VA Looking for 'Agile' Contractor to Design New Vets.gov in 2 Months

The Department of Veterans Affairs is collecting information from potential contractors who could help build Vets.gov, the VA's concept for a more streamlined website. 

Vets.gov is intended to be a Web portal with a single sign-on access point veterans can use to find any VA services, according to VA.

In a Sept. 9 solicitation for information, VA outlined requirements for the new website, scheduled to debut Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.

VA's Office of Information and Technology's Digital Services will be overseeing the project, according to the solicitation. The department is looking for a contractor specializing in agile product development -- in which large projects are broken into a series of small "sprints"  --  to design various parts of the site and its applications. 

The contractor must hold sprint review meetings, during which they must demonstrate specific parts of the product, no later than two days after they're completed, the solicitation specifies, among other requirements.

VA declined to provide more information on the project and its aggressive timeline, but said in a statement the site will continue to evolve over the next year.

The initial launch is meant to "be your first look into how we are modernizing the veteran experience," a VA spokesman said.

While the eventual goal is to make Vets.gov a "one-stop shop for information and self-service for Veterans," VA plans to add new functions week by week, responding on user feedback and usage data.