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The best way to build big is to start small
on January 11, 2017
Large software systems are hard, and in government we're tasked with building large systems to manage complex benefits and processes. Often those mandates arrive on the back of a failing legacy system. An agile workflow has the benefit of allowing us to try out our ideas before committing to years of time and money.
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How and why we built the micro-purchase bidding platform
on February 19, 2016
This past December, 18F launched a micro-purchase platform to enable vendors to place bids on opportunities to deliver open source code that costs $3,500 or less. This is a look at how and why we built this platform.
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Choose design over architecture
on November 17, 2015
Conventional wisdom often encourages engineers to start with a big architectural overview, but this kind of a grand plan usually leads to technical-debt. Instead of using an architecture-first plan, you should focus on user experience design and software design to help your project avoid technical debt.