The FBI’s Sentinel project is a recently completed case study of the potential of Lean/Agile methodologies for managing government projects. “so fraught with miscommunication, incompetence and failed oversight that the entire debacle would have been a shoo-in for the most flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars since, well, ever” They were over-running and close to killingRead… Read more »
Applying agile software development methods to IT projects has been a hot topic as of late at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The agency recently unveiled a report highlighting its 32 tips for applying agile development to help improve how the federal government will develop and implement IT infrastructure projects. Specifically, these tips focus onRead… Read more »
Whether you call it Agile, Iterative, or Modular project management, most agencies are transitioning some of their projects from traditional waterfall methods to techniques that focus on shorter-turnaround, regularly reprioritized deliveries of working products (be that software or other). To increase government workers’ knowledge of these techniques, ASPE, Inc., invites you to register and attendRead… Read more »
More and more agencies are adopting agile methodologies to designing, building and deploying apps and systems. Agile fundamentally differs from traditional development methodologies such as waterfall. It’s such a radical departure, in fact, that it also requires fundamental changes in how you manage agile projects. This is why PMI recently adopted an Agile Project ManagementRead… Read more »
“I don’t know how much more emphasized step 1 of refactoring could be: don’t touch anything that doesn’t have coverage. Otherwise, you’re not refactoring; you’re just changing shit.” – Hamlet D’Arcy It’s no secret that Agile and Lean methodologies have a lot in common. At Code for America we try to apply them both: inRead… Read more »
Ruby on Rails has quickly become the default web app development framework among the “hacker” and startup community since first releasing in 2004. Why? Because Rails was designed from the ground-up with programmer productivity in mind. It uses a variant of the Model/View/Controller architecture pattern to organize application programming. In addition to the MVC-based arch,Read… Read more »
Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web Smart answers are smart | Government Digital Service The partnership of content designer and developer on smart answers demonstrates the oft-fabled multidisciplinary agile approach we employ at GDS, where we work in pairs wherever possible. Researching the subject, working out the logic and moulding this withRead… Read more »
BY now, we’ve all heard about the agile development process and how, today, an iterative approach to developing/implementing IT programs is in vogue. We’ve also heard all the many complaints about how the Federal acquisition process is too slow to keep up with rapidly changing technology, evolving requirements, etc. We also are aware that anyRead… Read more »
Vivek Kundra may have departed as federal CIO, but the 25-point IT reform plan lives on. Of the 25 points, agile, incremental systems development stands as perhaps the most important, if least original, prescription in the document. Since federal agencies have a long history of “grand designs” – overly ambitious systems plans with vague requirementsRead… Read more »
I’ve been making this case from the middle ground for a while now: What we have here is an up and coming “battle” of social networking sites that will ultimately hinge on people’s personal preference, ability to be influenced by the masses, and even driven by their discontent with the competing technology. Or, to putRead… Read more »