Senate defense policy bill pushes DOD on agile software development

摘要

The Senate Armed Services Committee's fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill would create "special pathways" for software acquisition and cut funding for programs not using agile development methods, according to a summary of the legislation released today. The FY-20 bill "adopts and oversees modern software development and IT acquisition practices to improve lethality and efficiency," the summary states. The committee yesterday voted 25-2 to advance the bill to the Senate floor. The measure "establishes special pathways for rapid acquisition of software applications and upgrades," according to the summary. Such a provision would be in line with a recently published Defense Innovation Board report on software acquisition, which recommended creating a new "acquisition pathway ... for software that prioritizes continuous integration and delivery of working software in a secure manner, with continuous oversight from automated analytics." Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord endorsed the findings of the report earlier this month and said DOD will ask Congress for new acquisition rules for software, starting with pilot programs in FY-20. The Senate committee's bill also "reduces funds for systems not effectively implementing agile acquisition methods" and specifically requires "the use of agile software development methods" for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Autonomic Loaistics Information Svstem. according to the summary.