Critical Update

The Defense Digital Service has a simple motto: Get shit done. But within the government's largest agency, that’s easier said than done. Nextgov’s Aaron Boyd talks to then-Director Chris Lynch (who announced he would leave government shortly after our interview) and former Chief of Staff and current Hack the Pentagon program manager Reina Staley about the projects and challenges the team has been working on since its inception in 2015.

The U.S. Digital Service doesn’t work on just one project: Its teams tackle governmentwide projects and drop in to help with specific agency tasks. Nextgov’s Aaron Boyd talked to Director of Engineering David Holmes, software engineer Alberto Colon Viera, and digital service experts Misu Tasnim and Scott Haselton to learn how they push the government’s old systems to modern technology and how they build partnerships with federal employees.

The U.S. Digital Service started in 2014 as a kind of tech SWAT team after the disastrous initial rollout of Healthcare.gov. But USDS isn’t the same as when it started. We chatted with USDS Administrator Matt Cutts about the current state—and future of—one of the high profile innovation programs in government. And by the way, USDS is hiring.

Facebook’s mantra may be “move fast and break stuff” but the federal government doesn’t work like that. Change can be an uphill battle with regulations, compliance checklists and oversight often slowing things down even more. So what does innovation in government look like? Nextgov asked Alla Seiffert, director of cloud policy and counsel at the Internet Association, and Molly Cain, founder of GovCity, both former federal officials who had innovation in their titles.

Upgrading from legacy systems to modern, nimble tech cost big bucks. And when it comes to federal government projects, that can mean billions of dollars on the line, plenty of pitfalls to avoid, and high stakes (like our nation's cybersecurity). Here are three Nextgov is watching closely.

Critical Update assembled an all-star cast to discuss the partial government. Nextgov, Government Executive, Defense One and Route Fifty staff discuss how the shutdown affects federal employees, government contractors, and state and local governments.

The coming year will have a focus on procurement speed, Deltek Director of Federal Market Analysis Deniece Peterson and Senior Manager of Research Ashley Sanderson tell Nextgov’s Frank Konkel. Plus: the longer-term effects of the partial shutdown.

It’s a new year and we’re looking at a new Congress. We chat with Mike Hettinger about what the federal tech community needs to know about oversight, committee assignments and yes, the partial government shutdown.

Critical Update will be back for a second season. Stay tuned. 

We talk to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell about how they’re using 3D printing in the field to get the warfighter everything they need—from buckles to barracks. It’s one of the bold innovations in government that you can catch at our live event, the Bold Showcase on Oct. 11. You can find all the details on this year’s Bold Showcase at www.govexec.com/feature/fedstival-2018-boldthursday.

The use of social media could mark as fundamental a change to the way we conduct politics and conflict as the telegram, telephone and television did in earlier centuries, Peter Singer writes in his new book “LikeWar.” But federal agencies and executives face a slow learning curve—and that has major consequences. For more on Singer's book, visit likewarbook.com.

Critical Update is on a short recess but we’ll be back in October with some very cool new stories.

Government agencies will always be a valuable target to hackers.The biggest problems—and fixes—in federal cybersecurity start at the top. Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus Co-founder Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., joined Critical Update to talk about what that leadership looks like and the impact of the White House eliminating its cybersecurity coordinator.

Congress shapes the technology priorities for federal agencies, which is why we spoke to Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a two-term congressman and chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on IT.

In the last episode, we talked about the kind of people agencies need to successfully deploy new technology. For this bonus episode, we go back to the U.S. Digital Service’s Chief of Staff Elaine Ho for tips on how to get those people to work for the government and how to keep quality employees from leaving. This episode is underwritten by Leidos.