In Stay Sharp Episode 94, Navigating Digital Engineering in Government, co-hosts Jonathan Scott and Juliann Grant welcome Steve Nichols, who leads Razorleaf’s Public Sector and Defense Group and helped originate Razorleaf Government Solutions 10 years ago. That background, and his history of leading technology-based teams, makes him the perfect guest to discuss digital engineering from the government perspective over the course of two episodes—watch for part two, on supporting a government program with digital engineering.
What the Government Needs from DE
Steve begins by highlighting some of the six key components that he says are critical for digital engineering (DE) success, starting with data and tools. This is data interoperability, or how data flows and works together between the government and its supply chain. “Where’s your environment? How do you have a collaboration environment and a digital ecosystem? If my engineers at the government are doing some work or reviewing some information, how do we capture that review? And how does one of our suppliers, in the same types of systems, act against that review?” he asks. “It’s setting up and adopting those types of environments that are really important for what you’re thinking about doing.”
Jonathan and Steve both note that organizations might need multiple environments depending on who or what levels of classification they’re working with. Steve says, “Running everything at the highest classification or the highest security may not make sense for being efficient in operation and sustainment right of these programs long term. I would say, a couple afternoons on a whiteboard thinking about what really makes sense can set you up for decades of success by thinking about that upfront.”
Another key to success is, unsurprisingly, your workforce—the people. For current workers or users, you have to consider adoption and culture change. But Steve notes you also have to think beyond your workforce to the ultimate end users, like workers in military programs. Moreover, you have to consider how they’re likely to work and plan to that reality. Steve says, “They’re used to living on their mobile devices. They’re used to interacting in ways that the program needs to adopt and support as it moves into the future as well, so that the program as it moves, meets the skills coming in off the street.” It’s a different kind of cultural change involving your team anticipating and adapting to the future of workers coming in. “Adopting a digital-first mindset, that’s really what you have to do,” Steve adds.
How to Get Started (No Matter Where You Are)
Steve’s “couple afternoons on a whiteboard” is the place to start. “Think about some actions and use cases that the ecosystem’s going to need to support,” he says. “If you can map out the basics and a structure, you can start to build in the details out on the edges of this structure.”
He encourages organizations to consider the strategy you want to adopt, because a good strategy gives you the guidelines to quickly say yes or no to ideas that come up that do or don’t fit your priorities. “Being able to say no to something helps keep you on track and allows you to make progress versus litigating each idea when it pops up,” he explains.
Steve also cautions against trying to do it all at once—don’t boil the ocean but do something. “Take a first step towards the horizon, but know that where on the horizon is you’re trying to get to,” Jonathan says. “You need to know where you want to be to be able to take those steps to know you’re stepping in the right direction.”
Obviously, this kind of planning is well suited for starting a project or being at the beginning of an acquisition cycle. But you don’t have to be. The tools are there, and you can use them for even basic actions. Steve says, “Start with two things. Start with digitizing some of the stuff that you have, some of the data that you have. You have data already, but it’s probably not connected or utilized with in conjunction with any other data. You can start to digitize some of the artifacts that are floating around as paper today, and turn them into basic lifecycle management.” Use your digital tools in simple ways, and build on that success. The key is to grow a digital-first mindset in any way you can.
Learn More About Digital Engineering and Government Programs
The full podcast contains more discussion and details on a variety of topics, including more on all six key components for digital engineering success, specific examples and suggestions of how to make small steps to start your DE journey, what to do to get started on your DE journey if you don’t have all of the data management or lifecycle tools, and more.
Be sure to check out Stay Sharp Episode 94: Navigating Digital Engineering in Government and join us each week for a new podcast.
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