If you support government programs no doubt you have heard of or are in the midst of an agency’s’ Agile transformation. These transformations our brought on for a number reasons. Some may say the number one reason is that it just makes good business sense. Since we all know change is difficult, especially in the government, and government senior executives tend to limit pain under their watch, let’s remove this as the primary impetus for the transformations. The primary reason I see for these Agile transformations is the demand from Congress for better execution of programs, thus leading to the passage of laws and subsequent congressional oversight function.
When we continue to see Congress search for “Grand Bargains”, e.g., big government bills that include multiple legislative initiatives in order to garner as many votes as possible, they show that have little awareness of the lean/agile principles…
Laws such as the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act (PMIAA) and the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) encourage the agile management of acquisition programs. These acts increase Congressional oversight and requires more frequent reporting. These are good things.
While encouraging the executive branch of our government to be agile, Congress continues to demonstrate its inability to be agile. When we continue to see Congress search for “Grand Bargains”, e.g., big government bills that include multiple legislative initiatives in order to garner as many votes as possible, they show that have little awareness of the lean/agile principles that express the benefits of small batches and feedback loops.
How can Congress experiment and receive direct feedback on legislative outcomes if they release a large batch of initiatives in the same bill? How can they expect the Executive branch to operate with agility when a group of initiatives with interdependencies are all grouped together?
Congress should lead by example and pass small pieces of legislation that are independent. Set outcomes targets/goals and use those for oversight matric. This will allow the Executive branch to implement and measure the outcomes of that piece of legislation.
Congress should also craft legislation so small that it is almost experimental in it implementation. For example, instead of passing legislation dictating that the Border Patrol higher 8,000 more agents, how about have them higher 1,000 agents to allow 1,000 experienced agents to be reassigned to areas of the border with the most need? Then measure the impact of this initiative on border security. If it is less than effective then we have real data regarding the implementation of 1,000 new agents on the border.
My message to Congress, don’t expect to provide oversight of successful agile transformations in the Executive branch when your whole mode of operation is antithetical to agile principles.
