Page 10 - CARAHSOFT, June/July 2021

The Path to Future-Ready Government IT
How to streamline
modern app development
Agencies should be able to focus on user-centric apps rather than the complexities of the underlying IT
Jeremiah Sanders
Federal Strategist, VMware
enhances cybersecurity, and improves the citizen experience.
Users of government software — whether they are citizens or agency employees — can become demoralized by the outmoded
and onerous legacy systems that perform business or mission functions, especially when software makes every other facet of our lives easier. During my military career, I saw air operations conducted with pen and paper because manual processes were faster than using legacy software, and I know of many young military members whose decision to leave the service was heavily influenced by the lack of software capabilities on the job.
By contrast, the highlight of my military program management career was leading
a 300-person workforce that went from
not delivering any new capabilities to its user community in 10 years to putting
new capabilities directly into warfighters’ hands every four hours. We achieved that success by partnering with VMware’s
Tanzu Labs to build a winning culture
and brand called Kessel Run. Software development, workforce productivity and morale skyrocketed as user demands for new capabilities were rapidly and continuously met.
A laser focus on apps and data
Cloud technology delivers the speed and agility that high-performing software organizations need. Therefore, it is critical to partner with a vendor that can provide highly automated service abstraction layers for commercial, on-premises and hybrid
MANY GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS that perform business and mission
functions are archaic and cumbersome, require system-unique training, and lead
to human error and wasted time. They
were built using a one-pass development process that defined system functions at the beginning and did not solicit user feedback to ascertain real-world utility.
By contrast, modern app development frameworks emphasize product thinking and entrepreneurial management. That focus on product fit and customer value has transformed the software industry and made the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Uber, Lyft and Netflix household names.
Modern app development ruthlessly prioritizes the creation of user value (making tasks easier) and user-centered design (making intuitive software we love to use). Essential in both regards is a perpetual software development process that is driven by user-centric context and feedback.
A mission imperative for government
In the commercial world, investment in modern apps is a business imperative,
and the companies that focus on it attract the technology world’s best talent. In the government, modern app development is a mission imperative that encourages the use of common tools, saves time and money,
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