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Procurement Building and Reusing Open Source Tools for Government
A primer by New America for government entities thinking about embracing open-source solutions. This report is based on interviews with experts in the field, the organization’s work on piloting open source projects with partners around the world, and a review of nearly 50 reports, documents, and resources on the creation and usage of open source software.
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Procurement S.1957 – State and Local Digital Service Act of 2021
This bill provides support for the establishment of digital services in state, county, local, and tribal governments. Specifically, the bill directs the General Services Administration (GSA) to establish (1) a Digital Service Grant Program to provide grants to such governments to establish or support a digital service team, and (2) a Digital Service Planning Grant Program to provide grants to create a plan to establish a digital service team. The GSA must (1) report periodically to Congress and make publicly available on its website information regarding the grants, and (2) issue guidance to streamline the procurement of federal services and technology by states, local governments, and Indian tribes.
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Procurement Sharing Government Software: How Agencies are Cooperatively Building Mission-Critical Software
This report reviews the features of intergovernmental software cooperatives, examines several different examples, looks at different categories of cooperatives and their governance structures, and inventories known cooperatives both within and outside of the United States. Agencies rethinking how they obtain technical functionality, budget officials looking to control costs and outcomes, or private funders that want to improve public services may find this report particularly useful.
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Procurement How the Next Administration Can Use Technology To Prevent Another Unemployment Insurance Meltdown
Clearing applicant backlogs is an important solution to the UI crisis. State governments and federal agencies could facilitate access to public benefits by collaborating to develop interoperable technology platforms that use open source software and modular design. Panelists discuss opportunities to prevent future UI crises by reimagining how governments deliver benefits to their citizens.
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Procurement Software Update Required: COVID-19 Exposes Need for Federal Investments in Technology (Virtual Hearing)
House Committee on the Budget virtual hearing regarding the importance of federal investments in technology and software updates during COVID-19.
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Procurement Software Sharing Models
Governments around the world are sharing custom-built software already, and have done so for many years. It’s vital, cost-saving, and meets the needs of users. This article provides examples of a range of different software sharing models.
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Procurement Why is it so hard to build government technology?
The pandemic has shown how difficult it can be for the US to succeed with major technology projects. Various leading design thinkers discuss strategies for building more efficient and effective government technology.
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Procurement Default to Open
This article discusses the various benefits of publicly-funded open-source software. These benefits include fairness and transparency, economic stimulus, and support of the Federal Source Code Policy Agenda.
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Procurement Delivery-Driven Government: Principles and Practices for Government in the Digital Age
Technology enables governments to engage in “pilot” projects to see where they are headed and course-correct along the way, as opposed to evaluating the results over the course of multiple years. Delivery-driven government utilizes technology and “pilot” projects to see institutions and processes through the eyes of users, allowing for more effective service delivery.
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Procurement An Agile Software Development Solicitation Guide
Government solicitations to procure custom software are often long, complicated, and take months. By using 18F’s agile contract format, agencies can hire an agile software contractor with a quickly-written dozen-page solicitation, allowing for immense savings in time and money.
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Procurement Prerequisites for modular contracting
18F describes modular contracting, the process of breaking up large, custom software procurements into a small constellation of smaller contracts. Modular procurement requires agile, product thinking, user-centered design, DevSecOps, and loosely-coupled architecture.
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Procurement Federal Field Guide
Few large government software projects are successful, as current ecosystems in place at agencies do not support agile development practices. This guide provides instructions to federal agencies on how to effectively budget for, procure, and oversee software development projects.