Introduction to Acquisition Agile Services

Description

The course starts with the FITARA roadmap to guide the deployment of sustainable IT reform, providing CIOs with specific budgetary and acquisition authority for enterprise IT infrastructure projects. The students will learn to apply the principles, practices, and processes of agile acquisition framed by FAR 15.201.

As part of FITARA implementations, success starts with portfolio reviews of the current projects and paths forward to deliver needed business and public facing Capabilities, consistent with the department’s Mission and Vision.

Applying Capabilities Based Planning, the students will learn the Principles, Practices, and Processes needed to increase the probability of success of IHS projects.

During this course, case studies and hands‒on exercises will be used to involve the students with their own projects and experiences. Students will be guided by our instructor’s experience applying Agile Acquisition practices in the Federal Domain, focused on procurement of COTS and Cloud Based products and services.

Learning Objectives

• Examine the Clinger-Cohen and FITARA requirements, identify portfolio and program processes, including Agile methods, that provide Indian Health Services the flexibility to adapt to agency unique mission requirements;
• Review the FedRAMP Policy Memo, identifying processes, roles, and responsibilities of IHS needed to assure FedRAMP (Data Exchange and Business Associates agreements in accordance with FedRAMP Specific Contract clauses, 12/08/2017) compliance, including NIST Cybersecurity Framework for assessment, security controls baseline, PHI/PII for cloud computing and define the Agile acquisition and project management processes;
• Apply Capabilities Based Planning to show how IHS can establish management practices to align IT resources with agency missions, goals, programmatic priorities, and statutory requirements;
• Establish common roles, responsibilities, and authorities of IHS CIO’s office and the roles and responsibilities of other applicable Senior Agency Officials in managing IT as a strategic resource;
• Define the processes to enable CIO’s office, and the acquisition staff, to measure the performance of design, development, integration, delivery, and operations of IT products, services, and integration of these items with the business capabilities affecting functions, missions, or operations;
• Identify frameworks used to increased accountability for cost, schedule, technical performance, and security;
• Define processes needed to assist individual projects and their project managers in establishing a governance framework to enable effective planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPB&E) for IT resources, and increased transparency of these resources;
• Identify processes that increase visibility and involvement of the IHS CIO Office in the management and oversight of IT resources across the agency in support of the successful implementation of technical and operational outcomes;
• Introduce the “Agile Manifesto” and the 12 Principles of Agile development and their applicability to Federal Procurement in accordance with FAR 15.201 for agilely acquiring products and services and the processes applicable to IT procurement;
• Review guidance from GSA.18F.GOV for applying the Agile Contract Format (ACF) and how FAR 37.602(c) provides guidance for developing a Statement of Objectives (SOO) for IT systems; and
• Evaluation of external and internal case studies for Agile Lifecycle Acquisition projects based on best practices.

Course Details