The NCMA DC Chapter will welcome Bill Pratt, Director, Strategic Technology Management, Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Department of Homeland Security OCIO, as our February dinner meeting speaker. He leads IT Acquisition and Systems Engineering Governance, Program Health Assessment, Program Support, and Digital Transformation at DHS via the Agile and IT Program Management Centers of Excellence.
Bill and his team coordinated the adoption of Agile and Incremental software development as the preferred process at DHS. They achieved a 100 percent agile adoption rate for software development projects supporting major DHS investments. The team is now working with partner offices to streamline the entire IT acquisition lifecycle at DHS using lean and agile techniques. This includes plans to leverage DevSecOps, AI, and RPA. Bill has more than 35 years of experience in IT acquisition and systems engineering, supporting the federal government, private industry, and the DoD.
DHS is recognized as a leading agency in adoption and maturity of agile software development. They have taken and are planning steps to mature and fully integrate software development into a seamless, end-to-end process from ‘idea’ to ‘FOC’ to ‘O&M’ to ‘retirement/replacement’. In support of Agile development as the preferred development approach for IT projects, the Agile Acquisition Working Group (AAWG) and the DHS OCTO developed the Streamlined Software Acquisition Process (SSAP) for use by software development programs. The SSAP is intended to be an Agile approach (though specific methodology-agnostic) to acquiring IT capabilities through software development for programs following the Systems Engineering Life Cycle (SELC). The AAWG was stood up to collaborate on the improvements to policy, governance, and acquisition guidance to facilitate agility, flexibility, and innovation. Stretch goals include elevating all IT programs to Agile, not just software programs.