Agile Acquisition: Creating an Effective Ecosystem

Section 843 of the 2018 NDAA calls for improvement in the training of the acquisition workforce. One initiative gaining traction within the Department of Defense is "Agile Acquisition. This concept provides for streamlining and speeding the acquisition process. In furtherance of the "Agile' initiative, Dr. Matt Kennedy from the Treasury Department, and Mr. Makoto Braxton, from the Health and Human Services Department, have developed a concept which is reflected in this video "Agile Acquisition: Creating an effective Agile Ecosystem.; This presentation discusses key aspects of creating an effective Agile Ecosystem by addressing both the individual components (Contracting, Engineering, and Program Management) and how they interact with one another to produce an environment where a program can effectively deliver value using agile methods. Using the "Scrum" concept as the agile framework, the presentation discussed various approaches utilized over a 2.5-year period to rapidly deliver capabilities on an IT Program comprised of over 90 servers, geographically distributed databases, and 14 applications (desktop and web-based) that supportthe agency’s core mission.