18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "Mississippi brings agile and modular techniques to child welfare system contract"
authors:
- zaccohn
- boone
tags:
- state and local practice
- modular contracting
- agile
- acquisition services
- procurement
- health and human services
- modern practices
excerpt: "The State of Mississippi is about to upgrade its child welfare management system, a system used by about 1,800 state employees in 82 counties, supporting the wellbeing of about 5,000 children across the state. The system was built in the early 2000s, and the employees who use it are stymied by an inefficient interface and aging infrastructure."
image: /assets/blog/mississippi/seal.jpg
hero: false
---
The State of Mississippi is about to upgrade its child welfare
information system, a system used by about 1,800 state employees in 82
counties, supporting the wellbeing of about 5,000 children across the
state. The system was built in the early 2000s, and the employees who
use it are stymied by an inefficient interface and aging infrastructure.
18F is helping Mississippi design and run a modern procurement process
that can save taxpayers money and deliver better results for caseworkers
and the children they serve.

Mississippi’s initial response to solving this problem was a classic
waterfall approach: Spend several years gathering requirements then hire
a single vendor to design and develop an entirely new system and wait
several more years for them to deliver a new complete solution.
According to the project team at Mississippi's Department of Child
Protection Services, this “sounds like a good option, but it takes so
long to get any new functionality into the hands of our users. And our
caseworkers are clamoring for new functionality.” Instead, they’re
taking this opportunity to build the first agile, modular software
project taken on within Mississippi state government, and they’re
starting with how they award the contracts to build it.

“In the interest of serving the children of Mississippi in the most
efficient and effective manner, our team is working diligently to
design, develop and implement a new software solution to support the
critical services provided by the Mississippi Department of Child
Protection Services (MDCPS),” said Dr. David A. Chandler, Commissioner
of Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services. “Once fully
implemented, this software solution will be a model for future
Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) projects around
the country and one that every Mississippian can be proud of. The
approach the team is taking is innovative, and I'm proud of the work
they've done already.”

With some guidance from 18F, the [state
](http://www.its.ms.gov/Procurement/Pages/3717.aspx)[recently released
an
](http://www.its.ms.gov/Procurement/Pages/3717.aspx)[RFP](http://www.its.ms.gov/Procurement/Pages/3717.aspx)
calling on vendors to build a simple prototype based on a single user
story, a set of data, and a few requirements. “We’ll provide them with
instructions on what we want them to build,” said a representative from
the Mississippi project team. “It’s not a very complicated challenge,
but it’s more to assess how they put together and use their team, and
how quickly they can develop and deliver the service.” The goal is to
create a qualified group of vendors the state can then use throughout
the project.

Once this pool of vendors is selected, instead of awarding the entire
contract to a single company, Mississippi will release many smaller
contracts over time for different sections of the system. This is great
for Mississippi. Inspired by the agile approach, they’ll only need to
define what needs to be built next, rather than defining the entire
system all upfront.

This is also great for vendors. Smaller contracts mean smaller vendors
can compete. Small businesses can’t manage or deliver on large
multi-million dollar software development contracts, and so are often
precluded from competing. But with this approach, many contracts could
end up in the single-digit millions (or less!). Smaller contracts means
more small businesses can compete and deliver work, resulting in a
larger and more diverse pool of vendors winning contracts and helping
the state.

Approaching the project in a modular, agile fashion can be more cost
effective and less risky than a monolithic undertaking. To do it, they
plan to take an approach called the “[encasement
strategy](https://18f.gsa.gov/2014/09/08/the-encasement-strategy-on-legacy-systems-and-the/),”
under which they will replace the system slowly over time while leaving
the legacy system in place. It will work like this: The old database
will have an API layered on top of it and then a new interface will be
built, one component at a time, without risking the loss of data or
major disruptions to their workflow. Each module will be standalone with
an API interface to interact with the data and the other modules. If
they decide to replace a module five years from now, it won’t really
impact any of the others.

18F has used this approach on several of our own products including
[our work with the Federal Election
Commission](https://18f.gsa.gov/tags/fec-gov/), and it’s great to see
the State of Mississippi doing the same. Another upshot of working this
way, according to Christine Townsend of Mississippi, is that the state
can set up a group of states using the same approach to share lessons
learned, and maybe even code, with each other. So far, the State of
California — which [recently began work on its own child welfare
system](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/03/22/helping-california-buy-a-new-child-welfare-system/)
— has been sharing their experiences with Mississippi, and as other
states begin to implement their own systems they may be able to open the
conversation more widely.

Rafael López, the commissioner of Department of Health and Human
Services’ Administration on Children, Youth and Families, the federal
office that works with Mississippi, California, and other states on
their child welfare system, says: “We applaud Mississippi’s efforts to
procure and develop new technology services to better support families
in the state’s child welfare program. Caseworkers, and the children and
families they serve, require 21st century technology and solutions to
respond quickly and efficiently. Our children and families deserve
nothing less.”

Mostly, though, Mississippi is eager to help the people who need it
most. In a statement, the project team said, “We’re really excited to
get needed technology services to our staff to meet the needs of our
children in Mississippi. We’re really confident about what we’re doing
and how we’re doing it.”