Army Software Official Advocates for Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery at TechNet Augusta Panel

Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for data, engineering and software, said continuous integration/continuous delivery is essential because software forms the foundation of most of the service’s systems.

Swanson took part in a TechNet Augusta conference panel on Tuesday where she and other Army officials talked about how agile acquisition would facilitate the rapid delivery of warfighter capabilities.

Swanson, a past Potomac Officers Club event speaker, explained that CI/CD enables continual system updates and overmatch against near-peer adversaries. She noted that implementing CI/CD is a service-wide effort and that the Army Futures and Forces commands will refine an upcoming overhaul of the requirements process.

Swanson added that having regular software updates means Army Materiel Command will no longer handle sustainment for applications post-testing. She stressed that lifecycle management should fall under the program manager’s jurisdiction.

Another upcoming change is that requests for proposals will now require an assessment of a vendor’s agility.

On the ongoing development of the Unified Data Reference Architecture, Swanson said she expects it to be complete by the end of fiscal year 2023. According to her, UDRA compliance will be a requirement in future RFPs, Signal Magazine reported Tuesday.