The Department of Defense’s efforts to accelerate the design and deployment of software is stalled by the absence of Agile development principles in some of its acquisition paths, the Government Accountability Office said.
In a report released Thursday, GAO recommended that the DOD incorporate Agile principles into acquisition policies across all of its programs in order to maximize the potential of such an approach.
Agile principles aim to add user-specific capabilities and have the potential to deliver software in less than a year as part of DOD’s modernization initiatives. GAO’s study was in response to Congress’ directive to examine the extent of the Pentagon’s application of such principles in all six of its acquisition pathways.
The government watchdog found that the DOD requires Agile-based processes for programs that use the software pathway, but not for weapons programs. Weapons programs that are not on the software pathway do not incorporate Agile principles or require user engagement.
GAO concluded that the DOD should establish a Capability Needs Statement and User Agreement to ensure that Agile is fully embedded in requirements policy and guidance for programs affected by software modernization. The department ought to also deploy next-generation tools for mission engineering, systems engineering, and software engineering across its programs, per the recommendations.
