Francis: What is with all the science fiction references in all of these [software] programs? Star Wars, Kobayashi, where’d that come from?
Lauren: Well, you know Kobayashi Maru, from Star Trek? I think everyone figured out that branding is important. When you put some indecipherable acronym in front of your project… it sends a signal that we’re stuck in a gray facility without to tools we need to do our job…
Really what we want is: do your thing; solve the mission your own way; figure out what’s been done before you, and then share what you’ve learned with those folks as well.
That was Government Matter’s Francis Rose speaking with Lauren Knausenberger, director of cyberspace innovation at the Air Force. Watch the whole video.
The new Section 801 authorities for rapid acquisition of software in the FY 2020 NDAA are, according to Knausenberger, a scaled up version of the success demonstrated by the Kessel Run project (said to have “smuggled” agile devops into the Air Force). Yet it seems unlikely that the NDAA can force what amounts to an extensive culture change that is associated with the words, “do you thing; solve the mission your own way.” Here are some of my thoughts on the proposed law for new pathways for software.
Agree with your assessment that changing the Air Force software acquisition culture will take more than legislation and Star Wars/Star Trek-themed named software factories. Instead of separate organizations operating like software start-ups with (frankly relatively small) pockets of success, real culture change would need to occur in program offices across the Air Force. Of course, culture change is hard; particularly when it runs up against the ‘Frozen Middle’.