Considerations for Using Agile in DoD Acquisition

This report explores the questions: Can Agile be used in the DoD environment? If so, how? Lessons learned from actual DoD programs that have employed and are employing Agile are provided as well as information gleaned from the myriad articles and books available on Agile. While this report does not pretend to cover every paper or thought published about Agile in the DoD world, it provides an overview of some challenges in using Agile; an overview of how some programs have addressed these challenges; and some additional recommendations on dealing with these challenges. The intended audience is policy makers, program office staff, and software development contractors who are contemplating proposing the use of Agile software development methods. It is the hope of the authors that this paper stimulates discussion about and appropriate adoption of Agile in the DoD world. We hope to obtain further data so that our list of considerations can be updated and expanded for use by all practitioners.