Who Needs to Be in the Room?

• Who from your agency should be present for this discovery so we don’t miss critical perspectives? Options: CIO / Deputy CIO, Program Manager / PM, Digital Services Lead, Security / ISSO, Privacy Officer, Legal / OGC, Procurement / CO, Accessibility / Section 508 Lead, Identity / Login.gov Lead, Business Owner / Program SME, Communications / Public Affairs, Other
• Who is the single point of accountability for decisions on scope, budget, and ATO (name/title if possible)?
• Are there external parties we should include or brief (OMB, CISA, grantor, congressional staff, state partners)? Options: OMB, DHS CISA, Congressional oversight staff, State or local partners, Granting agency, Interagency program office, Other
• How do your stakeholders prefer to make decisions: consensus working groups, stage-gate reviews, delegated signoff, or executive memos? Options: Consensus working group, Stage-gate reviews, Delegated authority / single approver, Executive memo / leadership signoff, Ad-hoc meetings
• Tell us about a recent cross‑unit decision that moved quickly—what enabled that speed and alignment?

If This Misses the Mark, Who Will Notice First?

• Who will be publicly or operationally accountable if outcomes fall short or the rollout fails? Options: Program Manager, Deputy CIO, CIO, Chief Data Officer, Authorizing Official / AO, Congressional oversight staff, Other
• How has that accountability shaped trade-offs in past modernization efforts (for example: scope reductions, extra security controls, or timeline compressions)?
• Which oversight metrics are most likely to trigger leadership inquiries (processing time, error rates, constituent complaints, cost per transaction)? Options: Processing time, Error or exception rates, Constituent complaints / FOIA volume, Cost per transaction, Completion rate, Citizen satisfaction
• Are there political or reputational risks tied to specific user groups or services that amplify accountability? Options: Yes—vulnerable populations, Yes—high-visibility programs, Yes—statutory deadlines, No, Unsure
• Describe one past failure that drew attention—what happened, who reacted, and what changed afterward?

Timelines Aren't Aspirations — They're Deadlines

• What immovable dates or delivery windows must this project hit (funding cutoffs, statutory dates, reporting deadlines, ATO milestones)?
• Where do those dates originate (Congressional reporting, grant terms, internal fiscal timelines), and how negotiable are they? Options: Congressional / statutory, Grantor / funding, Agency fiscal year, Program roadmap, External partner schedule, Other
• What is your target timeframe for achieving ATO and what typical ATO timelines has your agency experienced historically? Options: Target: 0–3 months, Historical: 0–3 months, Target: 3–6 months, Historical: 3–6 months, Target: 6–12 months, Historical: 6–12 months, Target: 12+ months, Historical: 12+ months, Unsure / varies
• If schedule slips 2–3 months, what concrete operational or funding consequences occur?
• When compressed timelines have produced quicker decisions before, what compromises were required and were they acceptable in retrospect?

Where Compliance Turns into Roadblocks

• Which specific security, privacy, or accessibility requirements have derailed past projects or created long delays?
• Which of the following compliance artifacts are already available for this project? Options: System Security Plan (SSP), Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M), Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), Incident Response Plan, SSO / Login.gov integration docs, None available yet
• Who currently holds ATO authority or is the Authorizing Official for services like this in your agency? Options: Agency Authorizing Official (AO), Shared services provider AO, Component-level AO, TBD / rotating
• What level of FedRAMP or hosting authorization is required or preferred for this platform? Options: FedRAMP Moderate, FedRAMP High, Agency-hosted / on-prem, Agency-sponsored / JAB, Unsure
• Describe a security finding that was hardest to close and how your team finally resolved it.

The Citizen Journey That Keeps You Up at Night

• Which parts of the citizen experience today cause the most complaints, escalations, or congressional attention?
• Which user populations are highest priority because the current process harms them most (LEP, low-connectivity, seniors, veterans, immigrants, people with disabilities)? Options: Limited English proficiency, Low connectivity / mobile-only, Seniors, People with disabilities, Veterans, Immigrants / asylum seekers, Other
• What are your current baseline completion, abandonment, and average processing times for the top 1–3 transactions?
• How are identity proofing and verification handled now, and where do failures most often occur (proofing step, PII match, Login.gov integration, fraud flags)?
• Share a specific constituent story that illustrates the human cost of the current workflow.

