Agile Corps - A Public Service-Learning Program Part I

Abstract

Each year the U.S. government invests more than $86 billion on IT products and services, yet the majority of these projects fail--they are delivered late, go over budget, are canceled, are outdated when finally delivered, or do not fit the user. Due to barriers in hiring and training, the government has tended to outsource IT talent at a premium price through contractors, but the results have not changed. The small amount of technology talent that exists in government tends to be senior, and there currently are very few, viable options for high-quality, junior and mid-level technologists to find a job in government and develop into senior roles. Agile Corps is a program designed to identify, recruit, train, and retain junior and mid-level technology talent in the government. This paper presents the design research and initial prototypes of the program and service called Agile Corps and introduces and prototypes the concept of public service-learning.

Agile Corps - A Public Service-Learning Program Part II

“…In order to pilot Agile Corps, we first completed a design process to uncover the needs. In Part I of this paper, an 18F design research team conducted discovery research to validate the need for the program and the needs of potential students and government agencies 11 . Through synthesis of the research, the 18F team uncovered patterns, themes, insights, and frameworks affecting the problem.…”

“…After testing with various agencies through multiple iterations, five major features of the prototype design changed: the number and type of academic tracks, the weekly time commitment, the duration, the location, and the cohort composition. By the end of the first major design phase, the unpiloted Agile Corps concept was a national, US-based, PSL program involving synchronous and asynchronous education consisting of 6 tracks (design, software engineering, security, product management, data science, mixed) for a 3-6 month duration, meeting for a few hours a day, a few days a week, for a mixed cohort of students 11 . The mixed cohort was intended to be 50% internal government participants and 50% external participants hired into government.…”

“…Even though we found no examples of PSL, we reviewed the literature for research-validated, modern educational methods and practices, as well as research on service learning. That literature review and subsequent research, synthesis, and ideation, led to the design of Agile Corps, the prototype 11 .…”

“…However, the general answers to the questions across the federal government were used to create the initial Agile Corps design 11 . Since the answers were used to design an unvalidated, educational program intervention to improve government products and services for the public, we also need a design experiment or design-based research methodology for validation.…”

“…The second stage (Design) is a stage of data analysis and synthesis of the previous qualitative and quantitative work, followed by ideation, prototyping, feedback, refinement, and iteration. The Discover and Design stages were completed in Part I of this paper 11 . The final stage (Deliver) is the stage of pilot planning, developing a feedback loop, defining success, partnerships, and developing business models for financial viability and sustainability.…”