Page 24 - Federal Computer Week, May/June 2019

IT Modernization
Executive Viewpoint
A Conversation with
DAVID BAO
Deputy Executive Director, U.S. Digital Service at Veterans Affairs
A USDS leader discusses how VA’s focus on modernization is translating into better services for veterans
How is the U.S. Digital Service helping the Department of Veterans Affairs modernize the way it provides services to veterans?
The U.S. Digital Service is a technology startup at the White House. We attract top tech talent from across the country
to come to D.C. and serve tours-of-duty tackling the toughest technology problems facing the American people.
At VA, the USDS team has been involved in two major projects. First,
we relaunched VA.gov last November. Launching the new site was the culmination of several efforts over the last few years to rethink and reimagine how veterans want to engage with VA from a digital perspective.
We spoke with over 2,000 veterans and got a lot of insightful feedback about what they want to do when they come to VA’s website. With the previous site, veterans had to figure out how to navigate VA’s bureaucracy to accomplish any task. With the new VA.gov, if you want to refill a prescription or apply for education benefits or health care, all those activities are just a single click from the home screen.
We’ve also been deeply involved with the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. The
Appeals Modernization Act of 2017 sought to establish new pathways for veterans
to appeal their disability ratings. In the past, that process could take well over two years and a lot of it had to do with internal systems and processes that were extremely old and not optimized for making sure those appeals could go through as quickly as possible.
We worked alongside the board to develop a new piece of software called Caseflow, and we’re particularly proud of the approach we took. Instead of trying
to do a big-bang release of the entirety of the software, we took an agile and iterative approach.
We broke down Caseflow into a number of much smaller pieces, and we didn’t just complete each piece and demo it to the teams. We actually put it directly in their hands and got it into production.
Because of those incremental wins, when the Appeals Modernization Act went into effect this past February, we were able to support it from a technology perspective.
How can agencies improve the way they recruit and retain top digital talent?
By highlighting the mission and the impact folks can have. People get into the technology field because they want to make the world a better place. They see how important technology is to everybody’s lives, and they want to contribute to that.
The federal government has a very strong ability to amplify that desire for mission and impact.
At VA, being able to serve the veterans who have served this country is an incredible mission to rally behind. There’s incredible impact to be had by improving the way that millions of veterans receive the benefits they deserve.
Emphasizing the mission and potential impact software developers or designers can have by joining the government has been incredibly powerful for USDS. We firmly believe agencies across the federal government can attract top tech talent by taking a similar approach.
This interview continues at Carah.io/Bao-USDS.
DAVID BAO
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