What Would Make Leadership Celebrate This Win?

• If leadership could point to one measurable improvement after launch, what would that be and why would it matter politically or operationally?
• Which KPIs will leadership use to judge success and which of these are mandatory for reporting? Options: Completion rate, Citizen satisfaction (CSAT), Time-to-decision / processing time, Cost per transaction, Error / exception rate, Accessibility compliance (Section 508)
• Do any KPIs directly affect funding, oversight, or executive attention (for example, tied to scorecards or briefings)? Options: Yes—funding tied to KPIs, Yes—oversight attention tied to KPIs, No, Unsure
• What baseline data can you share now so we can model expected impact and draft acceptance criteria?
• Who needs to approve the success measures and the acceptance criteria for deployment? Options: Program Manager, CIO office, Authorizing Official / AO, Business Owner, Other

Who’s Likely to Say No — and What Will Make Them Change Their Mind?

• Which groups are most likely to slow or block procurement, integration, or ATO (legal, procurement, ISSO, program office, unions, partner agencies)? Options: Legal / OGC, Procurement / CO, ISSO / Security, Program Office / Business Owner, Labor / unions, Interagency partners, Other
• What are the core objections they raise (risk, cost, vendor lock-in, data residency, operational disruption)? Options: Security / risk, Cost, Vendor lock‑in, Data residency / sovereignty, Operational disruption, Contracting vehicle concerns, Other
• What proof points, artifacts, or staged milestones typically persuade skeptical stakeholders (pilot metrics, SSP, independent security test results, SLA language)? Options: Pilot metrics / user feedback, Completed SSP, Third‑party security test (SCA, pen test), SLA and liability terms, Data handling agreements, Other
• How flexible is your procurement path for startups or existing GSA/IDIQ vendors? Options: GSA Schedule available, Agency IDIQ in place, Need new RFP/solicitation, Other / mixed
• Describe one negotiation lever that has worked to convert a no into a conditional yes in previous projects.

Small Bets, Big Proof: Proposed First Steps

• What is the smallest viable pilot or experiment that would prove value without requiring full ATO up front? Options: Frontend prototype with synthetic data, Limited MVP with anonymized production data, Login.gov + proofing demo, Internal-only pilot for staff, Phased release to a small user cohort, Other
• Which specific metrics or types of user feedback from that pilot would convince you to scale (completion uplift, reduced helpdesk tickets, NPS/CSAT uplift, time saved)? Options: Completion rate uplift, Reduced helpdesk volume, Increased CSAT / NPS, Faster processing time, Lower cost per case, Other
• What internal approvals or artifacts must exist before a discovery sprint can begin (funding, data access, security baselines, staff assignment)? Options: Funding approval, Data access agreement / MOU, Security baseline established, POC environment / sandbox, Staffing assigned, Other
• What timeline would you be willing to commit to for a focused 6–8 week discovery sprint to produce outcomes and ATO‑adjacent evidence? Options: Immediate (within 2 weeks), Within 1 month, 2–3 months, Quarter+ / planning required, Unsure
• At the end of the discovery sprint, what concrete deliverables and decisions would you require to move to SOW and pilot (e.g., SSP draft, success metric baseline, signed data access, stakeholder signoffs)?

Start Where Your Citizens Start

• Which public-facing service or program should we focus this discovery on? Options: Immigration/benefits processing, Veterans benefits, Social Security, Tax filing, Student aid/financial assistance, Licensing or permitting, Other
• Who are the primary citizen populations using this service today? Options: General public, Low-income individuals, Non-English speakers, Elderly, People with disabilities, Veterans, Immigrants/newcomers, Other
• Roughly how many unique users or transactions does this service handle per month? Options: <1,000, 1,000–10,000, 10,000–100,000, 100,000–1,000,000, >1,000,000, Unknown
• Which channels do citizens currently use to start or complete this transaction? Options: Agency website, Mobile web, Native mobile app, Phone / call center, In-person office, Mail / fax, Third-party partner portal, Kiosk / public terminal, Other
• Describe, in a few sentences, the typical end-to-end steps a citizen follows today (from discovery to completion).
• Which device types dominate usage for this service? Options: Mobile smartphone, Tablet, Desktop / laptop, Public computer (library, kiosk), Assisted by staff/phone

Are We Fixing Symptoms or the Disease?

