CreateThe service does not exist yet.
Index of the Digital Lifecycle Guide
Every page and every document in the guide, in one place.
The guide is in two forms. The phase and sub-phase pages are ordinary pages you scroll through, and they are the spine of the guide. The topic documents are the cross-cutting subjects that run through the whole life of a service. Click one and it opens in your browser.
Start here
The 2026 Digital Lifecycle GuideThe official checkpoints of a digital serviceSupport and communities
The home page explains what the guide is and who it is for. If you are not sure whether it is for you, start there. The lifecycle page lays out the whole path of official approvals, reviews, and sign-offs on one page, so you can see the shape of it before opening anything.
The life of a service
Find the phase you are in, then open the sub-phase that matches where you are.
Topic documents
Each of these runs through the whole life of a service, from before it exists to after it is switched off. Most people need two or three of them at a time, and the phase pages tell you which ones matter where you are. They are in four groups, by what you are trying to do.
1. Getting it funded, bought, and staffed
Almost every service is bought or contracted rather than built in-house, so these three decide most of what follows.
2. Duties you have to meet
Set by law, policy, or directive. Every service has to meet them.
3. The people you serve
Whether the service works, whether it fits the wider journey a person is on, and whether anyone switches to it.
4. Running it, year after year
Live is the longest phase by a wide margin, and this is the work that fills it.
Reference documents
Each of these answers one question that keeps coming up. Look them up when you need them.