Lessons in Government Digital Infrastructure

Government systems are frequently held to a different standard than typical commercial software: they must serve citizens who did not choose the platform, remain usable for years without a full rewrite, and withstand far more scrutiny over data handling.

This changes some default engineering choices. Longevity and maintainability tend to matter more than moving fast with the newest framework. Documentation that lets a different team pick up the system in five years is not optional polish — it's a requirement.

Access control also becomes more layered in government contexts, often spanning multiple departments or agencies that each have legitimate but distinct authority over the same underlying data. Designing for that from the start avoids painful retrofits later.

None of this makes public-sector software fundamentally different to build — it makes the non-functional requirements (auditability, longevity, layered access) as important as the functional ones from day one.