Open Data Policy Guidelines » Guideline 27

Set appropriately ambitious timelines for implementation

Setting clear deadlines can demonstrate the strength of a commitment, and will help translate commitments into results. Deadlines can also help identify failures clearly, opening the door to public oversight. Relevant actors should be given enough time to prepare for changes brought on by the new open data policy, but not so much time that the policy becomes inoperable. The timeline should be firm, provide motivation for action and have actionable goals and benchmarks that can be used as a metric for compliance. These goals or checkpoints can include qualitative and quantitative measurements.

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Here are examples of the language for this guideline as included in policies on this site. Please note that the selections of text below are imperfect, and you should check out their source policies to read them in context.