Government Agencies Need Agile To Face Modern Challenges

Last Updated January 25, 2022

An Agile mindset and approach have become more important than ever in government, especially for those in administrative roles. That’s an important consideration for both current administrators and those who aspire to leadership in public service.

The need for a change is apparent as the nation faces a host of challenges. They range from continuing to deal with a pandemic and repairing infrastructure to stabilizing the economy.

A recent report from the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) identifies the use of Agile as a potential solution to many of these issues. 

“In these challenging times, the federal government has no time for ineffectiveness and little tolerance for failure,” the report, released at the end of 2020, states in its executive summary. “We issue this paper as a call to action for the federal government. We hope it inspires agencies to inculcate the key principles of Agile into their daily management and operations.”

Why is Agile Needed in Public Administration?

Agile had its official start in the software industry in 2001 when a number of famous software developers and thought leaders formed the Agile Alliance and published a short and concise manifesto listing four Agile values and 12 principles. These values and principles were to help guide the Agile transformation and introduce a new management paradigm and mindset that saw more value in individuals and interactions; working software increments; customer collaboration; and faster response to change over processes and tools; comprehensive documentation; contract negotiation and following a rigid plan. 

Agile features cross-functional, self-organizing teams that work quickly to deliver solutions incrementally, immediately providing value. Certain aspects of Agile can prove beneficial to public administrators, according to the new report. They include:

• Making “customer” or end-user satisfaction the top priority
• Empowering staff members
• Creating small teams that do work in multiple short periods of time
• Creating a system where individuals operate within a focused set of networks
• Using innovative tools, and creating a culture that supports innovative approaches to problem solving
• Identifying and addressing risk early
• Focusing on doing and only performing necessary documentation

To date, most of the use of Agile in federal agencies has happened in IT in an effort to stop a string of failures in development of computer systems. Those failures led to “billions of dollars of wasted taxpayer money and frustration among agency program managers trying to meet program and taxpayer needs,” according to the report.

The federal government also has relied on the “waterfall” method of management that calls for items such as program measurement requirements, gate reviews that must happen before the next step can take place in a project, and setting one defined point in time for completion and delivery of a finished project.

This approach is vastly different than the faster, incremental approach of Agile, which also calls for continuous customer feedback and adjusting to help give the government the ability to quickly respond to emerging needs.

How Governments Can Incorporate Agile

The NAPA/PMI report offers five primary recommendations for how governments can incorporate Agile. This includes incorporation of Agile at the different levels of government, from single projects and programs to entire departments or even government-wide.

The report provides ideas for how to achieve these goals. Highlights include the following.

Agile as Preferred Operating Model

The report recommends that “to the extent feasible,” Agile should become the default operating model in departments across the federal government. Specifically, they call on making Agile the “cornerstone” for the President’s Management Agenda and incorporating it into cross-agency priorities, especially those involving improved customer experiences with federal services.

Championing Agile Methods

The report calls on leaders within federal departments and agencies to champion Agile and incorporate it into “as many of their activities as possible.” This includes actions such as:

• Empowering team members to make decisions and try out new roles
• Encouraging collaboration
• Discouraging “siloed” behavior
• Providing support for leaders, managers and staff members to learn Agile management
• Reinforcing the premise that agency actions and processes should focus on enhancing end user experience

Eliminating Key Barriers To Agile

The report calls on public administrators to identify and address barriers to implementing Agile. It specifically called on three of the federal government’s biggest agencies – The Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management – to work together in finding the biggest statutory and regulatory barriers to “making Agile management an expected way of doing business at the agency and program levels, not just IT projects.”

Highlighting Agile Success

As teams and departments within the government have success with Agile, a designated unit within the General Services Administration and the U.S. Digital Service should communicate those successes, as well as provide platforms for knowledge sharing, according to the report.

Providing Agile Training

The report calls for incorporating Agile into federal government employee training, especially in the area of management skills.

10 Agile Principles to Drive Government Improvement

NAPA has worked on incorporating Agile into government through the Agile Government Center it formed in partnership with the IBM Center for the Business of Government. The center has released many reports on how governments can become more efficient and effective through Agile. They also list 10 Agile principles that should drive government improvement. They include:

• A clear mission
• Establishing metrics for success
• Customer-driven behavior
• Speed
• Empowered, and highly skilled, cross-functional teams
• Innovation
• Persistence
• Evidence-based solutions
• Organizational leaders who eliminate roadblocks
• Diversity of thought

Why Agile Is Important For Public Administrators

For professionals who earn a Certificate in Agile or Certificate in Applied Project Management, knowledge of Agile methodology can help provide an edge in leadership roles. 

It’s also necessary for public administrators who want to meet what NAPA calls the 12 Grand Challenges Facing Public Administration in the next decade.

• Protect electoral integrity and enhance voter participation
• Modernize and reinvigorate the public service
• Develop new approaches to public governance and engagement
• Advance national interests in a changing global context
• Foster social equity
• Connect individuals to meaningful work
• Build resilient communities 
• Advance the nation’s long-term fiscal health
• Steward natural resources and address climate change
• Ensure data security and privacy rights of individuals 
• Make government AI ready

The causes of these challenges can, if left unaddressed, “eat away at the roots of our democracy,” according to NAPA. The goal of solving these challenges is to change lives in communities across the country as well as rebuild trust in the government.