From: FCW
By Frank Konkel
Technology changes fast, while the federal government struggles—and usually fails—to update its procurement policies to match. It’s not a new problem, and it continues to be an ever-present challenge.
If the way feds procure IT – spending some $80 billion each year, 80 percent of it to maintain legacy technology and old investments – does not change, industry and government acquisition experts fear a decline in the development of new IT solutions and innovations that could otherwise improve government.
“Procurement is the silent killer of innovation,” said Michael Byrne, geographic information officer at the Federal Communications Commission, in what was certainly the line of the day at the Aug. 22 Lowering the Cost of Government with IT Summit in Washington, D.C.
Byrne’s line summed up in one sentence the arguments made by several speakers, including the day’s keynote given by the White House’s top contracting policy executive Joseph Jordan, to promote strategic sourcing initiatives and push for agile development over “waterfall” approaches to IT projects when applicable.
Agile development – breaking up larger projects into modular or incremental pieces – has been used successfully in a number of federal agencies already, including the United States Postal Service. The goal, Jordan said, should be for agencies to get away from large contracts locked in over several years in favor of a modular approach in which an agency works closely with its vendor partners on a series of shorter projects with closely defined goals and metrics to measure progress by.
Jordan said this approach can help agencies avoid expensive projects that go nowhere, and there is plenty of room for the government’s 36,000 contracting officers and total acquisition workforce of 200,000 people to improve. Over the past decade, the federal government has blown at least $9.2 billion on failed IT investments, according to the Government Accountability Office.
“Too frequently, we try to throw the Hail Mary pass in every IT development,” Jordan said, using a football analogy. “But we’ve only got a few Tom Bradys running these things, so let’s make the process work.”
Leave a Reply