Evaluation of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's digitization of service delivery through the Digital Service Delivery Platform

About this evaluation

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) digitization efforts seek to deliver end-to-end digital services and information that is easy to find and understand. The CFIA's digitization efforts also aim to increase industry access to online service options and facilitate access to international markets.

Evaluation objective

To determine whether the CFIA's digital initiative through Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP) improved service experience and operations in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Service and Digital.

Evaluation scope

The evaluation focused on governance and accountability of the digitization of service delivery through DSDP as it relates to strategy and implementation. It also focused on internal user experience to deliver services digitally. Finally, the evaluation focused on activities to progress the digitization of service delivery at the CFIA over the period April 2018 to June 2023.

Use of findings

The findings of this evaluation will support the agency's onboarding and management of services. The findings will also help to identify where the digitization initiative through DSDP is working well and where there are opportunities for improvement.

Methodology

The mixed method research design for this evaluation incorporated 7 lines of evidence using multiple data collection and analysis methods. The evaluation was guided by the following questions:

1. Does the CFIA have effective governance processes in place to support the successful implementation and oversight of digitization initiatives and outcomes?
2. To what extent are the CFIA's digital transformation initiatives improving service experience and operations?
3. How did the CFIA spend planned funds to achieve the outcomes?

This was the first evaluation of CFIA's digitization of service delivery through DSDP.

Key findings and recommendations

Governance

Finding 1. Roles and responsibilities related to the CFIA's digitization of service delivery and DSDP in general are not clearly defined.

Finding 2. A strategic plan to support the achievement of the Agency's digitization goal does not exist. Prioritization of services to be digitized is unclear due to the absence of a strategic plan.

Recommendation 1. The CFIA should manage the digitization of service delivery with clear authority.

Recommendation 2. The authorized executive for digital service delivery (from recommendation 1) should create a project plan including a timeline, budget and implementation roadmap in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Service and Digital. The plan would include improvements to the existing user interface and experience for DSDP.

User Experience: Use of DSDP

Finding 3. The majority of internal CFIA users rated their satisfaction with DSDP as low, rating its functionality poorly and assessing its impact on their day-to-day work as negative. Corresponding data on the satisfaction of external clients with My CFIA was not available.

Recommendation 3. The CFIA should collect and analyze comprehensive user feedback on satisfaction with service delivery through My CFIA.

User Experience: User-Centric Design

Finding 4. Evaluation findings indicate that the approach to design has not been user-centric.

Recommendation 4. Going forward, platform development and design should be consistently user-centric, systematically incorporating user feedback from both internal and external users.

User Experience: Training and Support

Finding 5. Training and support are not meeting the needs of internal DSDP users.

Recommendation 5. Training should be updated in coordination with planned releases and offered in a timely manner.

Recommendation 6. Internal support documents should be available consistently and well communicated to staff in a timely manner.

Funding

Finding 6. The digitization of the CFIA services is requiring more time and resources than originally anticipated. The CFIA has not reached its planned targets.

Management response

CFIA management agrees with the evaluation recommendations and has outlined an action plan.

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