GAO Agile Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Adoption and Implementation [Reissued with revisions on Dec. 15, 2023]

Why GAO Did This Study

The U.S. Government Accountability Office is responsible for, among other things, assisting Congress in its oversight of the executive branch, including assessing federal agencies' management of information technology (IT) systems. The federal government annually spends over $100 billion on IT. However, federal agencies face challenges in developing, implementing, and maintaining their IT investments. All too frequently, agency IT programs have incurred cost overruns and schedule slippages while contributing little to mission-related outcomes. Accordingly, GAO has included management of IT acquisitions and operations on its High Risk List.

Recognizing the severity of issues related to government-wide management of IT, in 2014, the Congress passed and the President signed federal IT acquisition reform legislation commonly referred to as the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, or FITARA. This legislation was enacted to improve agencies' acquisition of IT and enable Congress to monitor agencies' progress and hold them accountable for reducing duplication and achieving cost savings. Among its specific provisions is a requirement for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) at covered agencies to certify that certain IT investments are adequately implementing incremental development as defined in the Office of Management and Budget's capital planning guidance. One such framework for iterative and incremental development is Agile software development, which has been adopted by many federal agencies.

The Agile Assessment Guide discusses best practices that can be used across the federal government for Agile adoption, execution, and program monitoring and control. Use of these best practices should enable government programs to better transition to and manage their Agile programs. GAO has developed this guide to serve multiple audiences:

• Federal auditors are the primary audience for this guide. Specifically, the guide presents best practices that can be used to assess the extent to which an agency has adopted and implemented Agile methods.
   
• Organizations and programs that have already established policies and protocols for Agile adoption and execution can use this guide to evaluate their existing approach to Agile software development.
   
• Organizations and programs that are in the midst of adopting Agile software development practices and programs that are planning to adopt such practices can also use this guide to inform their transitions.

For more information, contact Carol Harris at 202-512-4456 or harriscc@gao.gov or Brian Bothwell at 202-512-6888 or bothwellb@gao.gov.

Reissued with revisions on Dec. 15, 2023

Reissued with revisions on Dec. 15, 2023. Revised Dec. 15, 2023 to correct the title on the cover, to include text missing after Table 2, and to correct formatting errors to section headers and lists.