DoIT to pilot new content management system, revamp maryland.gov and reform major IT project oversight

Marcy Jacobs, DoIT’s chief digital experience officer, told the House Health and Government Operations Committee that DoIT will shift state web and transactional work toward a user-centered, product management approach that pairs a new content management system pilot with project‑level intervention teams.

Jacobs said digital experience encompasses "the experience that people have interacting with government. So it's government websites. It's government forms. It's government applications." She said Maryland government content and services have grown "inside out" and that DoIT plans to focus on customer journeys — from discovery to application to renewal — to make interactions easier and reduce downstream calls and escalations.

Key work includes an analytics dashboard (analytics.maryland.gov) to measure where users go, a content management system pilot to replace an aging platform, and a Maryland Web Design System (a component library based on the U.S. Web Design System) to speed and standardize development and accessibility. Jacobs said DoIT also manages plain‑language pilots and will provide short‑term teams of engineers, designers and product managers to help a small number of major projects that are stuck.

On oversight, Jacobs distinguished auditing from intervention: oversight audits the ~70 Major IT Development Projects (MITDP) in the portfolio for budget and compliance, while intervention provides hands‑on product and engineering support for a much smaller set of projects to get them back on track. Jacobs and Secretary Savage said DoIT is moving away from large, single up‑front awards and toward staged, outcome‑based contracting (discovery → minimum viable product → scale) and alternative contracting forms such as fixed‑price or deliverable‑based agreements to reduce overruns.

Jacobs said DoIT has identified about 1,300 permits, licenses and certifications that rely on outdated or manual processes and has begun a data call under the Transparent Government Act to map them. She said about 50 agency sites now have a consistent footer with agency contact information as part of a content‑management upgrade and that DoIT will continue migrating sites into new templates.

Nut graf: DoIT is combining a customer‑centered design approach (analytics, plain language, reusable components, CMS pilot) with changes to oversight and contracting to reduce project cost overruns and improve constituent access to services; Jacobs emphasized staged delivery and targeted intervention rather than large up‑front procurements.

Jacobs said the department is also piloting permitting and licensing work focused on professional licensing and that committee members asked DoIT to consider the Board of Nursing licenses as a candidate pilot.

Ending: Jacobs said DoIT will continue the CMS pilot, refine oversight and stage‑gate processes for major projects, offer intervention teams for stuck projects, and return results and inventories requested by the committee to support legislative oversight and constituent service improvements.