Keeping light on our feet

Agile project management may be nine years old this year, but its use is generally still restricted to software development. What would happen if you took the approach and applied it to public sector procurement?

The problems facing public sector procurement are pretty similar to those facing software back in 2001 - a bloated process which lasts too long, delivers at best last year’s solution, and thwarts innovation at every curve. So nine years ago the Agile Manifesto presented an alternative:

• Interactions over processes and tools
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Today public sector procurement is dogged by many of the same problems – lack of innovation, drawn-out timescales and solutions that are outdated before they’re implemented.

Agile procurement means adopting a more iterative approach to developing new public service delivery methods. It would enable purchasers to run multiple (small) pilots to see which innovative solution might offer the most promise, and then co-develop intellectual property with suppliers. It would allow procurement to specify the required outcomes of the project and then leave it to the supplier to define the most appropriate innovative solution.

Even tough EU procurement directives do not preclude using agile procurement methods. In fact the competitive dialogue process was introduced to open up procurement to more innovation, allow flexibility and an iterative approach.

Agile procurement is not a panacea. But in a time when significant cost reductions are required, radical innovation, not incremental change, is needed to get there. Agile procurement has a key role to play in public service delivery in the next decade.

This blog posting is a summary of a longer article exploring the benefits of Agile procurement. For a copy or more information, please contact Digital Public.