• What is the one recurring citizen pain you address for this service that still feels unsolved?
• Which metrics best demonstrate that this problem exists today? Options: Drop-off rate (start-to-submit), Completion rate, Helpdesk / call volume, Average processing time, Error rates / exceptions, Appeals or escalations, Citizen satisfaction (CSAT), Other
• How often does this problem trigger manual work or back-office rework? Options: Always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never, Unknown
• Tell us about a recent example where this issue created political risk, program failure, or measurable harm (what happened, and who noticed?).
• How long has this issue persisted, and what short-term fixes have you tried?
• Who within the agency ultimately decides whether this problem gets prioritized for modernization? Options: CIO / Deputy CIO, Digital Services Director, Program Manager, Authorizing Official (ATO), Procurement, Other

Where Things Fall Apart (and Why You Keep Patching Them)

• When the service fails, what does a citizen actually experience—dead ends, lost documents, incorrect decisions, or something else?
• List the top 3 failure modes you’ve observed (for example: session timeouts, failed uploads, authentication errors, incorrect backend responses).
• How frequently do these failures occur? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Rarely, Unknown
• When a failure occurs, what is the typical recovery path and how long does it take (citizen-facing and back-office)?
• Which failure types cause the most staff time or public scrutiny? Options: High-volume abandonment, Data loss / corruption, Security incident, Incorrect approvals or denials, Compliance violations, Other
• What monitoring, alerting, or observability tools do you currently rely on to detect these failures? Options: Cloud native monitoring (CloudWatch, Stackdriver), Splunk / ELK, APM tools (New Relic, Datadog), Custom dashboards, None in production, Other

Who Are You Letting In — And Who Gets Locked Out?

• Are your identity and verification checks protecting citizens—or preventing eligible people from getting services?
• Which identity flows and verification methods are in use today? Options: Login.gov, Agency username/password, Vendor ID verification (document based), Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA), Multi-factor authentication (MFA), In-person identity vetting, No formal identity flow
• Do you currently integrate with Login.gov, and if so, how is it being used? Options: Not integrated, Primary authentication for citizens, Optional SSO, Back-end/staff only, Planned integration
• Approximately what percentage of applicants fail automated identity checks and require manual review? Options: <1%, 1–5%, 5–15%, 15–30%, >30%, Unknown
• What are the most common reasons citizens fail verification (e.g., lack of ID, name/address mismatch, poor document photos)?
• How do identity failures disproportionately affect non-English speakers, older adults, or people with low digital literacy?
• Who inside the agency is responsible for ATO and PII/privacy risk decisions related to identity flows? Options: Authorizing Official, CISO / Security, Privacy Officer, Program Manager, Contractor, Other

When Language and Accessibility Become Barriers, Not Features

• If a non-English speaker or someone using a screen reader tried this service today, would they get help—or hit a wall?
• Which languages do you actively support for content and transactions today? Options: English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic, Vietnamese, French, Other, No translations
• Who manages translation and localization (in-house team, vendor, machine translation, or other)? Options: In-house team, Vendor / contractor, Machine translation (MT) with human review, Crowdsourced / community, No formal process
• What is the current Section 508 / accessibility status of this service? Options: Fully compliant and tested, Partially compliant — remediation planned, Planned for remediation, Not compliant, Unknown
• Have you conducted usability testing with people who rely on translations, screen readers, or have low digital literacy? Options: Yes — multiple rounds, Yes — one round, Planned, No
• How often do language or accessibility issues show up in your support logs, calls, or feedback channels? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Rarely, Never, Unknown
• Share a concrete example where language or accessibility barriers prevented completion—what happened and how did you respond?

Who's Touching Your Back End — And Can They Keep Up?

