Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) has launched the Agile Center of Excellence (ACE), a dynamic hub designed to drive efficiency and innovation across the 1NAVWAR enterprise. Serving as a one-stop resource for agile coaching and project management, the goal of ACE is to empower program managers with the tools and expertise needed to accelerate modernization efforts and complete projects with greater precision and impact.

According to the Government Accountability Office, their annual assessment released in June 2024 revealed that the Department of Defense (DOD) was not positioned to field systems to speed. With the DOD planning to invest $2 trillion in new and emerging weapons technology, it’s more imperative than ever to develop and sustain warfighting capability in a timely manner. NAVWAR developed ACE in part to address that problem, with its plan to offer enhanced strategic execution, rapid response to change and flexibility in execution.

The idea for opening ACE started last October, where Camille Paul, project management specialist at NAVWAR, spent time at the Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) at Program Executive Office (PEO) Digital and Enterprise Services (Digital). Although the LACE had been established for three years at that point, they were going through significant changes to develop a business structure and a centralized area to keep track of processes and lessons learned.

“As part of my rotation, I contributed to the establishment of Site Collections and artifacts, providing critical support for LACE's efforts to adopt agile methodologies and drive transformation" said Paul, now product owner of NAVWAR’s ACE. “I was able to bring back what I learned there about what worked well to establish an ACE here at NAVWAR.”

The core practices of the ACE are workshops, serving, training and consulting. With courses tailored to project management and dedicated coaches, the ACE at NAVWAR has numerous resources for anyone interested in learning more about how to apply agile practices to their projects. As ACE partners with more departments throughout the command, documents of their recorded practice will be available to view on their website as examples of what was successful. Their team of experts have years of project management experience between them, specializing in agile transformations and scrum training to serve as scrum masters and consultants. Their charter allows the consistent implementation of agile practices across the organization, with metrics providing clear performance indicators for its effectiveness and impact. The ACE at NAVWAR strives to serve their overarching community by being a comprehensive resource hub for the entire command.

Part of their established agenda is to help teams document their current processes to identify areas for improvement. Once a plan is in place to improve, the overall end-goal is broken down into smaller tasks. Utilizing the practice of scrum, an agile framework for team collaboration and problem solving, the team works on achieving the smaller goal in one-month timeframes. Known as sprints, this process allows for continuous feedback and improvement as the team stays engaged through daily scrum meetings to discuss progress. Once a sprint is completed, then they move onto the next goal that requires work, starting another sprint. Through the process of meeting each of the sub-goals through sprints and scrum meetings, the team advances closer to the final product.

The term “scrum” comes from the sport of rugby, where teammates work together to move the ball forward. In the case of agile transformation, a team consisting of a scrum master, product owner and developers collaborates to move their project forward utilizing scrum practices. With a scrum master providing mentorship and coaching for agile methodologies, the product owner keeps the team on track toward their desired objective by clearly communicating the vision and goal to all stakeholders. Developers work with both the scrum master and product owner to design, build and test the product according to the needs determined by the sprint. All three pillars come together in daily scrum meetings to ensure transparency throughout the entire process.

In accordance with the recently released 2024 Navigation Plan by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the goals and priorities for the U.S. Navy are centered around readiness, innovation and agility. With information warfare taking precedence on the today’s battlefield, NAVWAR plays a crucial role in ensuring the Navy’s continued dominance from seabed to space, and through cyberspace. As technology becomes more advanced and modernization more imperative, NAVWAR’s ACE will be instrumental in helping to develop capabilities at speed.

Prior to their official launch date on Oct. 31, the ACE had already assisted a few pilot programs to demonstrate the effectiveness of agile methodologies, one of which was Ready Day One, a project led by NAVWAR Corporate Operations to equip new employees with everything they need to start working on their first day.

Ready Day One aimed to solve the problem of new hires not having the appropriate FlankSpeed access or ability to get onsite without a Common Access Card to start their jobs on day one, resulting in lost productivity and negative first impressions. By partnering with ACE to help document the existing process and determine areas for improvement, they were able to make significant headway in achieving their objective, reducing the typical timeline of 21 days down to four, while still working on bringing that number down to their eventual goal of only one day.

“The ACE provided our team with a framework to attack the complex problem into smaller, more manageable chunks, enabling us to move faster toward our defined goal of having a new employee ready on day one,” said Jennifer Carney, deputy director of corporate operations at NAVWAR. “They helped us stay on-track by establishing scrum meetings with daily standups, sprint planning and sprint reviews, which allowed us to stay aligned and exchange information.”

Now that the ACE has officially opened its doors, the goal is to be a centralized hub for LACEs and ACEs across the DOD. “By being an easily accessible place to find best practices, curated training and examples of full agile transformations, we hope to help other organizations within the DOD stand-up their own agile centers and have a roadmap to work off of,” said Paul. “This is a continuous journey for learning and growing as we all strive to meet the needs of the warfighter.”

About NAVWAR:

NAVWAR identifies, develops, delivers and sustains information warfighting capabilities and services that enable naval, joint, coalition and other national missions operating in warfighting domains from seabed to space and through cyberspace. NAVWAR consists of more than 11,000 civilian, active duty and reserve professionals located around the world.