DHS executes pivot to agile, but needs better reporting metrics

The Department of Homeland Security has successfully planned and made progress executing its shift to agile software development over the past four years, but needs to do a better job on reporting metrics, according to a recent audit.

In a study released June 1, the Government Accountability Office, said DHS "has taken many positive steps in its transition to agile software development," including streamlining acquisition and life cycle processes that allow iterative delivery to providing senior executive level support for the transition.

While moving from waterfall development to agile, however, GAO said DHS did not adequately address the skills and resources required to complete the shift. For instance, the report said hasn't much incentivized or rewarded its development teams for using agile.

The agency has also declared some agile projects as completed, when work on them has only been deferred, according to the study. GAO said some agile projects in 2019, the year it studied for the report, had immediate goals completed, but other follow-on work, such as reports, and updates were deferred. Deferring reporting risks DHS ability to track whether the shift to agile is generating the desired outcomes, GAO concluded.

GAO issued 10 recommendations aimed at the CIO and the agency's IT Program Management Center of Excellence to measure outcomes, develop a reporting method for core agile measurement and adoption metrics, and set training requirements for agile methods.

The study was conducted from Dec. 2017 to April 2020 at the behest of bipartisan trio of congressional requesters on the House Homeland Security Committee.