• If your legacy systems could speak, what would they tell us are the fastest ways you get blocked from modernizing?
• List the core legacy systems and their primary function that must be integrated for this service to work (name and role).
• Which integration patterns are possible today between modern front-ends and those systems? Options: Real-time REST APIs, Batch file exchange, Screen-scraping / terminal emulation, Middleware / ESB, Database views or extracts, No integration available
• Are there nightly jobs, batch windows, or reconciliation rules that prevent transactional APIs from being implemented? Options: Yes — nightly batch dependencies, Yes — manual reconciliation required, No blocking dependencies, Unknown
• Which teams or roles control access to those systems and sample/test data? Options: Core IT / mainframe team, Business unit owners, Security / Identity team, Data governance, Contractor, Other
• How long would it take to provision a representative test environment and sanitized data for development and ATO testing? Options: Days, Weeks, Months, Not possible, Unknown
• Which compliance constraints (e.g., FedRAMP, FISMA, Privacy Act) most influence how we must build integrations? Options: FedRAMP, FISMA, Privacy Act, CJIS, HIPAA, ITAR, Other, Unknown

If This Worked, What Would Change for Real People?

• Picture a constituent who completes this transaction without friction—what does their day look like afterward and why does that matter?
• Which measurable signals would prove this modernization succeeded for your program? Options: Completion rate increase, Processing time reduced, Call center volume decreased, CSAT improved, ATO approval time shortened, Fraud reduction, Other
• What is an acceptable timeline to deliver an MVP that can be piloted with real citizens? Options: 6–12 months, Longer than a year, Unsure, 4–8 weeks, 2–4 months, 4–6 months
• Who must sign off for an MVP to move into pilot and production phases? Options: Authorizing Official, CIO / Deputy CIO, Program Manager, Security / ATO team, Legal / Privacy, Procurement
• What evidence do you require before accepting an MVP (e.g., accessibility report, penetration test, user research, ATO artifacts)? Options: Accessibility test report, Penetration / security test, ATO package / artifacts, User research & usability testing, Performance / load testing, Other
• What are the single biggest risks that would cause you to stop the project, and how would you want those mitigated?
• What would give you confidence we can deliver the service and achieve ATO in the timeline you need?

Setting the Scene: Where We Stand

• Who is the program sponsor or primary point of accountability for this deployment? (name, role, best contact)
• What is the target go-live window you and your leadership are most aiming for? Options: ASAP (within 30 days), 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6+ months, No firm target
• Which environments are currently provisioned and accessible to our team right now? Options: Development, Test/QA, Stage/UAT, Pre-production, Production, Shared agency sandbox, FedRAMP-authorized hosting
• What is the current ATO status for the system and any integrated components? Options: No ATO started, ATO in progress (SSP under review), Interim/temporary authorization, Full ATO in place, ATO with significant caveats/POA&M
• Briefly describe any recent deployments, migrations, or environment changes that materially affect readiness (successes, surprises, timing).

What Could Stop This From Shipping?

• If we had to ship next month, what single technical or organizational constraint would force us to cut scope or delay launch?
• Which specific data sources or legacy APIs are most likely to be unavailable or unstable during rollout? Options: Mainframe backend, Proprietary third-party API, Batch ETL feeds, Identity provider (Login.gov), Payment gateway, Document verification vendor, Other
• Are there legal, data sharing, or MOA/MOU approvals still pending that gate access to production or real citizen data? If yes, list them and owners.
• How many personnel with required clearances are currently assigned to deployment tasks, and are they available full-time or part-time? Options: 0, 1–2, 3–5, 6–10, More than 10
• Tell us about a previous compliance or integration issue that delayed a rollout—what happened and how long did it take to recover?

Who Actually Holds the Keys?

• Who can immediately grant access, approve emergency changes, or sign ATO-related documents when time is critical, and are they easy to reach?
• Please list system owners, the ISSO, the Authorizing Official (AO), and alternates with contact info (name + role + email/phone).
• Which personnel clearance or background investigation levels do members of the deployment team require? Options: Public Trust, Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, Other agency-specific clearance
• If a primary approver is unavailable, what is the formal delegation path for ATO and operational approvals?
• Do any contractors or third parties need sponsoring for PIV/CAC or other access before go-live? If yes, list vendor and access type. Options: Yes, No, Unsure

How Safe Is 'Safe Enough'?

