Realizing the Power of Software: How Government Leaders Are Cultivating an Agile Mindset

Presented by Leidos Leidos's logo

At the heart of the President's Management Agenda is the call to strengthen and empower the Federal Workforce, deliver excellent federal services and improved Customer Experience, and manage the Business of Government to create equitable and accessible solutions. Federal agencies can begin to meet this new standard through agile software development.

Technology is a crucial part of delivering governmental services to constituents and internal stakeholders — it is the de facto catalyst for mission success. But many of the government’s existing IT solutions are outdated and slow to adapt to changing mission needs. While this technology exists to support the mission, it often has the opposite effect, proving to be the problem rather than the solution.

The Biden Administration is hoping to resolve this with a new set of mandates. The President’s Management Agenda, which the administration released in 2021, calls on all federal agencies to revamp existing solutions. To meet the President’s request, IT leaders from across the public sector should focus on agile software development.

“Agile is recognizing that software is always evolving, that there’s no system that’s ever really done,” says Paul Burnette, director of the software accelerator at Leidos. “There’s always going to be security patches, software changes, and end-of-life issues with components of that software.”

Agile software development — unlike waterfall or other full-scale design-then-build methodologies — does not focus on tools or processes. Instead, agile focuses on the end user. It’s this distinct focus that helps IT departments within the public sector deliver equitable and secure results.

How Agile Helps Agencies Build Equitable Solutions

One of the main touchpoints in the President’s Management Agenda is the call to create equitable systems. For public sector agencies, building these systems will require agencies to rethink their approach to customer service.

“[Deploying] fully equitable solutions means considering the entire user experience,” says Burnette. “It means making sure the customer experience works, especially for systematically marginalized communities [and] people with limited internet connectivity.” 

Unlike other design-then-build methodologies which are more focused on the tools and processes, agile can help.

“Agile at its core was always designed to be driven by the user — the person that the software is going to affect or interact with,” Burnette says. “The whole point of agile development is that it is people-centric; it's driven by the needs and experience of the user.” 

With the user experience driving the agile lifecycle, software developers are then able to “build a little, test a little” to ensure they’re delivering excellent, equitable experiences that meet users’ needs with each update.

How Agile Helps Agencies Build Secure Solutions

Much of the President's Management Agenda revolves around building secure systems — and for good reason: Recent attacks such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and Microsoft Exchange exploit have demonstrated that security must be a key consideration for software developers.

The agenda states that the government should be able to “...function and deliver prosperity, security and opportunity for the people in this country.”

One part of ensuring security means proactively patching potential security risks — and agile methodologies can help agencies achieve this.

“In the traditional sense, security always comes after you’ve built the application,” says Burnette. “The problem with that is, if you wait until the end to try and secure your software, you’re already too late.”

In fact, many cybersecurity attacks could have been avoided had security been incorporated from the start.

 “A lot of the cybersecurity events that we’ve seen over the past two years have been because of inherent flaws in software that was released to production,” says Burnette. “That’s why security must come first, because software is always built using pieces and parts of open-source libraries and commercial tools. From a security standpoint, we have to think through the implications of the software we use.”

To continuously enhance federal information technology and cybersecurity, agencies should deploy agile methodologies to support their development processes. After all, as threats evolve and vulnerabilities become apparent, government agencies will need to ensure their systems remain secure and suitable for use.

How Partnerships Can Help

One of the last touchpoints that the PMA focuses on is the need to identify and address critical skills gaps across the federal IT and cybersecurity workforce.

For agencies that aren’t familiar with agile development, organizations like Leidos can help.

“We view this as part of our mission, to train and upskill not just our workforce but to actively reach out to universities and the Armed Forces Academies,” says Burnette. “We train and teach how to use those tools and how to enable agile development.”

Discover how Leidos can help your agency meet the PMA’s requirements.

This content is made possible by our sponsor Leidos; it is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of NextGov's editorial staff. 

NEXT STORY: Behind the Transaction: A Modern Approach to Government Payment Processing

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.