Why government agility matters
For governments, the pace of change has accelerated beyond the capacity of traditional systems to keep up. Expectations from citizens and businesses are rising, policy cycles are shortening, and political priorities shift with increasing frequency. What follows is a continuous stream of new legislation, policy measures and adjustments to public services. In that environment, speed is no longer a competitive advantage, but a prerequisite for relevance. Governments that fail to implement change swiftly risk falling behind reality, undermining both their effectiveness and public trust. Yet speed can only be achieved if organisations are able to absorb new rules and services with relative ease, in a controlled manner, and with maximum reuse of what already exists. Recent years have provided ample proof. The rapid roll-out of COVID support schemes, the adjustment of tax regimes, and the introduction of new nitrogen policies all show the same pattern, where agility determines whether policy ambition translates into execution.
What flexible IT is made of
An agile government cannot function without flexible information provision. Information is one of the lifelines of the public sector, essential for executing government tasks, implementing regulations and delivering public services. When information systems and information flows fail to move in step with operational change, the ability to adapt policy execution quickly is fundamentally constrained.
Flexible information provision is underpinned by flexible IT. This requires a composable enterprise architecture, built from independent functional components that can be adapted, replaced, reused and integrated with relative ease. The objective is clear, to avoid a situation in which every policy or service change forces a redesign of the entire IT landscape, bringing disruption and lengthy programmes in its wake.
Data plays an equally critical role. Information on citizens and businesses, as well as the rules that apply to them, must be able to evolve alongside changing circumstances. This becomes feasible when data is structured, decomposed and connected, allowing changes to remain targeted while ensuring that all relevant information for implementation is available and usable.
To support this, organisations require a composition platform, a foundation on which new applications can be developed rapidly as part of a composable IT landscape. These applications are connected through Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, forming a coherent whole. An iterative way of working, grounded in Agile and DevOps, ensures that new functionality is delivered quickly and in a controlled manner.
How composable architecture delivers agility
Composable IT architecture enhances an organisation’s ability to change in several ways. Because it is built from small, functional components, adjustments can be made without large-scale disruption. Change becomes incremental rather than systemic. Scalability further reinforces this agility. Functionality delivered via a composition platform can be expanded horizontally or vertically as demand evolves, allowing organisations to extend existing capabilities or introduce new ones without delay. Equally important is governability. Composable architecture provides visibility into complex chains and system landscapes, strengthening control. And without control, speed of change quickly becomes a liability rather than an asset. Effective implementation ultimately depends on access to relevant legislation and usable data on citizens and businesses. Together, rules and data form the raw materials for the schemes governments administer and the decisions they produce. When structured properly, they become easier to find, reuse and modify. Well-structured legislation is also easier to model and encode in supporting information systems. This significantly shortens the time required to translate new laws and regulations into operational reality.
Transformation
No government organisation starts from a blank slate. Most operate within IT landscapes shaped by years of incremental change, characterised by legacy systems, monolithic applications, siloed data and fragmented rule sets. The challenge lies in transforming this landscape into a composable and connected whole.
This transformation starts with the design of a composable target architecture. The standard procedural steps of the Dutch General Administrative Law Act can serve as a guiding framework. From there, these steps can be further decomposed, depending on the type of scheme, whether a permit, subsidy, levy or similar arrangement, and translated into functional software components.
These components are then developed and connected on a composition platform. At the same time, the existing monolithic environment is phased down in a controlled manner. Functionality is gradually switched off, while essential legacy components remain connected to the new architecture for as long as required.
Regulation follows a comparable path. It must be structured into a coherent set of target-group criteria, products or services, product criteria and references to other rules. The result is a flexible, adaptable and digitally accessible body of implementation rules, ready to be applied as rules as code.
The same applies to data relating to citizens and businesses. Together with implementation rules, this data forms the foundation of execution processes and the decisions and actions that follow.
An Agile and DevOps approach ensures that the flexibility inherent in composable systems, rules and data is matched by the ability to deliver change at pace.
The outcome
The result of this transformation is a far greater capacity to absorb policy change and respond to evolving societal needs. Instead of redesigning entire systems, organisations can focus on adjusting only those components directly affected by change. Because systems, rules and data are coherently connected, all relevant elements evolve together, ensuring consistency in execution. At the same time, the transition from waterfall to Agile and DevOps working methods significantly shortens delivery cycles. What once required years can increase within months, weeks or even days.
Why Sopra Steria
Sopra Steria supports governments in navigating this transition. Its experience across the public sector has resulted in a deep understanding of government processes, organisational dynamics, information provision and IT, as well as the challenges that define today’s policy agenda. That experience translates into a way of working centred on collaboration and pragmatism. Rather than a traditional client-supplier model, Sopra Steria operates in joint teams, sharing responsibility for outcomes and focusing on practical solutions that deliver tangible results. Its approach is grounded in Agile and DevOps, enabling short delivery cycles, continuous improvement and faster time to value. At the same time, modernisation is performed in a controlled manner, ensuring continuity of services while gradually moving from legacy environments to a future-ready IT landscape.