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Sep 10 2024
Software

When Is It Time for Government to Go Beyond the Agile Method?

More agencies should be using human-centered design to drive their software development efforts.

Agile methodology is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Though it’s proved to be a winning formula for delivering enhanced capabilities, it still must be tailored to the circumstance. Combining human-centered design methods into agile delivery allows developers to focus on user-centric outcomes. Successful product outcomes often depend on a cohesive vision that aligns various stakeholders, and utilizing HCD methods allows us to effectively prioritize our time and resources.

The method also isn’t something federal agencies can do halfway; their success demands a thoughtful and targeted approach.

As the name suggests, agile is all about flexibility, but unfortunately that has bred a tendency to approach these projects ad hoc, with the agency making it up as it goes. Instead, requirements need to be well articulated and well documented from the start.

HCD helps here by encouraging engagement with end users and other key stakeholders early on, making it more likely that an agile effort will encompass the right requirements. HCD offers agencies a roadmap before they get too deep into the actual implementation.

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CDW’s Federal Agile Successes Hinge on Human-Centered Design

CDW Government has used HCD to drive several successful agile development efforts in the federal space.

We’ve coordinated multiple teams for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all working with a common roadmap guided by priorities coming from the program level. This helps ensure development moves forward steadily, while agility adds the ability to iterate and evolve to deliver the right outcomes in support of the mission.

Another project involved helping an agency transition to Login.gov, a secure service used by the public to sign in to participating government websites. Here, CDW Government combined agile software engineering with agile product management, bringing together cross-functional with different expertise to work together.

We’ve had similar successes supporting the National Archives and ramping up the Small Business Administration’s certify.sba.gov site, a portal that makes it easy for small businesses to validate their status.

DISCOVER: How automation is helping agencies cut costs.

CDW’s Take on the Agile Method Means Predictability for the Agency

Agencies need to think about how they’re going to apply agile approaches in their environments to be effective, which will likely involve incorporating best practices around DevOps and embracing a culture shift toward continuous improvement and incremental delivery of value.

Contracting comes into play here as well. It’s important to write contracts that point to specific goals: These are the requirements and the goals to be accomplished. One benefit to this approach is stakeholder engagement. When contracts incorporate an agile mindset, people tend to be more trusting and collaborative as they work toward well-documented outcomes.

In the federal space, CDW’s agile methodology is laser-focused on predictability. Agencies need to know what they are getting and when. To that end, detailed discovery sprints help to align everyone on specific user needs, and product requirement documentation provides further clarity.

We conduct iterative prototyping so that everyone knows what the end product is going to look like. Agencies get the predictability they need in both outcomes and timelines.

Moving forward, agile projects will get bigger, and artificial intelligence will help accelerate those efforts. CDW will continue supporting government as it looks to embrace the enhanced productivity and operational efficiencies inherent in this powerful methodology.

This article is part of FedTech’s CapITal blog series.

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