In a project between ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology Group and the Acquisition Community of Interest (COI) important takeaways were found for improving training, implementing modern techniques, and integrating appropriate tools for improving the Federal acquisition process.
During a May 19 COI meeting, speakers broke down how to pursue improvements in acquisition and the best ways to operationalize an Integrated Agency Team (IAT). Key members of the IAT were: a technical team; an acquisition team; an operations team; general counsel; finance; and an IT CIO and CISO. Additionally, project teams shouldn’t be the only cross-functional units, but program teams and the agencies should also be cross-functional.
“You can’t just suddenly drop a brand-new technology into a group and expect everyone to be able to jump with it,” Director for Acquisitions at the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services Federal Acquisition Service Omid Ghaffari-Tabrizi said in discussing five steps necessary to achieving mastery for IAT. “There is a bit of that change management, a bit of just training and baselining that’s going to be necessary to find out who’s going to be able to kind of be that first adopter, right?”
The five steps, GSA indicated, include:
- Technology Awareness;
- Problem Assessment;
- Organizational Readiness;
- Technology Selection; and
- Implementation and Integrations
Ultimately, the focus is on delivering value. Being able to provide an end user with value should be a modern program team’s “North Star.”
