DHS wants agile delivery services

WHAT: A Department of Homeland Security request for information seeking companies that can help it deliver digital services using agile and DevOps techniques.

WHY: The RFI is the core of DHS’ effort to establish a contract vehicle to provide headquarters and component agencies with support services for agile design and development. The acquisition will be conducted the virtual DHS Procurement Innovation Lab, which experiments with techniques to increase efficiencies in procurement processes and harness best practices.

Like other federal agencies, DHS wants to use cloud computing, agile development and mobile technologies to find new and innovative ways to deliver IT services.

The RFI, released on May 25, asks potential contractors about viable digital solutions that could support DHS’ mission by supplying agile teams of 15 to 20 contractor employees in roles such as product manager, designer, engineer and developer.

Contractors should be able to provide teams and individuals at all security clearance levels, with specific clearance levels defined by DHS components at the order level, instead of at the higher contract level. The teams should be able to create digital services using a modern technical stack and DevOps techniques that embrace continuous integration and deployment.

Contractors should be familiar with the U.S. Digital Services Playbook and DevOps techniques such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, production monitoring and production support. They should also understand agile methodologies such as product backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives and scrum of scrums.

DHS plans to hold an agile industry day in June and is taking comments on the RFI through June 7.

Click here to read the RFI.