AGL launches Agile Government Handbook

I’m fortunate to engage with many great people on a number of rewarding projects, but the work I’ve been doing on Agile Government Leadership has been particularly fulfilling, both personally and professionally, because it addresses a fundamental approach to making government IT more efficient and successful.

When I first started collaborating with CivicActions a year ago, researching key components of successful government IT implementations, we delved deeper into Agile and how government was deploying, or trying to figure out how to deploy it, within the confines of the bureaucracy.

One of the recurring issues I heard, from both government employees and contractors, was that there needed to be a basic understanding of what Agile was in the context of government. There is an “Agile divide” between those who fully grok and are practicing it, and those who hear and process it only as a buzzword or passing trend or something unrelated to functions outside of technology project management.

So, taking the research I did with CivicActions, and working with the AGL steering committee, we created the Agile Government Handbook, to help bridge that Agile divide.

From AGL Steering committee member Elizabeth Raley announcing the handbook:

The handbook provides an overview of the agile development methodology, benefit, roles, key terms, checklists and resources that begin to help demystify Agile in the context of government. We are very excited about this resource and, in true Agile fashion, will continue to iterate and build on it with the support and involvement of the community.

I’m extremely proud of getting this first aspect of the AGL work out the door and look forward to sharing other AGL projects that build on this as the year progresses.

You can find the handbook at handbook.agilegovleaders.org, download and re-purpose from the GitHub repo or share your suggestions on how we can make this better.

To learn more about Agile government and AGL, join the AGL LinkedIn group, follow on Twitter and subscribe to the newsletter.

Also, if you’re interested in getting more involved, please feel free to contact me directly at luke@govfresh.com.