Space Force Lessons on Implementing Agile
What I learned from Agile Teams in a bureaucratic organization

New organizations within the DoD called Software Factories have been around for the past several years.  These are organizations that focus on using Agile methods to create software with the intent to provide value to the end-user.  The traditional acquisitions process has become so lengthy and complex that capabilities resulting from traditional acquisitions programs are more often obsolete and no longer relevant to the missions they were intended.  These software factories are attempting to break that trend and deliver capabilities at the speed of need.

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I spent the past 2 years at Space CAMP learning about how we actually implement Agile methods to include Scrum and Balanced Teams.  I wanted to make sure we practiced what we preached and separate the truth from the buzzwords.  I’ll discuss what worked and how to avoid anti-patterns that cause organizations to move back to traditional methods.  The key elements include understanding and managing team cognitive loads, implementing UX as intended and employing the iterative process to focus on solving users problems instead of improving the products.