How We Work

Online Services exists to build, maintain, and improve the technology that supports NASPO's websites and digital services. We work closely with teams across the organization to understand their goals and deliver solutions that are reliable, maintainable, and useful.

This page isn't meant to cover every process or standard we follow. Instead, it explains how we generally approach our work and the principles that guide our decisions.

Start with the problem

Before discussing platforms, plugins, or code, we try to understand the problem we're solving.

The right technical solution depends on the business need, so asking good questions early usually saves time later.

Build for the long term

Whenever practical, we prefer solutions that are simple, well documented, and easy to maintain.

Sometimes that means spending a little more time during development if it makes future updates easier or reduces ongoing support.

Keep improving

Very few projects are ever truly finished.

After a site launches, we continue looking for opportunities to improve accessibility, security, performance, SEO, and the overall user experience. Small improvements over time often have a greater impact than large redesigns every few years.

Work together

Most projects involve multiple departments, each with different areas of expertise.

Online Services is responsible for the technical implementation, but successful projects depend on collaboration. We value early communication, thoughtful feedback, and shared ownership throughout a project.

Make thoughtful decisions

There is rarely only one correct technical solution.

When choosing an approach, we consider factors such as maintainability, security, accessibility, performance, and the long-term needs of the organization. We try to avoid unnecessary complexity and favor solutions that future team members can understand and support.

Leave things better than we found them

Whether we're fixing a bug, updating content, or building a new application, our goal is to leave the project in a better state than when we started.

That could mean improving documentation, simplifying code, resolving technical debt, or making a process easier for the next person.

Small improvements add up over time and help us build systems that are easier to support and continue improving.