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Maryland Digital Service grows staff, refocuses major IT projects on outcomes

Budget and Taxation Committee · January 21, 2026

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Summary

Marcy Jacobs told the committee that the Maryland Digital Service has expanded from 22 to 49 staff, secured a contract vehicle to scale local digital firms, and is reforming MITDP oversight to require product and UX staff on large projects to deliver user-centered outcomes.

Marcy Jacobs, who leads the Maryland Digital Service, told the Budget and Taxation Committee that the unit has expanded staff and shifted its focus from isolated technology projects toward user-centered service delivery.

"We are driving a shift from technology and project delivery to thinking about truly service delivery," Jacobs said, describing reforms to the MITDP portfolio that require modern software development staff — product leads, UX designers, and engineers — on large projects.

Jacobs said MDS staff grew from 22 to 49 in the past year and that the service obtained a contract vehicle giving agencies access to eight local digital service firms. She described delivery work that includes launching a new Drupal content-management system for maryland.gov and standing up an analytics platform (analytics.maryland.gov) to track traffic and customer satisfaction.

On MITDP oversight, Jacobs said there are roughly 60 projects affiliated with the fund that exceed $5,000,000 each and span multiple life-cycle stages. She described an interventions program that deploys short discovery engagements or embedded teams to help struggling projects course-correct and announced an MITDP dashboard to increase transparency later in the month.

As an example, Jacobs highlighted an MDE portal intervention: the agency has about 400 forms, and discovery found that roughly 20% of the forms account for 80% of volume; MDS is prioritizing high-volume, high-impact forms and deploying product and UX staff to shorten turnaround time and reduce applicant confusion. Jacobs said the online payment component of that project was expected to ship imminently.

Jacobs told committee members the reforms aim to shift performance measures from on-time/on-budget to demonstrable value and improved constituent outcomes.