U.S. Digital Service | The Contracting Education Academy

August 25, 2020 By cs

4 lessons from SBA’s $30 million ‘Certify’ platform debacle

Let me know if you’ve heard this one before: An agency hires “experts” to develop an application, spends tens of millions of dollars and the effort falls flat.

This easily could be the story to focus on with Small Business Administration’s Certify.SBA.gov project.

A recent agency inspector general report found the agency brought in U.S. Digital Service experts, spent upwards of $30 million over the last five years to develop the platform only for most of the effort to go to scrap and forcing SBA to basically start over again.

Instead this is a story about perseverance. It’s a story about lessons learned that every agency should keep in mind. And this is a story that offers an inside view into why federal projects do fail and how simple steps could change the direction of any IT project.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/08/4-lessons-from-sbas-30m-certify-platform-debacle/

September 27, 2019 By cs

Rethinking acquisition with the end user in mind

The U.S. Digital Service tries to take the temperature of acquisition culture as part of an agency’s journey toward digital transformation.

Originally designed for contract specialists and officers in the CIO Council, the Digital Service Maturity Determination tool is used to score various workplaces on how well they meet certain metrics when undergoing acquisition activities. USDS Digital Services Procurement Expert Florence Kasule explained at a Sept. 11 FCW event that the tool is designed to evaluate transparency, culture of delivery and focus on the user.

“You want and you need to understand what is that team that you’re going to be working with,” said Kasule. “Does that team track and measure feedback openly and honestly, are there intensive and frequent communications with the customer and/or end users of the system? So, when you go through [an] attribute, you’re trying to assess whether that group has all of those practices adopted into the organizational culture or not.”

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/09/24/usds-maturity-determination-russell.aspx

October 4, 2018 By AMK

Agencies need in-house techies to know how to buy good tech, GAO reiterates

Spend enough time around personnel from tech-in-government organizations like 18F and the U.S. Digital Service, and you’ll hear them say something like this: Their teams save the taxpayers money not just by building things, but also by being in the room during large-scale tech acquisitions and knowing the right questions to ask or how to call a salesman’s bluff.

It’s a simple value proposition, leaders say, but a powerful one.

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the federal acquisitions workforce writ large needs more of that expertise.

Asked to survey how the acquisition landscape has changed in the past decade, GAO found various improvements in the form of workforce planning and training. But ultimately, it decided, “finding workers with the technical knowledge for complex IT purchases is still difficult.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/federal-agencies-tech-expertise-acquisition-gao-report/

May 31, 2018 By AMK

USDS to certify new acquisition specialty

The U.S. Digital Service is adding a digital services contracting certification to create a cadre of “technology acquisition mavericks.”

After two pilot efforts , USDS, along with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, is launching a new certification program for digital services contracting for civilian agencies with an eye to reducing the cost and time it takes to procure digital services in government.

The idea for new program stemmed from a Challenge.gov winning submission, proposed by ICF International and ASI Government.

Government “didn’t teach how to buy digital services,” said Joanie Newhart, Associate Administrator for Acquisition Workforce Programs, Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2018/05/23/usds-new-specialty.aspx

See the Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s memorandum May 18, 2018 on this subject at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/fac_c_digital_services_05_12_18.pdf

September 20, 2017 By AMK

U.S. Digital Service taps 8(a) to help agencies ‘fail fast’

With end-of-the-year spending upon us, agencies wanting to experiment with digital solutions can look to a new vehicle from the U.S. Digital Service.

Leveraging sole source contracts from the Small Business Association’s 8(a) program, USDS has created a contract exemption program that allows agencies looking to procure services, build a minimum viable product or learn about skills like agile development.

Traci Walker, lead contracting officer at USDS, said the exemption gives agencies the ability to experiment with possible digital solutions, providing the ability to “fail fast,” innovate and move on without the heavy lift of a large project.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/usds-taps-8a-help-agencies-fail-fast/

Let me know if you’ve heard this one before: An agency hires “experts” to develop an application, spends tens of millions of dollars and the effort falls flat.

The U.S. Digital Service tries to take the temperature of acquisition culture as part of an agency’s journey toward digital transformation.

The U.S. Digital Service is adding a digital services contracting certification to create a cadre of “technology acquisition mavericks.”

With end-of-the-year spending upon us, agencies wanting to experiment with digital solutions can look to a new vehicle from the U.S. Digital Service.

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