NDIA ADAPT Working GroupAgile Delivery for Agencies, Programs, and Teams

Update: June 2020

Dennis Ebersole, PerspectaSuzette Johnson, Northrop Grumman

What is ADAPT?

• Community of Interest focused on the adoption of Agile principles and practices in DoD and other federal agencies– Educate, inform, and promote adoption– Identify barriers to adoption and propose solutions

• Subject Matter Experts with similar interests– Government organizations looking to change– Industry practitioners (consultants, tool vendors, solution developers)– FFRDC/Academia investigating adoption of agile

• Collaboration to advance Agile adoption in government and industry– Bi-weekly calls for planning events and responses to DoD/Federal policy– Sponsor of the annual Agile in Government Summit since 2010– Periodic Workshops to address specific challenges and opportunities

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Purpose

Formation• Section 804 Task Force• DoD Agile Development Conference, December 2011• Established Agile Defense Adoption Proponents Team (ADAPT) as a

Working Group under NDIA affiliate organization AFEI• Recognition that people, process, technology, and the way we work are

impacted by adoption of Agile methods• Rebranded ADAPT in 2014 as Agile Delivery for Agencies, Programs, and

Teams to embrace the growing Agile community across federal agencies

Purpose• Facilitate industry-government interaction on Agile principles in

programs, projects and procurements– policy, legislative, legal and technical areas– understanding, assessing and implementing agile methods– management/governance, processes, contracts

• Create forums for sharing successes and identifying challenges and potential solutions

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Objective

Contribute to the national security of the United States by promoting communication and interaction between industry, government, military services, and academia on the adoption of agile methods in IT and software and systems engineering, acquisition, legislation, requirements and technology.

• Build a community of practitioners and proponents of Agile methods in the DoD and Federal Agencies to include the acquisition arena and to showcase proven techniques, and associated concepts, tools and training.

• Promote understanding of Agile methods and their implications, adoption requirements, and benefits.

• Host Agile workshops that focus on bringing together recognized experts in the Agile domain to address specific adoption challenges in the Defense acquisition system and make the outcomes publicly available.

• Embed Agile methods in Defense Acquisition curricula.

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Who is ADAPT?

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Michelle CasagniMITRE Corporation

Will HayesCarnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute

Christy RobinsonViziya

Richard ChengExcella Consulting

Suzette JohnsonNorthrop Grumman

Scott SinclairSpectrum

Geoff DraperL3Harris Technologies

Steve MaynerScaled Agile

Dan WeikartCprime

Dennis EbersolePerspecta

Dave MayoEverware – CBDI

Eileen WrubleCarnegie Mellon UniversitySoftware Engineering Institute

Joseph ElmL3Harris Technologies

Ken MillsDigital.ai

Robin YemanLockheed Martin

Mark FabianThe Ambit Group

Stosh MisiaszekScaled Agile

Firas GlaielRaytheon

Kenneth NidifferCarnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute

Agile in Government Summit

2019: Integrating Agile into Government Business Practices

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Speakers:• Maj Gen Patrick Higby, SAF/AT&L• Dr. Jeff Boleng, OUSD (A&S)• Sean Brady, DAU• Steven Wert, USAF PEO-Digital• John McGregor, OASD (A)• Dr. Ann Wong, DAU• Jorge Relea-Gonzalez, Harris Corp• Firas Glaiel, Raytheon

Tracks:• Agile & Cybersecurity• DevSecOps Government Case Studies• Agile for Hardware• Business Agility• Agile Architecture• Digital Transformation• Agile in High Assurance Applications• Contracting Case Studies• Agile & MBSE• Lean Startup in Government

Previous Summit Highlights2018: Mission Agility Maj Gen Sarah Zabel

Dr. George Duchak, DASD (C4&NBS)

VADM Joseph Dyer (Ret)Dr. Matt Kennedy, Treasury

2017: IT & Beyond Leonel Garciga, JIDODr. Don Reinertsen, Author

Dr. Steve Mayner, Scaled AgileDevOps in the IC Panel

2016: Enterprise DevOps Gene Kim, AuthorMark Schwartz, CIO, USCIS

Gary Bliss, OUSD (PARCA)James McConnell, NNSA

Workshops and Projects

2015-2018: DoD Agile EVM Guidebook & Industry Practice Guide (Collaboration with IPMD)

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2010: Section 804 Report2011: Business Case for Agile Methods2012: Attacking the Impediments2013: Better Buying Power 3.02019: DoD Software Acquisition Workshop

Growth of Agile in the U.S. government

Federal/DoD adoption has passed a tipping point and is now becoming mainstream

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DoD DevSecOps Initiative: The DevSecOps Ecocystemand the Software Factory

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USAF Kessel Run is driving rapid Agile/DevSecOpsand Digital Services model adoption in all services

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ADAPT Path Forward: Our Work is Not Yet Done

The challenge for Government has shifted to early majority adoption challengesMark Schwartz, 2016: “The revolution is here. We need industry to be the professionals who are keeping up with the latest developments. Stop talking about obstacles. We have to stop waiting for permission.”

• ADAPT should shift focus from basic advocacy to guidance for agencies on the “how to” – Continue the Agile in Government Summit to catalyze the network of agile change agents and sustain the transformation– Focus on implementation and institutionalization– Continue Agile Basic Training – No GPOC Left Behind– Mainstreaming lean/agile approaches into the disciplines – PM, SE, EA, T&E -- Agile as “just the way we work”– Identifying and promoting transformation success patterns– Agencies have new policy direction, but most still haven’t learned the new dance– Help federal agencies become smart buyers under the adaptive acquisition model

• ADAPT housekeeping business– Complete integration into NDIA SE Division– Public web presence to advertise activities and expose library of Agile/DevOps in Government content – Internal portal to enable more seamless collaboration– Need to reinvigorate participation by Government counterparts in ADAPT – both senior-level Government champions and

working-level counterparts

• Still significant challenges, unsolved problems, and emerging opportunities in enterprise-scale agility– Undercurrent of tribal tensions between SWE and SE/PM communities in scaling framework debates– Integrating the Software Factory into Agency value stream networks– Emerging Industrial DevOps model offers opportunities to link MBSE and DevSecOps environments to bring more agility to

complex system development– Government acquisition organizations still struggle with defining and quantifying mission value, managing flow across

functional stovepipes, outside-in thinking, Project-to-Product shift, and creating high-trust environments 12