The Agile approval process

Government is full of bureaucracy.  That is just the nature of the beast and it is a reality that we will in some way or another will always have to deal with.  Through the digital services training I have received, I have come to look at the bureaucratic system as something more akin to a challenge than a roadblock, meant to be conquered and then celebrated instead of being paralyzed by a plethora of required reviews and approvals.

If navigating existing, well-entrenched systems is tough, turning lemons into lemonade become degrees of difficulty harder when dealing with NEW bureaucracies.  A prime example of this would be the creation of the Cloud Computing Governance Board (CCGB), which is tasked with approval and tracking of current and new cloud-based projects across the Department.

To frame the issue, let me first tell you what the existence of cloud computing and infrastructure support is supposed to accomplish. Moving infrastructure to the cloud lowers our reliance on hardware that is costly to maintain and is frequently deemed outdated, transfers management of the infrastructure to the cloud provider, lowers the administrative burden on program officials, and reduces overall O&M costs by using a “pay as you go” model.  That said, all of these advantages could potentially be wasted, which brings me to the issue: IT’S JUST ANOTHER BUREAUCRACY.

Even though the goals of cloud computing are clear and many offices are leveraging it and proving as “guinea pigs” for others, the existence of the CCGB in its current form (one that requies a registration process that contains numerous steps that should be able to move in parallel but never do) will slow if not completely stop the move to the cloud by offices within the Dept that are on the fence.  The registration process is not clear, it requires the same documents to be passed back n’ forth for corrections, updates, etc; and there are no clear roles or POCs to raise issues with or to ensure something is being seen through to completion/registration.

So let’s make it a rule: If you’re going to create a new office to oversee and/or approve processes and procedures, make it one that’s responsive to change, can be tailored to respond to bureau or program-specific problems, and requests only what is required up front.  In short, make it agile.