• Which required security or compliance artifact, if missing or incomplete, would force a stop to deployment?
• Which of the following security artifacts are already finalized and available to review? Options: System Security Plan (SSP), Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M), Continuous Monitoring Plan, Configuration Management Plan, Penetration Test Report, Security Assessment Report (SAR), FedRAMP authorization letter, Acceptance Test Plan (Security)
• For artifacts not yet complete, estimate percent complete and target delivery date (e.g., 'SSP — 60% — 2026-06-15').
• Have residual risks been identified that will be tracked via POA&M post-launch? If yes, describe the top three and expected remediation timelines.
• Do remediation SLAs and vulnerability response targets align with hosting/FedRAMP requirements? Options: Yes — fully aligned, Partially aligned, No — need clarification, Unsure

Can We Test Like Citizens Will Use It?

• If citizens used the service at scale tomorrow—on mobile, in another language, or using assistive tech—where would the experience likely fail first?
• Which test plans or test suites do you already have documented for citizen-centric scenarios? Options: User acceptance testing (UAT) plan, Accessibility (Section 508) test plan, Localization/multilingual QA plan, Identity/Login.gov flow test cases, Performance/load test plan, End-to-end integration test plan, Data migration and reconciliation test cases
• Which environments contain anonymized, production-like data suitable for realistic end-to-end testing? Options: None, Subset of production data in stage, Synthetic but representative data, Full production clone, Other
• Have you completed accessibility testing with assistive technologies and real users who rely on them? If yes, summarize the highest-impact defects.
• What are the quantitative success thresholds you expect from testing (for example: completion rate, acceptable error rate, page-load targets)?
• Describe the rollback strategy and immediate mitigation steps if a phased release produces critical, user-facing failures.

What Does Day One Need to Look Like?

• If leadership asked for one artifact or metric 24 hours before launch to feel confident, what single thing would it be?
• Which monitoring and observability tools will be live on day one? Options: Real-time dashboards (completion rates), APM (application performance monitoring), Error tracking (Sentry/NewRelic), Identity flow analytics, Security Event Logging / SIEM, User feedback widget, Other
• Who will own on-call incident response for the first 30/60/90 days after launch? Options: Agency operations team, Our contractor deployment team, Shared on-call rotation, Third-party managed service, Unsure
• Which citizen support channels must be available at launch (select all that apply)? Options: Phone support, Live chat, Email/ticketing, Automated FAQ/knowledge base, In-app help, Agent-assisted sessions, Other
• What are the acceptance criteria that must be satisfied to expand user populations beyond initial phase (please list measurable gates)?
• Which team will own initial success reporting (completion rate, satisfaction, ATO constraints), and how often will they report to stakeholders?

Phased Launch Map: Who Goes First and Why

• If you had to pick the safest 10% of users to test live right away, who would they be and why are they low risk?
• Which segmentation approaches do you favor for phased rollout? Options: Internal agency staff, Low-risk geographic region, Specific benefit type or transaction, Proxy users / trained testers, Identity-verified users only, Mobile users only, Other
• What gating criteria should be met before promoting to the next phase (examples: error rate thresholds, SLA achievement, critical security fixes closed)?
• What cadence between phases do you require and what minimal stabilization window should we observe after each phase? Options: Days (1–7), Weeks (2–4), Months (1–3), Unsure
• Who must sign phase-release authority (names and roles) and what concrete artifacts must we deliver to them for sign-off?
• What should the communications and public messaging look like for each phase (stakeholder briefings, citizen notices, media statements)?

Start Here: The Program and People We're Solving For

• Which program, service, or customer journey is this project focused on? Options: Immigration/visas, Veterans benefits, Social Security/retirement, Tax filing/IRS, Student aid/education, Other (please name)
• Who are the primary end users or constituent groups we must validate for (demographics, disability needs, language needs)? Options: Elderly, Low-income households, Non-English speakers, Rural/limited connectivity, People with disabilities, Caregivers/representatives, Other
• Roughly how many transactions or unique users do you expect to validate under an MVP or phased rollout per month? Options: <1,000, 1k–10k, 10k–50k, 50k–200k, >200k, Unsure
• Who on your side will be the day-to-day contact for validation activities (name/title/role)?
• What is your target window for having the first validation artifacts submitted for ATO review (weeks/months)? Options: 2–4 weeks, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6+ months, No defined target

Why Does ATO Take Longer Than It Should?

