The Approach
“We used an Agile methodology, so rather than defining a set of rigid requirements up front, we worked with Treasury employees and representatives from more than 25 federal agencies to establish the core functionalities the final product needed to have,” said Drew Leety, Booz Allen’s project manager.
The focus is more on making sure the site offers the functionality it’s supposed to and less on the process that drives how to get there. Some stakeholders were nervous about this approach, accustomed as they are to having all questions answered up front. The second step in the Agile process eased those concerns: We sent developers to the Capitol Visitors’ Center to ask tourists what they thought of the interface. Based on their feedback—what the team called “user acceptance”—programmers adapted the digital environment.
We developed and tested what we dubbed the DATA Act Broker. This TurboTax-style automated wizard helps agency financial officers standardize their spending data and upload it to the cloud for public perusal. We launched the tool in just 6 months.
Throughout the implementation, we helped the U.S. Treasury maintain a level of transparency that’s nearly unheard of in the government IT realm, by using GitHub to share processes and work streams, and our agile project management tool, JIRA, which is publicly accessible. The team also shared their code on code.gov.
Once the data was accessible, it was time to bring the data community together across government and industry. We hosted the DATA Act Hackathon, giving data scientists, developers, and coders access to newly available federal data sets to find ways to better manage federal spending and performance. Participants offered recommendations on resource allocation, budget considerations, and more.
The Future
We know how to foster a collaborative environment where creativity and problem solving intersect—through open and objective code reviews, adopting an Agile mindset, and sharing lessons learned. But our work isn’t done.
“The real breakthroughs will only come if citizens go to USASpending.gov and kick the tires,” says Booz Allen’s Bryce Pippert who led our DATA Act work. “The government is a publicly-held trust and we are the shareholders, so we’re asking you to use these new data assets. Without curiosity and use, we won’t see the intended impact and value. We need people to get in there and dig.”
In the fall of 2017, we'll release a new version of USAspending.gov. The new site will continue to provide data on federal awards and will feature agency expenditure information. For a preview, go to beta.usaspending.gov. Please give us feedback about important features you want incorporated into the new site by emailing our service desk or joining the community.
