Back to Agile Government Center
Agile Government and Agile Governance: We Need Both
May 18, 2025
The term “Agile” comes from the world of software development, and its implementation in project management has led to greater success in technology implementation. Building on this success, good government entities around the world have adopted the “Agile” label to promote better government outcomes.
The Agile phenomenon is highlighted in an upcoming article in the Public Administration Review, "Agile: A New Way of Governing." Authors Professor Dr. Ines Mergel, Professor Andrew B. Whitford, and Professor Dr. Sukumar Ganapati write, “A quiet government transformation is already underway with practitioners who are investing heavily in working in agile environments and applying agile approaches from software development to other types of government problems.”
In this post, we explore two uses of Agile - Agile Government and Agile Governance. In actuality, Governance is twofold – internal Governance that supports service delivery, and external Governance of processes that involve actors outside of government who are significant stakeholders in delivering the outcome of important actions. For simplicity, we will define the two as Agile Government (internally focused and involving government taking action to deliver services) and Agile Governance (externally focused and involving multiple parties beyond government officials, all jointly seeking positive outcomes).