GSA pursues agile software acquisition under Schedule 70

The General Services Administration published a request for information Wednesday to explore the possibility of creating a procurement vehicle for agile software development.

On behalf of 18F, the GSA team that spread the gospel of agile development throughout federal government over the last year, GSA’s Office of Integrated Technology Services posted the RFI to FedBizOpps with the goal of “developing an acquisition strategy for a potential Multiple Award Blanket Purchase Agreement under FAR 8.4,” the solicitations says.

While 18F in the past has been the production floor working in agile sprints to get agencies software or other services faster, the potential GSA vehicle would “shift the software procurement paradigm” and “feature vendors who specialize in Agile Delivery Services” in a Schedule 70 BPA, Angela Brumbrey, a branch chief for GSA’s IT Schedule 70, wrote in a blog post. “The goal of the proposed BPA is to decrease software acquisition cycles to less than four weeks (from solicitation to contract) and expedite the delivery of a minimum viable product (MVP) within three months or less.”

Details about the project are minimal, but Brumbrey wrote that it will be “conducted in a phased approach” and feature the following elements in its development:

• Start Lean — Streamline the process … use proven methods to ensure success
• Show Us — Have vendors demonstrate their agile capabilities and ability to meet this need
• Onboarding Support — Provide an outreach program to support vendors throughout the process
• Periodic On-ramping, Off-ramping — Create flexibility, increase efficiency and improve effectiveness
• Small Business Friendly — Encourage work to be performed in small, rapid, independent increments

GSA is soliciting information from Schedule 70 vendors with experience in agile as well as non-GSA vendors with similar capabilities. To begin the process, the RFI asks interested vendors how they would “approach creating a new and improved version of an existing government digital service called FedBizOpps.”

“[H]ow would you go about designing, developing, testing, deploying and/or operating a new and improved system that produces such outcomes as user needs being met, risk of overall project failure (in terms of cost, schedule, quality) being mitigated, the architecture being adaptive to change, and taxpayer dollars being spent efficiently and effectively?” the solicitation asks.

Responses are due by Jan. 23, days before a Jan. 27 industry day on the potential agile BPA hosted by 18F and GSA’s ITS.