Agile Acquisition 101

Version 5 (30Jul2022) - Dr. Matt Kennedy, describes the basics of Agile Acquisition in a Federal Government environment. He defines Agile Acquisition. Under Agile Acquisition, we provide a more responsive delivery of products based on customer feedback.  In other words, we deliver continuous value through continuous customer feedback.  Then, he describes the traditional method of developing and delivering products based on an "out of date" plan, and the agile method of developing and delivering products based on continuous modifications based on frequent customer feedback.  He describes the transition from traditional to agile as having to change the way we fund, contract, measure and organize; this is a complete cultural and behavioral change for all government organizations in order to increase our responsiveness to our customers.  One of the things he highlights is where continuous DevOps is needed to synchronize the faster, agile software development to the deployment rhythm; the result allows for continuous operations at the speed of relevance (One of the Goals of the National Defense Strategy (NDS) - "Deliver Performance at the Speed of Relevance," Secretary Mattis, 19 Jan 2018). NOTE: DoD is calling DevOps Secure DevOps (SecDevOps) to emphasize baking security in from the beginning and throughout the DevOps pipeline.