Nagaraju Thallapally: How Scalable Automation Is Influencing Public Data Systems

In the machinery of public systems, delays often feel inevitable. A birth certificate verification stalls a passport request. A name correction loops through multiple departments before reaching a resolution. Most people might call these delays minor nuisances or perhaps an unanswered phone call or an additional form to fill out, but these minor delays speak of greater architectural constraints in the systems that handle public data.

This was an issue of concern for a Midwestern vital records office, which was in charge of births, deaths, adoptions, and marriages. Under pressure to speed up processes and remove bottlenecks, it became clear that the issue was not procedural but structural. Far from having been designed and implemented with modern needs in consideration, these systems had evolved through decades of incremental changes and faced challenges in meeting current expectations for speed, accuracy, and interoperability.

To address this, the state’s technology bureau partnered with internal teams from the public health department to rethink foundational workflows. Among those involved in the effort was a team led by Nagaraju Thallapally, an application architect working across both agencies. His work focused on overhauling interfaces or rolling out citizen-facing apps, and on fixing the less visible, infrastructural gaps that make systems either falter or quietly succeed.

Over two years, Nagaraju was involved in implementing three critical improvements: an automated data-validation framework, a unified Git governance strategy, and an integrated testing pipeline for low-code environments. While none were designed for public visibility, together they contributed to improved processing speed, reduced error rates, and created a more resilient IT foundation for vital records management.

The first initiative tackled a familiar problem: manual data checks. Before, clerks had to verify submissions by comparing values across siloed systems, a process vulnerable to delays and errors. The team introduced a rules-driven validation engine built on a low-code platform. Staff could define business rules directly into a shared configuration table, enabling Power Automate to verify incoming records and prompt corrections in real time.

This didn’t require major retraining, nor did it change the clerks' daily interface. But it had noticeable effects: processing errors dropped by over 70%, and confidence in the accuracy of downstream data improved. More importantly, the validation logic could be updated dynamically, enabling policy changes to take effect promptly, without requiring a new software release.

The second challenge was less visible but equally consequential: fragmented source control practices. Different teams used different Git workflows, some based on trunk development, others on Git Flow or GitHub Flow, leading to branching inconsistencies and integration delays. Nagaraju and his team helped design a flexible governance model. A model that didn’t impose one strategy but introduced consistent standards such as branch protection rules, mandatory reviews, automated security scans, and periodic repository clean-up routines.

This light-touch standardization let to noticeable gains. Integration issues decreased by more than 60%, and release cycles became nearly a third shorter. Development teams, once mired in process debates, found common ground in shared guardrails. "A good rule is one that disappears into habit," Nagaraju noted at the time, underscoring the intent to support, not constrain, developers.

The final pillar of the reform focused on quality assurance. With deployments happening thrice a day, manual tests had become a bottleneck. So, the team had installed some testing automation for their low-code environment, integrated with the CI/CD pipeline. This tool allows QA analysts to create modular, reusable test cases in terms of visual workflows instead of heavy scripting, thus freeing up time for exploratory testing and improving regression coverage.

Manual testing effort decreased by 40%. Release schedules accelerated. And for the first time, cross-functional testing was integrated into the delivery process, rather than being a separate phase completed at the end.

Taken together, these efforts did not attract public attention, but they gradually redefined what 'ready to ship' meant within the agency. Fewer records were flagged, fewer issues surfaced post-release, and fewer users experienced system-related delays. Within other departments, the Git standards and validation engine are now being adopted for parallel initiatives. Feedback describing the systems as “innovative,” and “workable,” “sustainable,” and “effective.”

That, perhaps, is the point. While digital transformation is often portrayed through the lens of high-visibility overhauls, the reality in public service is more incremental. The work led by Nagaraju Thallapally and his team suggests that long-term impact may result less from major disruption and more from gradual, structural reform.

That approach also questioned a common misconception in public sector IT: that meaningful change has to be citizen-facing. Instead, the team focused on operational plumbing so that their initiatives addressed inefficiencies at their root rather than their symptoms. With its focus on back-end improvements, the approach led to increased speed and reliability, with positive effects observed in service delivery, as well as in staff job satisfaction and productivity.

More broadly, this project exemplifies the trend that is slowly establishing a new paradigm for public sector systems. Instead of completely replacing these big systems, many agencies now opt to enhance them, bringing automation, governance, and testing tools inside to extend their lifespan and performance. The modular reform approach lowers risk and cost while increasing the rate of feedback.

As other divisions within the state begin replicating parts of this model, it offers a blueprint for thoughtful modernization. The team that designed this model took a pragmatic approach. They identified areas for refinement—added dashboard visibility, introduced lightweight UI improvements for staff, and eventually integrated real-time performance metrics. But the guiding principle remained the same: create systems that steadily improve the baseline.

In an era where technology initiatives are often evaluated by their visibility, this highlights that true effectiveness often operates in the background. The most valuable systems in government may not be the ones that get noticed, but the ones that citizens never have to think about at all.

About Nagaraju Thallapally

Nagaraju Thallapally is an Application Architect with experience leading enterprise-grade digital transformation initiatives, particularly in public sector IT modernization. Currently contributing to critical projects for Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management, and Budget (DTMB) in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Nagaraju specializes in architecting scalable, secure, and innovative solutions across data integration, software delivery, and test automation.

In his role, Nagaraju has successfully implemented a Microsoft Power Platform-based proof-of-concept to automate data verification for the state’s Vital Records Index. This solution introduced dynamic rule-based validations, allowing non-technical users to manage data quality and reducing downstream processing errors by over 70%.

He also developed a unified Git strategy framework, aligning diverse development teams under a flexible source control model that supports Git Flow, GitHub Flow, and Trunk-Based Development. This initiative improved collaboration, reduced integration issues by 60%, and accelerated release cycles by 30%.

Additionally, Nagaraju led the enterprise integration of Provar’s Salesforce-native testing platform, improving the QA process for Vital Records applications. By embedding low-code, reusable test automation into CI/CD pipelines, his efforts led to a 40% reduction in manual testing time and enhanced deployment quality.

With experience in Power Apps, Power Automate, GitHub, Azure DevOps, and Provar, Nagaraju combines technical knowledge with leadership skills. His work supports operational efficiency, cross-functional collaboration, and enterprise-wide innovation in government IT ecosystems.