Modernizing Identity Governance at the VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs was integrating enterprise applications into Saviynt, a centralized Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platform meant to standardize access requests, approvals, and certifications across the agency. Before this integration, the VA had no enterprise IGA tool. Some legacy systems handled pieces of this manually, but the processes were inconsistent, error prone, and dependent on individual teams' informal workarounds.

A flyer directed at app owners, outlining the benefits of adopting Saviynt.

THE PROJECT

My Role

Sole UX designer establishing the UX foundation for the integration effort. I worked directly with ICAM engineers, application owners, compliance teams, Saviynt vendor representatives, and delivery leads.

Duration

July 2025 to February 2026

Scope

This project didn’t involve traditional interface design with wireframes and prototypes. The deliverables were the operational and communication systems that made a new identity governance platform understandable and adoptable across the VA.

This case study focuses on information architecture, content design, and service design, rather than screen design.

THE PROBLEM

Introducing and integrating an enterprise IGA tool is both technical and organizational. It requires application owners across a large, decentralized organization to change how they manage access, often without a clear understanding of what that change means for their everyday work. Early conversations made it clear the barrier wasn't the technology itself, but that the new system wasn’t explained in terms application owners actually understood.

The challenge had four parts:

Make governance understandable to non-technical stakeholders
Make the integration process adoptable without disrupting live systems serving Veterans
Reduce resistance from application teams who had no obligation to participate yet
Maintain federal security compliance throughout

THE SOLUTION

We needed to:

Make governance understandable
Make integration adoptable
Reduce resistance from application teams
Maintain federal security compliance
Avoid disrupting live systems serving Veterans

PROJECT CONSTRAINTS

Federal Government Shutdown Disrupted Production Integration

During the integration effort, a federal government shutdown cut off production access, halting planned go-lives.

Instead of pausing, we pivoted to a disconnected governance model, delivering review-only capabilities to eligible applications and quickly reframing onboarding to reflect the limited scope.

We maintained momentum and demonstrated that governance value could be delivered incrementally (even during major disruption).

No Established UX Framework

At first, there was no precedent for how UX should operate within IGA. There was no interface to design, service blueprint, onboarding model, or standardized communication approach. I had to define what UX meant in this context.

Influence Without Authority

Integration wasn't mandatory at the time, so busy application owners were quick to delay, deprioritize, or disengage. Adoption depended on clarity, trust, and perceived value. This required persuasive communication design rather than direct governance.

APPROACH

Discovery and Stakeholder Mapping

I met with:

ICAM engineers
Application Owners and teams
Compliance teams
Saviynt vendor representatives
Delivery leads

I mapped:

Current access flows
Approval breakdowns
Role confusion points
Technical knowledge gaps
Resistance themes

Finding: Application Owners weren't resisting integration, just uncertainty.

A key finding slide from a research presentation outlining that all 7 team members spoken to commented that manual data entry and reconciliation are error-prone and inefficient.

Systems Thinking and Workflow Design

Rather than designing screens, I designed:

End-to-end onboarding flows
Access request mental models
Governance lifecycle diagrams
Role-based responsibilities
Decision trees for integration paths

I translated technical IAM architecture into understandable service blueprints and documentation.

Service design blueprint outlining the players and steps for the project's pivot

Scalable Documentation Framework

I created a structured documentation ecosystem:

Application Owner onboarding slide deck
'The Importance of IGA' brochure
User, manager, and admin guides
Integration roadmap glossary
Change request procedural documentation
Training materials
Access Review email templates (Plain Language, accessibility aligned)

All materials were:

Plain Language compliant
Accessibility-aligned
Role-specific
Designed to reduce fear and ambiguity

IGA brochure slide explaining what IGA is, what it does, and why it matters

Operational Design

I influenced UX at the organizational systems level:

Created Jira ticket frameworks with clear acceptance criteria
Built milestone timelines for integration
Developed glossary definitions to reduce terminology confusion
Established communication templates for adoption outreach

Application and development team roadmap

OUTCOMES AND LESSONS LEARNED

Outcomes

Reduced onboarding confusion among application owners
Clearer role definitions across Admins, Managers, and End Users
Improved stakeholder engagement in kickoff sessions
Increased voluntary interest in integration
Established repeatable onboarding model for future applications

Resistance Is Usually Ambiguity in Disguise

Many application owners hesitated to integrate. It looked like resistance at first, but interviews revealed:

Fear of breaking production systems
Confusion about ESECC timelines
Lack of clarity on technical lift
Uncertainty about post-integration ownership

They weren’t resistant, they were under-informed. Reducing uncertainty increases adoption more effectively than increasing pressure.

Documentation Is a Product

Teams with many departments tend to treat documentation as an afterthought. In this project:

Guides were the interface.
Email templates were the UX.
Slide decks were adoption tools.
Glossaries were clarity mechanisms.

In enterprise systems, documentation is often the primary user experience, so it's important to design intentionally.

Adoption Requires Psychological Safety

Because integration wasn't mandatory yet, the team had to shift messaging from "you'll have to do this eventually" to "Here's how this will reduce your audit risk and manual burden." Engagement immediately improved.

In voluntary transformation efforts, value must be felt before compliance is enforced.