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HB-5504, As Passed House, May 20, 2026
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SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL NO. 5504
A bill to create the state digital service office; to require
reports; and to provide for the powers and duties of certain state
governmental officers and entities.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act may be cited as the "state digital service 1
office act". 2
Sec. 2. As used in this act: 3
(a) "Chief digital service officer" means the individual 4
appointed under section 7. 5
(b) "Chief information officer" means that term as defined in 6
section 2 of the cyber civilian corps act, 2017 PA 132, MCL 18.222. 7
(c) "Department" means the department of technology, 8
management, and budget. 9
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(d) "Digital service office" means the state digital service 1
office created under section 3. 2
(e) "Director" means the director of the department. 3
(f) "Product manager" means an individual from a state 4
department or agency who is responsible for ensuring the product 5
developed from a software development project delivers measurable 6
value to users and achieves strategic objectives through evidence-7
based decision making and continuous user engagement. 8
(g) "Standard report recipients" means the senate and house of 9
representatives appropriations subcommittees on the department 10
budget, the senate and house of representatives fiscal agencies, 11
the senate and house of representatives policy offices, and the 12
state budget office. 13
Sec. 3. (1) The state digital service office is created within 14
the department. 15
(2) The digital service office shall implement this act. The 16
digital service office shall exercise its powers, duties, 17
functions, and responsibilities independently of the director. 18
Sec. 4. (1) The digital service office shall do both of the 19
following: 20
(a) Develop strategies and practices that aim to achieve the 21
maximum effect on critical systems and programs. 22
(b) Work to foster cultural change in the technology workforce 23
of this state, conducive to implementing the adoption of modern 24
software development strategies and practices, as described in 25
subsection (4). 26
(2) The digital service office shall advise and collaborate 27
with the chief information officer, the department's central 28
procurement office, the department's enterprise portfolio 29
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management office, and any office under the chief information 1
officer to adopt modern software development strategies and 2
practices, as described in subsection (4), and cybersecurity best 3
practices, for building and deploying technology and digital 4
services that improve the lives of the residents of this state. 5
(3) The digital service office shall advise and collaborate 6
with the department's central procurement office and the director 7
to study innovative procurement practices for the acquisition of 8
digital products by and for state departments and agencies to 9
facilitate the rapid provision of high-quality digital services 10
that are based on users' needs and that comply with the 11
department's best practices and policies regarding data privacy, 12
security, and accessibility. 13
(4) The digital service office shall advise and collaborate 14
with the chief information officer, the executive office of the 15
governor or lieutenant governor, the director, and state 16
departments and agencies to support adoption of modern software 17
development strategies and practices, including, but not limited 18
to, all of the following: 19
(a) Agile development methodologies. 20
(b) Open-source practices for the development and deployment 21
of new and existing digital services. 22
(c) Advocacy of modern software development tools and 23
practices that include, but are not limited to, all of the 24
following: 25
(i) Development, security, and operations. 26
(ii) Modular contracting. 27
(iii) Active product management. 28
(iv) User-centered design. 29
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(v) Iterative and incremental development. 1
(vi) User research and testing. 2
(vii) Unified development infrastructure. 3
(viii) Service-oriented architecture. 4
(ix) Open-source software. 5
(x) Unified development infrastructure. 6
(xi) The modern best practices described in the 13 plays of the 7
Digital Services Playbook, published by United States Digital 8
Service. 9
Sec. 5. The digital service office shall do all of the 10
following: 11
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this subdivision, review 12
requests from state departments and agencies for software 13
development projects that have an estimated cost of $1,000,000.00 14
or more to evaluate and advise on the optimal design and 15
development approach, including development approaches that 16
encourage in-house development. The digital service office may 17
review software development projects that have an estimated cost of 18
less than $1,000,000.00 if requested by a state department or 19
agency or if the digital service office determines a review is 20
beneficial. 21
(b) Promote the most effective means for improving digital 22
services based on quantitative and qualitative assessments of user 23
needs. 24
(c) Coordinate training for state departments and agencies on 25
effective management and collaboration in software development 26
projects, including, but not limited to, training on the role of 27
product managers. 28
(d) Provide all of the following for information technology 29
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activities within state departments and agencies that have a cost 1
of more than $500,000.00: 2
(i) Oversight, monitoring, and recommendations that promote 3
modern software development strategies and practices. 4
(ii) Standards for the management, organization, and tracking 5
of the information technology activities. 6
Sec. 6. (1) Not later than February 1 of each year, the 7
digital service office shall submit a report to the standard report 8
recipients that includes all of the following: 9
(a) Actions taken to pursue and implement responsibilities 10
provided in this act. 11
(b) The status of progress made toward achieving full adoption 12
of the modern software development strategies and practices 13
described in section 4(4). 14
(c) Actions recommended to the department and the status and 15
outcomes of the recommendations. 16
(d) A summary of any actions that resulted in reductions or 17
avoidances of costs to this state and estimates of the amounts and 18
of the savings to this state. 19
(e) Whether the chief digital service officer has blocked or 20
redirected the advancement of a technology project under section 21
7(4), including a description of the decision. 22
(2) The digital service office shall, not later than February 23
1 of each year, prepare a report on resident-centered outcomes for 24
projects that the digital service office reviewed under section 25
5(a) in the immediately preceding calendar year. The digital 26
service office shall submit the report to the standard report 27
recipients and make the report available to the public on the 28
department's website. For purposes of this subdivision, "resident-29
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centered outcomes" includes, but is not limited to, all of the 1
following: 2
(a) Time saved. 3
(b) Applications completed without error. 4
(c) Percentage of users accessing services successfully. 5
(3) The digital service office shall submit a report to the 6
standard report recipients and the chief information officer if a 7
project with a budget of more than $500,000.00 encounters problems 8
that result in any of the following: 9
(a) The project is at risk of exceeding the project budget or 10
schedule. 11
(b) The project has exceeded the project budget or schedule. 12
(c) There is a risk of significant disruption of efficient and 13
reliable services to residents of this state. 14
(4) The report described in subsection (3) must identify the 15
reason for the problem and provide recommendations to resolve the 16
problem. 17
Sec. 7. (1) The chief digital service officer shall lead the 18
digital service office. The governor shall appoint the chief 19
digital service officer with the advice and consent of the senate 20
majority leader and the speaker of the house of representatives. 21
(2) To be eligible for appointment as the chief digital 22
service officer, an individual must be a full voting member of the 23
board that governs the information technology investment fund 24
described in section 838 of 2025 PA 22. 25
(3) The chief digital service officer shall build and commit 26
to a talent strategy that attracts, recruits, competitively 27
compensates, and retains interdisciplinary expertise in 28
cybersecurity, technology, strategy, business, and management to 29
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Final Page
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import world-class digital services into state information 1
technology services and projects. 2
(4) The chief digital service officer may block or redirect 3
the advancement of a technology project that poses a risk of 4
significant unnecessary costs to this state or significant 5
disruption of efficient and reliable services to the residents of 6
this state. 7
Sec. 8. The digital service office shall exist for the 5-year 8
period immediately following the effective date of this act. 9