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Agile Software Development in the Executive Office of the President
By Brook Colangelo
The Office of Administration (OA) supports the President and the staff of the Executive Office of the President (EOP). Our Office faces the unique challenge of supporting multiple missions including those of the White House and the 11 components of the EOP, such as the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. As the Chief Information Officer, I am responsible for equipping the President and his staff with cutting edge technology, merging technology with the various missions and overseeing the unclassified network.
This spring David Gobaud, an OA intern, approached me with the idea of creating a team of software engineers to provide expert software development and business process engineering services to the EOP. David realized that many of the EOP business processes could be digitized through software development, saving hundreds of task-hours. This summer we piloted the SoftWare Automation and Technology (SWAT) Team internship program with four of the best and brightest computer science students from around the country (Dustin Hume, Peter Mikitsh, Arjun Mody, and Andrew Wang).
The SWAT Team met one-on-one with customers to listen to their needs and then offered quick and nimble software solutions. They used an agile development approach and cloud based rapid development platforms to tackle over 40 projects this summer. The SWAT Team also analyzed our complex human capital management system and made valuable recommendations on how to improve, streamline, and optimize the system and related business processes. As word spread through the EOP about the immense help they were providing to customers, the CIO Council invited us to present our SWAT Team model to other agencies and federal partners.
Overall, the work of the SWAT Team has been a tremendous success and has revolutionized our business process support and software development services. This group of exceptionally talented individuals has received well-deserved praise from our customers and I am excited about the future projects our next cycle of students will work on. Students interested in interning with the SWAT Team should email SWATTeam@oa.eop.gov.
