From Fed Scoop:
The Social Security Administration can avoid confusion and bottlenecks on IT modernization projects by identifying roles for contracting officials in the agile software development process, according to the Government Accountability Office.
SSA adopted an agile approach to software development — characterized by incremental or iterative improvements to software — in 2017 to help meet its modernization goals, but those projects continue to see delays due to the murky roles of contracting officials, GAO says in a new report.
While SSA issued guidance on agile team members like project owners, developers and testers, it failed to do so for contracting officers (COs) and contracting officer’s representatives (CORs) within the context of agile projects.
“SSA officials told us they did not think they needed to specify the roles given that the contractors were only responsible for providing services,” reads GAO’s report released Monday. “However, according to leading practices for agile adoption, key roles in agile IT development include the program office, product owner, contracting personnel, and development team.” ...
The only thing "agile" about SSA's software development process is the lengths the agency will go to in order to avoid having to hold anybody accountable for its failures.
ReplyDeleteThirty years on, and the agency's idea of modernization is to spend money hanging HTML-based screens on the SSI (and, eventually Title II) claims system while secretly still running the old systems hidden in the background. Why? Well, turns out SSA's systems are old home grown software kludges that aren't documented and thus can't be replaced because nobody still alive (or not senile and living in a nursing home) has any clue towards understanding how they actually work anymore.
And, the good ole boy network just ain't gonna stand for ruining some fine executive wannabe's career just because he or she is actually worthless as a manager. Gasp! That just ain't the SSA way....