18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "Announcing the Digital Acquisition Accelerator Playbook"
date: 2016-10-12 (optional)
authors:
- duane-rollins
tags:
- digital acquisition accelerator
- acquisition services
- agile
- procurement
- training
- modern practices
excerpt: "Built on the lessons learned during the pilot phase of the Digital Acquisitions Accelerator, the accompanying playbook examines the current acquisition landscape and provides an approach to procuring custom software solutions. Our goal is to make the government a smarter and more informed buyer of digital products and services."
---

Built on the lessons learned during the pilot phase of the [Digital Acquisitions Accelerator](https://pages.18f.gov/digitalaccelerator/), the accompanying [playbook](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/) examines the current acquisition landscape and provides an approach to procuring custom software solutions. Our goal is to make the government a smarter and more informed buyer of digital products and services.

The playbook has four main sections:

- Overview
- Case studies
- Process
- Primers

The [overview section](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/) provides background on digital acquisitions and highlights some ways to lower risk when planning this type of activity. The [case study section](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/case-study/) looks to underline successful projects and approaches to digital acquisitions in agencies across the federal government. The [process section](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/process/) details our approach to digital acquisitions from building a cross-functional team to closing out phases of a project (Note: some sections of the handbook are still in-progress). Lastly, the [primers section](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/primers/) provides an overview of key concepts and terms related to digital acquisitions. Currently, the playbook includes primers on agile, lean startup, human-centered design, open innovation, and modular contracting.

There’s a lot to learn about digital acquisitions and more of it’s being defined as we go along. We hope that this [playbook](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/) serves as a “where to start” guide. We also plan to publish more tools, resources, and tactics as we discover them in our day-to-day work at [18F](https://18f.gsa.gov/), the [Presidential Innovation Fellows](https://presidentialinnovationfellows.gov/) program (PIF), and from the work of our agency partners across the government.

In short, this is a living playbook that should be refined over time based on all of our collective experiences. Since the [playbook](https://pages.18f.gov/digital-acquisition-playbook/) is live on GitHub, you can directly suggest edits or improvements by making a [pull request or filing an issue](https://github.com/18F/digital-acquisition-playbook). Let’s work together to pool our collective knowledge of the digital acquisition landscape into this playbook to make it more useful for everyone.