Q&A
Development process and challenges of MyCity portal
1:27:27
·
3 min
Council Member Gutiérrez inquires about the development process of MyCity, particularly the balance between in-house and vendor work. Commissioner Fraser explains the challenges faced and the approach taken in building the system.
- Fraser confirms that the development involves a mix of in-house and external resources
- He mentions that OTI has lost over 350 employees since January 2022, impacting their capacity
- The development strategy involves using both city and contracting resources to build the system
- Fraser emphasizes that the city's development teams have been integral to the process, ensuring the ability to manage the system independently in the future
- He assures that the city is capable of managing the systems built with its own workforce if needed
Jennifer Gutiérrez
1:27:27
end.
1:27:28
Okay.
1:27:29
Okay.
1:27:33
Can I ask now my next series of questions are gonna be about kind of the build out of of my city?
1:27:39
Mhmm.
1:27:40
I know that initially, certainly before it was launched, there was the intention to of of doing it in house.
1:27:48
That's not been the case entirely.
1:27:50
Correct?
1:27:51
Yep.
1:27:51
So can you share a little bit about kind of what those challenges were.
1:27:57
I know it was still very much like we were still remote.
1:28:00
There was still a pandemic.
1:28:02
I know there's been a number of hiring freezes.
1:28:04
So I would love if you could specify if that decision was at all because of a hiring freeze, because of capacity, and then what were some of the and if you can just specify from the portal what has a vendor and what's in house.
1:28:19
So the childcare piece, the business piece, the jobs piece, the chatbot.
1:28:25
What is what was produced in house versus utilized for with a vendor?
Matthew Fraser
1:28:29
Yeah.
1:28:29
So I I would say everything that was produced was produced with an amalgamation of in house and external resources.
1:28:35
As you mentioned, there has been a number of constraints that has impacted the city as a whole.
1:28:41
OCI has not been exempt from some of those constraints since the beginning of the administration from January 2022 to now.
1:28:50
We've lost over 350 employees.
Robert F. Holden
1:28:53
Right?
Matthew Fraser
1:28:53
And that means that when you lose that many people, that means that they're they're naturally workload that has to be redistributed in ways
Jennifer Gutiérrez
1:29:03
it hasn't been filled.
1:29:04
Their vacancies?
Matthew Fraser
1:29:06
That that that is correct.
1:29:07
Wow.
1:29:07
Alright?
1:29:08
So we've of recent, we've been ensuring that our most critical areas, things like New York City Cyber Command, and the areas that are in charge of the most critical services, public safety, number 1, those kind of things that we ensure that we maintain the staffing levels in those places to make sure that we can continue to provide the critical services that we do.
1:29:27
And the areas where we're losing application development resources.
1:29:30
It's for a myriad of reasons.
1:29:32
And I think in that space, we still have a commitment to deliver to the public, and we do that by using staff aug and bringing in resources that can help us maintain that that delivery schedule.
1:29:45
For us, it's a mix of bringing in private and public resources together to build something is not a foreign concept.
1:29:56
However, what is a foreign concept is after a system has been delivered, the city having the capability to manage it on its own.
1:30:02
So what we've done along the way as we develop my city is we've made sure that the city's development teams have been integral part of how the systems have been built.
1:30:10
That we don't find ourselves in a position as we turn over from phase to phase to phase that we're continuously dependent exclusively on external resources to build and maintain the system.
1:30:20
This is how the city finds itself beholden to partnerships, vendor partnerships because it has no capabilities to manage on its own.
1:30:29
I can say with a high degree of confidence, everything that we've built on the MyCity side of the spectrum has been built with both city and contracting resources, but should it's when the time comes or should be event call for it, the city is capable of managing the systems that have been built and the services with its workforce.
