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# DITAP Refresh Virtual Interviews - January 2025

Last modified: January 17, 2025


## Background

The Digital IT Acquisition Program (DITAP) has been crucial in transforming federal procurement practices for digital services delivery. Since its creation in 2014, we have observed that the base curriculum hasn't kept pace with changes in the procurement landscape. Our goal for the DITAP Refresh project is to reimagine the curriculum to provide more experiential learning across different learner communities, make structural investments into a multiple vendor, open-source learning models that can stay agile and responsive to change, and update the curriculum to be current and future-proof.
Before our user interviews, we created a SurveyMonkey survey with questions ranging from general satisfaction questions to rating learning modalities to open-ended responses. The final question asked respondents to provide their name and email address if they'd like to participate in a follow-up interview.

## Research information

The virtual interviews will act as a follow-up to the alumni survey discussed above, asking 3 to 5 questions as time permits. These questions will dive deeper into what alumni see as DITAP curriculum benefits, areas the curriculum could improve upon, and how the curriculum could be more current and engaging.

### Research goals

Our virtual interviews aim to follow up on sentiments we discovered in our alumni survey. We want to dig deeper into sentiments around the applicability and currency of the curriculum, the amount of information and delivery methods, and ways we can improve the curriculum in general as we refresh the content. This research, in conjunction with the alumni survey results, will provide the data and knowledge needed to create a DITAP refresh roadmap.

### Interview questions

1. Was there an activity or assignment in the DITAP curriculum that you felt best prepared you for the digital procurement process today? If so, which one? If not, do you have an activity or assignment in mind?
2. Did you find any information missing in the curriculum that's part of the procurement process? If so, which parts?
3. How easy or difficult was it to take what you learned in the DITAP program and bring those lessons back to your agency? If you found it difficult, why? If it was easy, can you share what worked well for you?
4. Do you have any suggestions on activities or course information we should know while working to refresh the DITAP curriculum?
5. Do you have any additional questions about the refresh project?


### Hypothesis

We imagine the research will validate the following assumptions:

- Alumni want more hands-on, real-world applicable activities
- Alumni can share how the curriculum is applicable in the procurement process today
- Alumni confirm our belief that there are curriculum gaps
- Alumni have ideas on how we can improve the curriculum

### Method

We'll interview DITAP alumni via Zoom. In the previous alumni survey, participants volunteered for a follow-up interview; these are the alumni we'll interview. The participants are emailed a follow-up interview request email that contains a calendly link they can use to schedule an interview. Interviews will be conducted by the same interviewer and notes will be captured in a Google doc and synthesized in Mural.

### Materials

- [Email request draft](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dqQVzqZdo_GvIWdM7N7MPdS5pwtTcCMu7z2DJFfZ0p4/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.lgvmw1dhjagl)
- [Research synthesis](https://app.mural.co/t/civicactions3117/m/civicactions3117/1737142960369/000cc497f690e248e84c95d40da415fcbb794ccd?sender=u4f51c3ab811a3cc570d34701)

### Recruitment

Participants were notified via email. An email was sent to any participant who volunteered for a follow-up interview on the alumni survey.

### Timeline

The calendly schedule allowed for 45 scheduling days, beginning on January 21, 2025.

## Team roles

Moderator: Kelly Smith </br>
Participant recruiting: Volunteers from alumni survey </br>
Project point of contact: [April Cruz](mailto:[email protected]) | [Frank McNally](mailto:[email protected]) | [Kelly Smith](mailto:[email protected])</br>
Note-takers: Kelly Smith | April Cruz </br>
Observers: TBD </br>
Synthesis: Kelly Smith </br>

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