18F Blog

18F has begun collecting and publishing team member "snippets," short lists summarizing what you worked on the previous week and what you plan to work on during the upcoming week. Team members submit their snippets each Monday, and they are published internally for all to peruse. Snippets foster transparency and team cohesion, spark productive interactions, and can be cultivated right away using tools already at-hand.

Last week, a number of teammates coordinated to put on three DigitalGov University courses that covered a range of topics, from culture change and open source to the latest in API trends.

18F exists to demonstrate how Open Source and Agile-inspired methodologies are critical to an effective, efficient, modern delivery process. However, driving adoption of these tools and practices throughout the federal government will require more than setting a good example. My recent talk at the GSA, available on YouTube, connects the dots between grassroots automated testing adoption at Google and the challenges facing similar culture change across Federal IT development.

The October Oopen source hack night was a huge success, both as a community event and for the positive impact on the Midas project.