and by conducting comparative policy research to show what's possible. For example, a city might want to understand how other municipalities regulate public event permits, or a state labor department might consider how peer states interpret a federal rule in their unemployment intake forms. These real-world comparisons help government staff understand practical, compliant alternatives and build confidence in trying new approaches. Without this kind of guidance, teams risk rebuilding outdated or burdensome processes on new platforms, replicating old constraints instead of removing them.

Pro tip: Ask your policy expert to co-create or review product briefs, user stories, or workflow maps to identify where regulations may drive specific design choices — or where the team has flexibility to innovate.

Step 4: Address questions and edge cases

Policy rarely covers every scenario delivery teams encounter. As development progresses, questions will surface about data fields, timing, eligibility scenarios,  process exceptions, and more.

Policy experts can triage and research these questions quickly, drawing on regulatory texts, agency guidance, case law, and comparative program research. They can also track new or changing guidance during development, so the team stays aware of evolving rules.

Pro tip: Schedule regular policy check-ins or add a standing policy review to sprint planning to ensure delivery teams have a consistent space to ask questions. Policy experts should have an established process for escalating questions and securing sign-off for new policy interpretations from the right decision-makers in government. This ensures questions don’t stall progress and timely approvals keep delivery on track.

Step 5: Flag blockers and advocacy opportunities

Sometimes, policy itself becomes a blocker — such as a rule or definition that prevents better design or slows benefit delivery. Policy experts help teams document these barriers and assess how to change them, whether that’s administratively or through legislation.

Beyond documenting barriers, policy experts play a key role in advocating for thoughtful policy improvement. As delivery teams learn from user research and testing, policy experts turn those findings into actionable evidence and show how specific rules or definitions create extra work, delay benefits, or confuse staff or beneficiaries. Sharing these insights regularly with program leaders or policymakers builds a case for change grounded in real experience, not speculation. Over time, this creates a culture where policy and implementation evolve together.

Pro tip: Maintain a policy backlog to capture and prioritize policy improvement opportunities. Invite policymakers to demo days or sprint reviews so they can see firsthand how policy decisions play out in practice. This transparency builds trust and creates shared ownership of the problems and the solutions.

Conclusion

When policy experts work alongside technologists and designers, teams move beyond replicating old systems to building modern ones. They help teams translate regulations into action and uncover inefficiencies baked into old rules. The partnership between policy experts and delivery teams creates the confidence to challenge legacy processes, streamline workflows, and build services that work the way people need them to — not just the way they've always worked.

Because policies change over time, embedding policy experts ensures systems are adaptable and resilient enough to handle new interpretations, updated guidance, or legislative reform without starting from scratch. The result is digital systems that are more effective, responsive, and trustworthy.