Selective Service System: Implementation of Agile Government

BACKGROUND

When the Grand Challenges in Public Administration were announced in November 2019, the Academy established the Agile Government Center (AGC) in partnership with the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Agile government applies the lessons of agile software development to how public organizations are managed. The AGC’s purpose is to serve as the hub of a network that brings together governments, nonprofits, foundations, academic institutions, and private sector partners to assist in developing and disseminating agile government principles and case studies of agile policies and programs. Since the AGC’s establishment, it has produced significant thought leadership, including reports on how to build a more agile federal government and how regulatory agencies can become more agile. The Selective Service System (SSS) has now engaged the National Academy of Public Administration (the Academy) to help support its strategic transformation and agile journey. If authorized by the President and Congress, SSS would rapidly provide personnel to the Department of Defense and provide an Alternative Service Program for conscientious objectors.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

To ensure the success of its national security mission, the Selective Service System (SSS) undertook  a strategic modernization and transformation process. Challenges included institutionalizing new processes, adapting to changes in the external environment, improving the customer experience and journey, increasing automation and user-friendliness, and strengthening internal communication practices.

Using the Agile Government Framework and Diagnostic as a foundation, the Academy Study Team reviewed SSS's existing management and transformation efforts, gathered evidence through interviews with employees and stakeholders, and analyzed how current practices could be adapted to better reflect agile methods. Building on this assessment, the team identified additional opportunities for short-, mid-, and longer-term improvement, including agency-wide and function-specific applications of agile practices, and developed recommendations to help institutionalize those practices.

The methodology also examined structural barriers that could limit the adoption of agile principles and provided reform options to address those constraints. This approach ensured that the study moved beyond assessment to support practical, sustained organizational change.

Key project activities included:

• Assessing SSS's current agile management practices
• Identifying additional opportunities for agile management across the agency
• Developing an agile action plan to support SSS's ongoing transformation
• Recommending strategies to institutionalize agile principles and practices
• Identifying organizational and structural barriers to agile adoption and proposing reform options to address them

To further support the institutionalization of agile principles and practices, the Study Team tailored its accredited Leading Agile Transformation program and delivered a five-week training program for two cohorts of SSS staff, helping build internal capacity to sustain and expand agile practices throughout the organization.

For any questions, please contact Amanda Mullan.