Driving Impact Through Acquisition Flexibility: Recommendations for Injecting Flexibility Into Acquisitions for Software Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) and Agile Software Development

Abstract

Government agencies are in search of new techniques to overcome the slowness and rigidity of traditional acquisition approaches. The contrast in flexibility between traditional and Agile acquisition processes is captured well in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report titled, Effective Practice and Federal Challenges in Applying Agile Methods, which states, "Procurement practices may not support Agile projects: Agile projects call for flexibility in adding the staff and resources needed to meet each iteration, and to adapt to changes from one iteration to the next. One official stated that working with federal procurement practices presents a challenge where they do not support the flexibility required." To further emphasize this point, the recent efforts of the Section 809 Panel on Streamlining Acquisition and the current focus on Other Transaction Authority (OTA), rapid prototyping, assessments, and fielding, Challenge-Based Acquisition (ChBA), Minimal Viable Products (MVP), and DevSecOps, make it clear that agencies are eager to adapt their acquisition processes and products to allow for greater speed and flexibility to meet evolving demands.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1108127

Entities

People

  • Adam Bouffard
  • Justin Collens
  • Karen Gantt
  • Kelly Horinek
  • Ken Stauffer
  • Miriam Riegler
  • Patrick Staresina
  • Stephen Roe

Organizations

  • MITRE Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Agile Software Development
  • Agreements
  • Best Practices
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Emerging Technology
  • Governments
  • Information Systems
  • Law
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Program Management
  • Software Development
  • Software Prototyping
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Training
  • United States

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Software Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design