Servicestandard

In 2020, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) produced the Servicestandard, thereby issuing for the first time quality principles supporting the implementation of the Online Access Act (OZG) and promoting user-friendly, digital administration. However, there is still too little awareness of the Servicestandard to date and users do not find it sufficiently practical.

In the Servicestandard project, we are working with BMI to advance the quality principles for digitalization of administration services in Germany. The current Servicestandard contains 19 principles across six categories: user-centricity, iterative approach, interdisciplinary collaboration, open work methods, robust technical operation, and effective impact controlling.

The aim of the project is to further develop the Servicestandard. We are focusing on measures that will increase the acceptance and applicability of the standard. At the same time, we intend to bring the standard further in line with the EU’s European Interoperability Framework (EIF) in order to improve collaboration between public admin­istrations within Europe. In March 2025, DIN SPEC 66336, “Quality Requirements for Online Services and Portals of Public Administration (Servicestandard)”, was published. For the first time, it sets out clear and verifiable quality requirements for the implementation, operation, and further development of digital administrative services, structured across 13 chapters.

We are interviewing a range of stakeholder groups, including current users, specialists, and actors at federal, state, and municipal level, to ensure that the Servicestandard is both practical and tailored to requirements. We are also surveying representatives from busi­ness and civil society. The development effort is being supported by an advisory group (“sounding board”) made up of representatives from various areas of public ad­ministration, including BMI, the National Regulatory Control Council (NKR), the Federal IT Cooperation (FITKO), the Federal Information Technology Center (ITZBund), NExT e. V., IT service provider Dataport, the Association for Municipal Management (KGSt), and DigitalService.

Within our own organization, we have required the application of the Servicestandard in our project work from the outset – and will continue to use it until the new version is ready. We use self-audits and peer reviews to monitor the implementation of the quality principles. All Servicestandard reports issued to date are available on our Transparency page.

• User-centered advancement and update to the content of the Servicestandard issued in 2020
• Comprehensive surveying of various stakeholder groups: involvement of users and representatives from public administrations, academia, business, and civil society
• Advancement of the Servicestandard in compliance with the applicable national and international guidelines and standards