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New RFP ghostwriting service to improve contract success
on March 30, 2015
A poorly written RFP will expose you to such risks as overbidding to compensate for uncertainty, vendor lock-in, and catastrophic failure due to miscommunication and misunderstanding. You don’t want that. The taxpaying public doesn’t want that. And neither does 18F.
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How to protosketch
on March 13, 2015
If you are a leading a project, ask for a protosketch. If you are a developer, learn to protosketch. Create imagination-sparking moments, in the meeting.
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A story of an agile workshop
on February 11, 2015
The clock was ticking as I stated the single solitary rule: We will have a demo at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00 no matter what else happens. No matter if we have to stand up and say we got nothing done this sprint!
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Sketching with code: protosketching
on January 6, 2015
Meetings are boring. Prototypes are cool. Use the meeting to build the prototype. We call building a prototype in three hours or less "protosketching."
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How to use more open source in your next federal IT acquisition
on November 26, 2014
The history of open source software is a record of steadily turning tremendously expensive custom-built solutions into freely available infrastructure that you can simply take for granted. What once were astoundingly sophisticated, expensive human endeavors have become open source tools you can drop into place in your project on a whim.
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How to run your own three-sprint agile workshop
on October 21, 2014
You can’t learn agile software development from a book any more than you can learn to perform a one-handed jump shot without repeatedly tossing a basketball in the hoop. You can read a book about the basic idea, you can read a book to get started, and you can read a book about refining your technique, but in the end you have to practice.
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The encasement strategy: on legacy systems and the importance of APIs
on September 8, 2014
In 1986 a nuclear reactor known as Chernobyl released harmful radioactivity which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. The core of this reactor remains a glowing, ineradicable mass of deadly radioactive lava in the middle of a large Exclusion Zone unfit for human habitation.
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The contributor's guide to 18F: code for the common good
on August 12, 2014
Transparency in coding makes code more secure. Open source development is development in the light, sometimes a harsh light, that shows every blemish. At 18F we strongly believe this improves the rapidity of our coding and the quality and security of the code.
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How a pepperoni pizza inspires open government
on April 12, 2014
Easy access to detailed tracking of processes has become more and more popular. Whether using Amazon.com, UPS, Uber or United Airlines, people expect instant feedback. They want to immediately see the status of a process upon which they depend.
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Uncle Sam wants YOU to be a hero hacker
on March 27, 2014
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is now accepting applications from creative, energetic policy hackers, entrepreneurs, user experience experts, designers, front-end developers, back-end developers, system architecture wizards, data wranglers, and more to serve their tours of duty to radically improve the delivery of government digital services.
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