NGA Deputy Director: Let’s Get More Agile

If top-down directives count for anything in the intelligence community, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is about to adopt more agile procurement processes.

Sue Gordon, NGA’s deputy director, issued an open letter to the agency’s entire workforce, urging employees to “challenge the status quo, to leverage best practices” and to take flexibilities in federal acquisition regulations as far as they can go.

Gordon cites flexibilities in acquisition agility highlighted by the TechFAR Handbook and Digital Services Playbook and urges acquisition personnel to assume that if a specific strategy or procedure is in NGA’s best interest and not outright prohibited, they should assume it’s allowed.

In other words, Gordon wants NGA to be as agile as it can possibly be within existing legal rules. When it comes to U.S. national security, enemies aren’t burdened by outdated bureaucracy as they plot.

“Our enemies do not pause to accommodate inefficient processes,” she says. “It is our responsibility to keep abreast of new acquisition processes and find ways to leverage innovation to accelerate the accomplishment of our mission.”

As agile graduates from buzzword to big deal in government, it appears NGA doesn’t want to sit around and wait for the federal government to figure out how to better procure technology and services to keep pace with evolving threats. Gordon wants the agency to be proactive in procurement.

“Innovation in the acquisition process continues across the enterprise,” Gordon said. “We must take full advantage of existing acquisition flexibilities, embrace new acquisition methods and reduce our acquisition cycle. I challenge the NGA workforce to build flexibility into all acquisitions so that we can provide services and capabilities to customers that are timely, offer the best value and are more effective than ever before.”