Steve Denning, from Forbes, has an excellent article detailing and commenting on the Air Force’s recent $1.3 BILLION debacle. The federal government does not have a stellar track record delivering software projects on time and on budget. Unfortunately, some of these failures are on an epic scale.
However, there is some good news. Despite this bad news, there are scores of software projects that are currently delivering regular value to customers and…wait for it…they are doing it within the Federal government! So it can be done!
What’s the common thread among a large majority of these projects? A vast majority have used Lean Agile methods to do so. The idea is catching on. AgileDC is a well attended conference. GlassCon(Gov’t Lean Agile Software & Systems) conference is gaining steam. Several meetup groups are thriving from the Agile Leadership Network to the Lean Kanban DC group. The icing on the cake is the GAO recommended to Congress and government agencies that Agile methods should be used when doing product development to prevent failures like the Air Force modernization project.
It’s coming folks. There are great people in government who get it. Here’s to hoping that we never have to report on a software delivery failure of this magnitude again!
$1.3 BILLION Fail
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