The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fully implement leading practices for adopting Agile software development to improve the process of acquiring information technology systems.
GAO said in a report published Monday that DHS fully implemented the practice of planning for organizational change as part of its transition to Agile development, but partially executed the two practice areas – the need to implement and measure the impact of undertaking a significant change.
Of the 202 activities related to 18 Agile action plans, DHS completed 134 activities but pushed back approximately 34 percent of activities to a later date.
The congressional watchdog offered 10 recommendations for DHS to carry out, such as establishing Agile training requirements for senior stakeholders, measuring results in relation to Agile adoption, developing a set of core performance metrics and creating new guidance on Agile methodologies.