Agile Engineering to Accelerate U.S. Army Missions

As the Army continues its transformation in contact initiative to empower soldiers to solve tactical problems, the power of agility is taking on greater significance—and a new meaning. 

Typically, “agile” suggests a process: a way to break down complex development projects into smaller milestones and solicit user feedback along the way. But in the context of today’s mission, software agility isn’t just a process. We believe it’s a philosophy that drives all technical decision-making so that an organization can be agile to its core. 

Fundamentally, software agility is measured by an enterprise’s capacity to:

1. Deploy solutions continuously and rapidly, to deliver capabilities at mission speed.
2. Adapt seamlessly to future requirements, through a flexible technology architecture.

In other words, it’s the ability to innovate and pivot on the fly.

For the defense mission, agility isn’t only a concept—it’s the only option. As Gen. James Rainey, commander of Army Futures Combat, said recently, “In the event that we find ourselves in another conflict, I would put adaptability at the near top of the characteristics that we’re going to need, because nobody’s going to get the future totally right.” In the multimodal fight against adversaries, an agile software posture allows the Army to move rapidly and make a safe landing when—not if—there is a need to adapt for mission advantage. 

True software agility for mission agility is more than a technology or process—or even an infrastructure. Ultimately, it’s a way of thinking and a commitment to achieving an open enterprise in the fullest sense of that word.

Of course, this open-first mindset is not new for the Army; it is already taking hold and changing the game for mission outcomes. For example, through the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) strategy, interoperable designs are helping accelerate innovation and embed flexibility into technical acquisition. But mission agility in the future will continue to demand more. 

The next chapter of digital transformation will be marked by full domain awareness and technology at scale—through a system-of-systems engineering approach. Legacy engineering practices that used to underpin critical technology projects are becoming relics of the past. They will be displaced by:

• Assembling and orchestrating (versus developing) capabilities
• Building and controlling open APIs across the system
• Accelerating outcomes through built-for-reuse services

For defense services and other agencies that are actively moving out on enterprise-wide modernization efforts, this evolution will come with questions to be navigated: Where can we stop building vertical systems and start assembling horizontal solutions? What features and functions are overly coupled with specific platforms, yielding limited enterprise value? Within a system of systems, what services should be scoped into enterprise-level components to be exposed and reused? 

Once an organization starts asking these questions, agility becomes the guiding principle. Our journey at Booz Allen is no different: We’re asking the same questions so that “open” is firmly embedded in our enterprise DNA. 

In this future state, agile engineering helps fight against over-engineering. It ensures that an enterprise can keep up with the exponential pace of technology and enable mission agility for the unknown—but certain—pivots ahead.