Agile Fit Check Framework for Government Acquisition Programs

Abstract

To embrace the rapid rate of change in software system development, it is crucial to be flexible, resilient, and robust. Although there is no one-size-fits-all process, an agile approach has been increasingly popular and widely adopted in the software industry. Aerospace and defense contractors have gradually started to adopt agile principles and its manifesto. However, there are questions on whether agile would be a good fit for large-scale mission-critical programs or better yet how we know whether we should use agile. If so, should we use agile as it is used in commercial software-intensive industry or should we tailor the process so that it is still agile but also compliant with government regulations. This paper discusses a framework that can be used to check the fitness of a proposal for an agile development based on the system’s characteristics and on both the government and the offerors’ readiness. This framework does not give a yes/no answer on whether a program should use an agile development process, but assists the program office in the identification and mitigation of the risks of an agile approach for a particular system. This framework will also identify opportunities for process tailoring and improvement. The framework was developed with the proposal phase in mind; however, it can be used at any time during the software development lifecycle to help mitigate agile development risks.