Scaling Agile in Government

1© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved. V4.0.0© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Steve Mayner
Scaled Agile, Inc.
May 19, 2016
Scaling Agile in the Government Space:
Common Questions and Uncommon Answers

2© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2
SAFe® Senior Program Consultant
Scaled Agile, Inc.
steve.mayner@scaledagile.com
@stevemayner #SAFe
stevemayner

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Scaling Agile in Government

U.S. Federal Government
State of Agile Adoption

The status quo is no longer acceptable.
One thing we know…

Healthcare.gov
Thanks to one event…

What changed?
US
Digital
Service
Playbook
TechFAR
18F
US
Digital
Service

Late breaking news…
OMB Guidance – Transforming Agency Management Practices for the Agile Age: Becoming an
Agile Organization, April 2016
– advocates the creation of digital services teams
– directs agencies towards using open source,cloud-based,and commodity solutions across the technology stack
– provides a helpful synopsis of many of the key principles drawn directly from the Agile Manifesto.
– establishes a timeline for actions - says OMB will create an agile dashboard within 3 months
– states that reports on agile adoption will be “made public based upon agency-reported data in the IT Dashboard
starting on May 1, 2016.”

Agile adoption is growing
4USCIS
4CBP
4US Courts
4DOJ
4VA
4EPA
4USDA
4NGA
4CIA
4Secret Service
4FBI
4SSA
4HHS
4NASA
4GSA
4IRS
4USPTO
4Pockets in DoD

Reality check…
4There is no government-wide mandate to use Agile… only permission
4Individual agencies and programs can still choose traditional methods
4Agency lifecycle models and governance still assume a waterfall approach
4Many contracting shops don’t understand how to solicit for and manage acquisitions for digital
(Agile) services
4Project orientation vs. long lived value streams is deeply engrained in the government context
4Long acquisition lifecycles, multiple contractors, agency silos, etc. create impediments to Agile
adoption
4Change is hard... especially in government

CBP ACE – A Case Study
4Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Automated Commerical Environment (ACE)
– CBP is the second largest generator of revenue for the U.S. (after IRS)
– Facilitates trade and travel into and out of the US
– ACE and ACS (Automated Cargo System) are the primary mission enabling IT systemsfor managing
shipmentsof goods into the U.S.
– Primary customer: the ”Trade” (from Walmart and GM to mom and pop importers)
– Legacy ACE systems built on a mainframe platform – fragile, inflexible, difficult to maintain, costly,
unable to accommodate the demand for new features
– CBP attempted to replace the mainframe system with modern technology twice..both failed ($3.2B)
– The third time they decided to trysomething different…$436M, 3 years, and...

Reality check…
(Agile) services
adoption

Laden,M. (2010, January 31). ACE in the hole. International Trade Blog. www.shippingsolutions.com
Office of the Inspector General Report OIG-15-91 May 11, 2015 https://www.oig.dhs.gov
“IN BREACH”

From the OIG report…
“CBP started a pilot program in 2013 which restructured its process to Agile,
a rapid deployment strategy that had a shorter delivery cycle and more
oversight and accountability. In June 2013, the program was removed from
breach status and ACE development restarted using Agile.”

But my agency doesn’t have a burning platform…
4 Truth: the journey to Agile transformation may be long and difficult
4 Recommendation: facilitate Government-to-Government engagement at
agencies with Agile success stories.

Reality check…
(Agile) services
adoption

Use the tools available…

And implemented SAFe…

Overcoming waterfall governance…
4 Truth: every lifecycle governance standard I have encountered (DoDI
5000.2, SELC, EPLC, PMAS, etc.) has some recognition of iterative and
incremental processes, or a tailoring option that gives programs a path to
submit a plan that demonstrates how the need for oversight can be met
using Agile methods.
4 Recommendation: find other programs in your own agency that have
already forged this path and plagarize liberally! Otherwise, be prepared
to do the work of mapping Agile to your lifecycle model (and be willing to
share the final results!)

Reality check…
(Agile) services
adoption

It can be done…

Excerpts from the PWS…
SPECIFIC TASKS AND DELIVERABLES
The teams will be guided by Agile values and principles as stated in the Agile Manifesto at
www.agilemanifesto.org. Contractor staff assigned to these teams shall have expertise and will be
responsible for accomplishing specific tasks derived from accepted Agile practices. These tasks
and activities are grouped into five major areas: organization, communications, planning,
development and testing.

In regard to organization, the Government will provide a product owner for each team who will
act as the voice of the customer and work directly with each Sprint development team. The
Contractor shall provide staff operating in dedicated, integrated teams capable of delivering an
increment of tested, deployable software for the Sprint in which they are assigned. The Contractor
shall keep oversight and governance as lean as possible to empower the teams and push
decision-making as close as possible to those doing the work. Contractor Team members shall
choose their tasks from the highest priority work available, rather than have it assigned to them by
a manager, fostering commitment from team members to the work, and also encouraging team
members to venture outside their typical roles to help in whatever way most benefits the team as a
whole, in accordance with the Agile development methodology.

