-
What we learned from building a pool of agile vendors
on July 26, 2018
In 2015, 18F had an idea for a better way for federal agencies to hire private vendors to build products and services using agile development techniques. We wanted to see what would happen if we used an existing government process (called a blanket purchase agreement) and tailored it to the needs of agencies looking to update their digital services.
-
Five contracting tweaks that have yielded 18F better procurements (thus far)
on July 17, 2018
Here are five procurement hacks — both in the context of our Agile Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) and in general — that we’ve made in the past few years to make the procurement process a bit more joyful and effective.
-
California takes a new approach to procurement
on October 28, 2016
The Technology Transformation Service recently held an industry day to talk to the private sector community about our vision, our projects, and how GSA and vendors can work together to bring modern digital services to the federal government. For that event, California’s [Sweet Duck]* recorded a short video talking about 18F’s work with California on their Child Welfare System.
-
From spreadsheet to API to app: A better contract forecasting tool
on May 2, 2016
Executive branch agencies of the federal government are required by law to tell vendors if and when they plan on making purchases. The General Services Administration (GSA) was forecasting using a crowded spreadsheet containing dozens of columns and hundreds of rows. 18F helped create a new, open-source tool to display contract forecasting opportunities.
-
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.
-
Announcing the 18F Micro-purchase Platform
on January 7, 2016
In October 2015, 18F launched an experiment in micro-purchasing. Given both vendor and government interest in continuing this task, 18F is happy to announce the launch of a new platform for posting and bidding on micro-purchase tasks.
