Six perspectives on Agile software delivery

As the director of PEO EIS’s Acquisition Innovation Directorate, one of Aric Sherwood’s responsibilities is establishing the organization’s Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE). The LACE will support program managers (PMs) on their Agile journey through Agile coaching, standardizing metrics and reducing impediments to successful value delivery. The LACE will also interface with Army senior leaders, supporting organizations and functional requirements owners to ensure they understand the Agile software delivery model and what they will be expected to do in support. Sherwood recently shared his thoughts on six topics related to delivering software at speed and scale. 

1.  Best practices in using the DOD’s Software Acquisition Pathway: 

"We're just starting this journey but having a willing partner on the functional side is key. They play a critical role in Agile software development, and their participation is far greater than in traditional waterfall development. That said, a well-developed user agreement is one thing that needs to be focused on to fully codify that relationship." 

2.  Ways to improve the Software Acquisition Pathway: 

"I would like to see a 'software' appropriation, very similar to BA-08, that would allow flexibility in how we fund software development. While we can plan for appropriate funding, it is often not aligned with the reality of what happens two years into a development. Being able to flow from Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) to Procurement — and even Operations and Maintenance — without having to do budget drills would be valuable." 

 
3.  Advice to PMs considering Agile and DEVSECOPS: 

"DO IT! The Soldier’s direct involvement in what gets delivered and the speed at which value is deployed are both key reasons why. The DOD should be looking to apply Agile methodologies to not just software, but materiel development as well." 

 
4. Ways to measure progress and ensure successful partnerships: 

"Again, we're just starting our journey and have limited data points, but we plan to measure progress at the sprint and program increment levels based on value delivered. We want to understand our velocity and value delivery to 'fail fast,' learn and adjust. We plan to partner with industry in a non-traditional way — contracting for manpower versus for a delivered product. We're working with our supporting Army Contracting Commands on what that might look like, but it will be more capacity-based."   

 
5.  Successful policies and practices PEO EIS has implemented: 

"We’ve been adapting the DODI 5000.87 Software Acquisition Pathway to our enterprise business systems to the greatest extent possible. Army leadership has been very supportive of this approach, and we are leading the way by making the Software Acquisition Pathway the default recommendation for all new efforts, as well as transitioning many of our legacy systems to Agile development — even if we don't transition to the Software Acquisition Pathway. This allows direct Soldier input into the systems they use to manage their career, pay, etc., while delivering value incrementally and sooner." 

 
6. Skills and training that PMs need: 

"To quote Yoda, 'You must unlearn what you have learned.' I joke that the Agile Manifesto is largely 180 degrees from traditional DOD and Army thinking about software development. In addition to the Army's digital transformation efforts, we are upskilling our workforce from PMs on down to understand the shift to Agile thinking, and they are jumping in and executing. We know we won't get it right the first time, and — dare I say it — that's OK. We will learn and adjust. As long as we have the support of our leadership, we will succeed."