State Department to use agile agreement for new talent-matching application
The State Department is looking to quickly develop an application that will help it better match Foreign Service employees with work assignments.
Using the Technology Transformation Service’s blanket purchase agreement for agile delivery, the department hopes to have a beta version of the application by the end of the calendar year. Companies that are a part of the agile pool were able to submit bids until Monday at noon to “provide user research and software development” for the new application.
.@StateDept is building TalentMAP to better match Foreign Service staff with jobs. The Agile BPA is the first step https://t.co/RDr5l29cua
— 18F (@18F) March 6, 2017
Since the application will be developed under the BPA for agile delivery, the work will be done in two-week sprints and be reviewed by the Technology Transformation Service before moving forward.
“To help mitigate risk associated with such a long-term, yet aggressive timeline, the system will be built following agile development principles,” the performance work statement says. “Additionally, it will leverage open-source code, robust documentation, human-centered design, and an extensible infrastructure.”
Right people, right places
Dubbed TalentMAP, the new system will replace the Foreign Service Bidding (FSBid) application and also pull in information that usually exists outside it. The idea behind TalentMAP is to create a system that will “equitably and transparently manage and match Foreign Service employees to appropriate work assignments.”
The first four months of the performance period will be focused on an “informational-only tool that includes information on positions and posts with an improved user interface,” the work statement says. Depending on what comes out of user research, the work statement says features could include a display of the posts on a map, and/or ways to search and filter the data to find placements.
“The DOS will be able to better carry out its diplomatic mission by: improving the matching process, reducing the amount of time it takes for Foreign Service employees to find good jobs, and improving the workflow for administrative staff to manage Foreign Service employees,” the work statement says.
