Kessel Run: a "Day in the Life" at a DoD Software Factory

The Kessel Run team gives us a glimpse of what life is like in a modern software development organization in DoD. Successful change management, and modern software practices such as DevSecOps and Extreme Programming, are critical capabilities that enable Kessel Run to continuously delivery value to the Warfighter.

Kessel Run team members (e.g., special projects director, release engineer, product manager, lab director, engineering practice lead, software engineer) discuss their culture, work environment and software practices such as pair programming, test driven development, and CI/CD through their software pipeline. Kessel Run transformed a legacy system program that did not deliver capability for nearly a decade, into a modern organization that delivers war-winning capabilities to the fight every 12 hours. This involved scaling change and growing from a 20-person experiment -- to an organization of over 700 people that has inspired change across DoD. The efforts of the Kessel Run team, past and present, were recognized with the new 2019 Software Innovation Team Award from the Under Secretary of Defense forAcquisition and Sustainment and the General Larry O. Spencer Innovation Awardfrom Air Force Chief of Staff.