• When you think about recent ATO efforts, what one bottleneck consistently stretched timelines (policy, evidence, testing, roles, vendor experience)? Options: Security artifacts (SSP/SA&A), Incomplete test evidence, Identity/SAML issues, Unclear ownership for remediation, Procurement/contract delays, Other
• Which of these security artifacts has historically delayed your approvals the most? Options: System Security Plan (SSP), Continuous Monitoring Plan, Pen test report, POA&M, Incident Response Plan, FedRAMP package
• How long did your last ATO-involved project take from initial security scoping to final authorization (actual vs. expected)? Options: <1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, >12 months, This is our first ATO attempt
• Describe a recent ATO or security-review surprise that forced rework—what happened and how was it resolved?
• If we could eliminate one recurring cause of ATO delay for your agency, which would you choose and why?

Are Our Identity Flows Honest About Real-World Users?

• Where do identity checks typically fail for your constituents (registration, login.gov linkage, ID verification steps)? Options: Initial registration, Login.gov integration, Multi-factor authentication, Third-party ID verification, Account recovery, Other
• How often do identity failures lead to support calls or in-person visits? Options: Almost always, Often, Occasionally, Rarely, We don't track
• Which identity providers and verification vendors must we support or integrate with? Options: Login.gov, ID.me, Jumio/Onfido/etc., Agency SSO, PIV/CAC, Other
• What are the acceptance criteria for identity success (e.g., % of users verified on first attempt, time-to-verify)?
• Tell us about any population-specific identity challenges (e.g., no SSN, name changes, shared devices).

Where Do Back-End Integrations Break the Citizen Promise?

• Which legacy systems or APIs must be integrated for the core transaction to complete? Options: Mainframe batch system, SOAP/legacy API, Custom DB extracts, Message queues, Third-party payment processor, Other
• How stable are those backend connections today (SLAs, error rates, maintenance windows)? Options: Highly stable, Occasionally unstable, Often unstable, Unknown/no monitoring
• Are there current contractual or technical limits (rate limits, throttles, read-only windows) that restrict test automation or load testing? Options: Yes—rate limits, Yes—read-only windows, Yes—data masking restrictions, No known limits, Unsure
• What minimum set of backend endpoints must pass validation before we can declare integration success?
• Describe a past integration failure—what was the root cause and how long did recovery take?

Accessibility Isn’t a Checkbox—What’s the User Impact Today?

• Which accessibility standards and audits does your agency require for acceptance? Options: Section 508, WCAG 2.1 AA, WCAG 2.2 AA, Other (please specify)
• How much accessibility testing and evidence do you need—automated scans, manual audits, user testing with assistive technology? Options: Automated scans only, Automated + manual audits, Automated + assisted-user sessions, Full user research with assistive tech, Unsure
• Where are your highest-risk accessibility failures today (forms, file uploads, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility)? Options: Forms/validation, PDFs/documents, Dynamic controls, Keyboard focus/order, Color contrast/visuals, Other
• What evidence format does your acceptance board expect for accessibility (test scripts, recordings, remediation plan)? Options: Automated reports, Manual audit checklists, Screen-recorded assisted sessions, Remediation roadmap + retest, Other
• Have accessibility issues ever blocked a release at your agency? Tell us what that looked like.

What Performance Problem Would Make You Lose Trust Overnight?

• What are your performance targets for key transactions (page load, end-to-end transaction time, API latency)? Options: Page load <2s, Transaction <5s, API p95 <500ms, High availability 99.9%, Unsure/custom
• Have you defined acceptable error budgets, rollback triggers, or SLA penalties for performance regressions? Options: Yes—error budget defined, Yes—rollback triggers defined, No formal definitions, Unsure
• How do you currently load- and stress-test integrations that connect to legacy systems? Options: Synthetic load testing, Staging performance tests, No load testing, Limited collaboration with backend owners, Other
• Which monitoring and observability tools must be in place and accessible to your team for acceptance? Options: Splunk/ELK, New Relic/AppDynamics, CloudWatch, Custom dashboards, Other
• Describe a moment when poor performance damaged constituent trust—what metrics or feedback alerted you?

