Troubleshooting guide
Local Government: Diagnostic Guide
Local Government: Diagnostic Guide organizes the decisions that matter for municipal departments, small cities, towns, authorities, and public-service offices: the current workflow, ownership, implementation choices, rollout risk, and acceptance evidence.
Working artifact
Local Government implementation-path comparison
Compare the smallest responsible paths before treating replacement as the default.
| Path | Best fit | Watch closely |
|---|---|---|
| Repair | The core of department, service, and public-information websites remains sound | Residents cannot identify the responsible department |
| Extend | WCAG-informed accessible civic interfaces has a stable, understood boundary | Meeting records and notices are hard to search |
| Replace | Ownership or architecture prevents a responsible repair | Requests arrive without location or service context |
Record the symptom before changing it
Residents cannot identify the responsible department. Confirm who encounters it, where it occurs, and what changed before it appeared. Then distinguish the visible symptom from dependencies such as WCAG-informed accessible civic interfaces.
- Save exact error text
- Record the last known working date
- List recent code, content, vendor, DNS, or account changes
Separate reachability, data, and behavior
For Municipal & Local Government Websites, confirm account ownership, current exports or backups, recovery options, and recent changes before touching production. Preserve exact errors and timestamps that may disappear after a restart or update.
- Reachability check for public records search and content governance
- Data or content check related to department, service, and public-information websites
- Behavior check for agenda, minutes, notice, and document archives
Use stop conditions
Frame the first scope around department, service, and public-information websites and one observable acceptance journey. Treat agenda, minutes, notice, and document archives as a later phase unless the evidence shows it is a true dependency.
- No confirmed backup
- Unknown production ownership
- Security or payment data may be involved
Verify the repair in the real journey
Repair fits when the core remains sound. Extension fits when the boundary around WCAG-informed accessible civic interfaces is understood. Replacement fits when ownership, architecture, or operating risk prevents a responsible change.
- Department, service, and public-information websites
- Resident request and notification workflows
- Responsive and accessible web application delivery