In response to the COVID-19 crisis, New York State quickly stood up a Technology SWAT Team led by the Office of Information Technology Services and Department of Financial Services to secure pro bono partnerships with the private sector to aid in the state’s response efforts. The Tech SWAT effort brought in private sector experts to work on critical projects, assist in building new applications, and train NY State employees on technical skills necessary for responding to the crisis. You can learn more about the program at ny.gov/techswat.
This Playbook provides recommendations and guidelines for any government entity that is standing up a similar effort. This document also highlights challenges that government entities will want to consider when standing up and managing their SWAT teams.
Although much of the context throughout this document was written with the coronavirus response in mind, the Tech SWAT concept could be deployed in response to any crisis.