Security Evidence: What Will Make Your Authorizers Sleep at Night?

• Which security assessments and tests do you require before acceptance (pen test, SCA, code review, vulnerability scans)? Options: Penetration test, Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Static code analysis, Dynamic scans, Configuration review, Other
• Who owns remediation and triage for discovered vulnerabilities—your agency, the vendor, or a shared model? Options: Agency-owned, Vendor-owned, Shared responsibility, Undecided
• How do you prefer vulnerabilities to be documented and tracked for acceptance (POA&M, tickets, weekly reports)? Options: POA&M, Issue tracker (JIRA/etc.), Weekly security report, Ad hoc email updates, Other
• Are there specific compliance frameworks or baseline controls (FedRAMP Moderate/High, NIST 800-53 rev4/5) that must be demonstrated? Options: FedRAMP Low, FedRAMP Moderate, FedRAMP High, NIST 800-53 Rev4, NIST 800-53 Rev5, Other
• Tell us about the most recent security item that required executive attention—what evidence finally closed it?

If We Run the Validation Checklist, What’s Acceptance Look Like?

• What specific checklist items must be green for you to sign off on a phased release (accessibility, identity, integrations, perf, security)? Options: Accessibility, Identity flows, Backend integrations, Performance, Security assessments, Operational readiness
• Which artifacts or deliverables do your approvers insist on seeing before acceptance (test reports, recorded user sessions, SSP, runbooks)? Options: Automated test results, Manual test scripts + recordings, SSP and security packages, Rollback/runbook, Monitoring dashboards, Other
• Who is the final acceptance authority for each checklist area and how do they prefer to receive evidence? Options: CISO/security team, Program manager, Accessibility officer, Technical reviewer, AO/Designated Authorizing Official, Other
• What tolerance do you have for open low/medium findings at acceptance—must everything be remediated or can POA&M items remain? Options: No open findings allowed, Low/medium allowed with POA&M, Only low allowed, Flexible depending on risk
• Are there required templates, naming conventions, or formats we must use when submitting validation evidence? Options: Agency templates, FedRAMP templates, Vendor-provided templates, No template required, Unsure

What Could Derail This in the Final Mile—and How Do We Prevent It?

• What are the top three risks you worry about during validation and early deployment?
• How should we alert you in real time if a critical validation test fails in staging or production? Options: Pager/phone alert, Slack/MS Teams, Email + ticket, Automated dashboard alert, Other
• What rollback or kill-switch conditions would you require before our teams pause a release?
• Who needs to be on an on-call list during validation windows and what clearance must they hold? Options: Cleared engineers, Agency ops, Vendor security lead, Program manager, Other
• What support or evidence can we provide to reduce review cycles (pre-submission checklists, walkthrough demos, dry-run packages)? Options: Pre-submission checklist, Walkthrough demo, Dry-run artifact package, Q&A briefing, Other

Next Steps: How Do We Move From Checklist to Confidence?

• Which of these would you prefer as the next immediate activity to accelerate validation readiness? Options: Joint validation scoping call, Pre-submission artifact review, Sandbox test window, Accessibility demo with users, Security kickoff with CISO
• What internal approvals or procurement steps must be finished before we can start official validation testing? Options: PO issued, SOW signed, Security NDA, Environments provisioned, None—ready now
• Do you have a preferred cadence for status updates during the validation period (daily, biweekly, weekly)? Options: Daily, Twice weekly, Weekly, Biweekly, Ad hoc
• Who else should we involve now to avoid surprises later (legal, privacy officer, accessibility lead, contracts)? Options: Legal, Privacy, Accessibility office, Contracts/procurement, CISO/security, Other
• Is there anything else—hidden constraints, political timelines, or user considerations—that would change how we prioritize the validation checklist?