US Digital Service formed, tasked with preventing government IT projects from being total shit

[smurfy]

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/11/white-house-launches-u-s-digital-service-with-healthcare-gov-fixer-at-the-helm/[/url]
[quote]The White House on Monday announced that it is formally launching a new U.S. Digital Service and that it has hired to lead it Mikey Dickerson, an engineer widely credited with playing a central role in salvaging HealthCare.gov after its disastrous launch. The idea behind the USDS, as the White House has taken to calling it, is institutionalizing the approach that saved the health care site and applying it to the work of the government even before disaster strikes.

Today is the service's high-profile launch, but the idea of it has been circulating for several months. In testimony before the Senate's Homeland Security Committee in May, federal Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel called it a "centralized, world-class capability...made up of our country's brightest digital talent," forming a team that will be "charged with removing barriers to exceptional Government service delivery and remaking the digital experiences that citizens and businesses have with their Government."[/quote]

Here's some dude talking about his job, probably skip 60 seconds in because the first minute is some bullshit

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l-7vmArLJY[/media]

[Buck.]

This will drive the conspiracy nuts crazy one day. Secret government hacker group.

[MegaJohnny]

[QUOTE=Buck.;45749308]This will drive the conspiracy nuts crazy one day. Secret government hacker group.[/QUOTE]
It'd be a bit redundant - the NSA already have that title.

[Crest]

The video had a strange emphasis on much of how unformal parts of it were.

And also holy shit that's a wrinkly shirt.

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=Brt5470;45749448]The video had a strange emphasis on much of how unformal parts of it were.

And also holy shit that's a wrinkly shirt.[/QUOTE]

Its informal because Obama doesn't have total authority to make it, but the idea of a gov agency dedicated to our software infrastructure seems like a no brained in this age when we are under constant assault by other nation's hackers, dated software and crippling budget overruns

[editline]20th August 2014[/editline]

Too bad congress would never allow it since republicans are super big business who make out on those vast software contracts and they are also anti govern!Kent so no new agencies will ever be formed in this congress

[theblah12]

Over in the UK the government formed the "Government Digital Service" a few years ago, which are responsible for [url=https://www.gov.uk/]gov.uk[/url] -replacing the slow, bureaucratic organisations and contractors which were responsible for hundreds of separate, incompatible websites with a moderately small team that works completely in house, using Agile software development, and by doing so have created one clean, easy to use website that nearly every government department now uses. It's been a massive success.

[smurfy]

[QUOTE=theblah12;45750814]Over in the UK the government formed the "Government Digital Service" a few years ago, which are responsible for [url=https://www.gov.uk/]gov.uk[/url] -replacing the slow, bureaucratic organisations and contractors which were responsible for hundreds of separate, incompatible websites with a moderately small team that works completely in house, using Agile software development, and by doing so have created one clean, easy to use website that nearly every government department now uses. It's been a massive success.[/QUOTE]

It's one of the best things the coalition has done imo. Instead of hiring a huge team and spending a shitload of money and time they just got [url=https://gds.blog.gov.uk/team-alpha/]16 people[/url] and told them to have a public alpha ready in 3 months, and it worked.

[JohnFisher89]

[QUOTE=Brt5470;45749448]The video had a strange emphasis on much of how unformal parts of it were.

And also holy shit that's a wrinkly shirt.[/QUOTE]

It's nothing new, IT is often the most miss managed parts of most companies because to them they do not see a direct return on investment like they can in marketing or such.

[Clavus]

[QUOTE=theblah12;45750814]Over in the UK the government formed the "Government Digital Service" a few years ago, which are responsible for [url=https://www.gov.uk/]gov.uk[/url] -replacing the slow, bureaucratic organisations and contractors which were responsible for hundreds of separate, incompatible websites with a moderately small team that works completely in house, using Agile software development, and by doing so have created one clean, easy to use website that nearly every government department now uses. It's been a massive success.[/QUOTE]

It's a far superior approach to the usual design-by-committee that governments tend to employ for projects. Software development does not go faster the more resources you throw at it, on the contrary, it can bog down the whole process. It's far more efficient to have a group of 5 people doing the work over 6 months, than expect a group of 100 to do it in under one.