As Agile values embrace the expectation that the development teams will inspect and adapt their
development process to provide greater customer value, specific tasks may be modified over time
through a regular process of retrospectives that look back and take advantage of lessons learned.
The Contractor shall develop software following an Agile methodology. Requirements shall be
organized into a prioritized Product Backlog starting with the current, existing backlog. Software
shall be developed according to the prioritization of this backlog.
The Contractor shall follow the below Agile methodologies:
Time boxed sprints Frequent releases User Stories Story Points Agile estimation
Team velocity Sustainable pace Definition of done Product backlog Release planning
Automated builds Continuous integration Refactorting Version control Coding standards

No excuses…
4 Truth: The FAR (with guidance provided by the TechFAR) has all of the
flexibility necessary to create fully Agile centric contracts!
4 Caution: Many “agile contracts” are regurgitated waterfall contractswith
a few “agile” terms sprinkled in here and there… avoid at all costs!
4 Recommendation: find examples of REAL agile RFPs and provide to
customers, contracting officers, etc. (a POC for follow-up questions
would be helpful too).
Jonathan Mostowski Matthew Kennedy, PhD Mark Schwartz
ProcurementAdvisor Senior IT Specialist ChiefInformation Officer
US Digital Service Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency
USCIS

Reality check…
(Agile) services
adoption

Phil Landfried
Acting Executive Director
Cargo Systems ProgramOffice
Office of Information andTechnology
Brenda Smith
Lead Business Authority
Executive Director
ACE Business Office
Office of International Trade

Leaders must lead
It is not enough that management commit
themselves to quality and productivity, they
must know what it is they must do.
Such a responsibility cannot
be delegated.
—W. Edwards Deming

Leaders must lead
People are already doing their best; the
problems are with the system.
Only management can change the system.
—W. Edwards Deming

Learning from great leaders
“Be the change that you
wish to see in the world”
Mahatma Gandi
“It is better to lead from behind and to put
others in front, especially when you
celebrate victory when nice things occur.
You take the front line when there is
danger. Then people will appreciate your
leadership.”
Nelson Mandela
“If you treat people right
they will treat you
right…90% of the time.”
Franklin Roosevelt
“Leadership and learning are
indispensable to each other.”
John F. Kennedy
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for
consensus but a molder of consensus.”
Martin Luther King
“A good leader
inspires people to
have confidence in
the leader… a great
leader inspires people
to have confidence in
themselves.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“The greatest leader is not necessarily
the one who does the greatest things.
He is the one that gets the people to do
the greatest things.”
Ronald Reagan

Transformational leadership
‣ Offer support and encouragement
to individualfollowers
‣ Keep lines of communication open
‣ Offer direct recognition for
contributions of each followerGrowthCreativity
Vision Authenticity
‣ Be a role model; set the example
‣ Create an environment of trust and
respect
‣ Articulate a clear vision
‣ Inspire passion and motivation to
achieve goals
‣ Challenge the status quo
‣ Encourage followers to learn, be creative,
explore new ways of doing things
‣ Empower decision making
plan do
adjust
check
Transformational leaders inspire change balanced with focus on productivity and performance…Dr. Ronald Riggio

Why it matters:
Herold, Fedor, Caldwell, & Liu. (2008). The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees’ commitment
to a change: A multi-level study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 346-357. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.346
Transformational leadership has a greater
influence on followers’ commitment to supporting
organizational change than implementing
specific change management practices.

Phil Landfried
Acting Executive Director
Cargo Systems ProgramOffice
Brenda Smith
Lead Business Authority
Executive Director
ACE Business Office
Brenda Smith
Assistant Commissioner
Customs andBorder Protection
Phil Landfried
Acting Chief InformationOfficer
Customs andBorder Protection

Leadership matters…
4 Truth: There is a direct correlation between the level of success in Agile
adoption in government agencies, and the quality of the leaders
championing the transformation (in my experience)
4 Recommendation: help leaders who have the vision and the desire but
not the knowledge by getting them trained so (to quote Deming) “they
know what they must do...”
4 Recommendation: get government leaders to talk to their peers who are
further along in their transformation journy.

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Final note…
4The ACE program completed all 13 program increments exactly as scheduled
4Their customers (”the Trade”) have given the program tremendous praise for consistent,
predictable delivery, better usability, better performance, higher quality, higher reliability
4They just held their celebration of completing the third attempt at replacing the mainframe less
than a month ago.

Scaling Agile in Government

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