Antifragile Acquisition

A Micro Manifesto for Government Digital Service Contracts

Why can’t the government get contracts for digital services right?

In 2015 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added the management of IT Acquisition and Operations to its High Risk list as they concluded that over 90 billion dollars of IT investments are not properly bought and managed, but after six years of acknowledging there is a problem, the problem remains.

Government contracts are brittle, forged under rigid and reactive conditions:

- They are written to resolve leftover problems unanticipated on the previous contract.

- They are inflexible in set up, structure, and execution.

- They rely on competition that has been reduced to comparing apples to apples for the lowest price.

- They are designed to take the path of least resistance instead of finding the best company for the job.

It is no surprise they crack under pressure.

New Hope

Around 20% of that ($90B) IT spend is earmarked for modernization and new development. This is promising news as it could open the door for inventive companies to offer the forward-looking technology solutions that will improve life for millions by improving public experiences with public-facing services — such as healthcare benefits & eligibility, federal loan repayments, and veteran’s benefits.

It is in this space that digital services and digital transformation should be gaining toeholds in the government marketplace.

Government is trying hard to acquire products and services from the companies that are already delivering commercially on what we might consider our “common expectation” for digital solutions. While the mission to improve public facing services is a call to arms for many in the technology sector, the unwillingness of the government to adapt its acquisition behaviors deters most companies, as few are willing to jump through the hoops.

So what does government need to do to improve its ability to buy digital services?

One approach is to counter-intuitively embrace the idea that everything will eventually change or need to be updated, that requirements are fluid, and that because everything is a priority, nothing is. It needs to adopt an Antifragile approach to acquisition.

Antifragility

Antifragility, described first by Nassim Nicholas Teleb, is a property of systems by which they increase their capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures. Through error and unpredictability the process for decision making will improve because what survives the chaos is ultimately stronger.

Antifragility has become relevant in many different sectors as both an approach and an ideal, especially in the wake of Black Swans (unpredictable, unanticipated, and highly-impactful events) like the COVID-19 pandemic. These events shatter illusions of stability and stress systems to the breaking point. Buying toilet paper, sending kids off to school, and accessing critical social benefits, for example, were systems we might have taken for granted before but whose fragility has become all too transparent.

Antifragile Acquisition
While digital services can also fall victim to fragility, the processes and methodologies that underpin how these services and products are delivered are designed with fail-safes to iteratively allow for unknown stressors. As industry refines its best practices, it too is embracing Antifragile concepts and approaches to enhance these already flexible systems. The proposed Antifragile Software Manifesto is one such example.

Introducing Antifragility in government acquisition will require humanizing the contracting process.

We are at an inflection point as an industry, as a society. Never before has the time been more ripe for reassessing our work, our beliefs about our work, and our sense of the possible. The engine block is on the table and it’s time to decide what goes back into the system, what gets tossed, and what gets an upgrade. To turbo-charge government with Antifragile thinking it requires a mind-set shift that prioritizes non-predictive processes over end-product, learning over the “final-grade”, and creativity over rote-calculation.

Since we can never anticipate everything that might go wrong, Antifragile thinking requires a new perspective: one that sees the upside of risk taking.

Getting Started

If you are in the government acquisition community here is a short list for how to start adopting Antifragility into procurement practices:

• Describe the problem and let industry describe the solution

Why: If a solution is written into the contract as the basis for the requirement, there is no way to gracefully back out of that solution if it does not solve the basic problem.

How: Allow industry to do what it does best- think inventively from the failure perspective. Look at how well that company does that for other clients in the commercial world as a basis for evaluation. When digital service product development is their main “bread and butter,” government program teams should leverage that skill instead of thinking there can be only one solution.

• Champion your end users

Why: It is critical to know early how well received a solution is — even (perhaps especially) if it does not meet expectations.

How: Ensure it is included in the contract that designers and researchers have access to actual end users — program stakeholders, however well intentioned, are no substitute because they do not have the perspective, data, or emotional connection to solutions that an end user has.

• Inclusive accessibility is for all

Why: Overall product development success includes anticipating how to overcome accessibility barriers for diverse users.

How: Move away from looking at 508 standards as a compliance or legal activity by incorporating inclusive design principles and conversations from the start of every project. When evaluating potential contractors, review their other projects or case studies as indicators of how well this practice is already ingrained.

• Build Shock Absorbers to Failure

Why: Even when you don’t know what could go wrong, you can anticipate ways to reduce damage to the overall operation by building in exit and pivot strategies to get you off a failing technology or non-performing providers.

How: Stick to simple processes and use flexibilities in the FAR to the greatest extent practicable to keep your options open. Modular contracting, open source vs. proprietary solutions, commercial vs. noncommercial tactics, and simplified acquisition procedures are methods to reduce the hoops potential partners have to jump through.

• Everyone responsible for success must have “skin in the game”

Why: Scapegoating instead of working together on a solution only drags down and demoralizes a team instead of incentivizing them to find and resolve the unanticipated event.

How: Move beyond a traditional integrated project team (IPT) environment to a tight knit acquisition administration cohort. This includes general counsel, security, stakeholders, contractors, acquisition personnel and anyone else involved. Ensure that open communication, a supportive environment (relative to THAT specific contract), and top cover are onboard to adapt to, instead of avoid, change. Get a team name, a logo, and print laptop stickers to help everyone in the cohort feel they are part of something larger than themselves.

• Channel chaos and disorder into ruthless prioritization and efficiency

Why: Black Swans exist and the response to them is typically a scramble that ultimately leads to scope creep and extended delivery times.

How: The primary objective should be coded into the project’s DNA. It should be written, re-written, and echoed from kick-off to requirements documents, from the technical solution to performance incentives, and everywhere in between. It should serve as the guiding principle to action (the “why”) that everyone on the team can rally around so that if the path becomes unclear or obstructed, it becomes a North Star for the team to navigate a new way forward.

The shift to Antifragile thinking and doing in government contracts will, like any meaningful change, take time, effort, and courage. For many, this change in perspective might seem intimidating to the point of impossible, but given the huge waste resulting from current methods, we owe it to our industry and our taxpayers to try.