18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "Six years improving the experience of government"
date: 2020-03-19
authors:
- brian-whittaker
tags:
- anniversary
- how we work
- agency work
excerpt: "We’re celebrating another birthday at 18F, and
we thought we’d take the opportunity to reflect on how our organization
has grown and progressed in the last year"
image: /assets/blog/6-anniversary/image-blog-dark.jpg
---

We’re excited to celebrate another birthday here at 18F, and we thought
we’d take the opportunity to reflect on how our organization has grown
and continued to improve the experience of government in the last year.
Here are our top accomplishments and projects of the last year, and
where we’re headed next.

## Top Accomplishments of 18F 2019

### Assisted acquisition authority

As we [announced last year](https://18f.gsa.gov/2019/03/19/18F-5-Anniversary-achieve/) we now
have access to the assisted acquisition authority. This allows us to buy
products and services on behalf of our partners and will help us
increase the use of modular, agile contracting in government. We’ve been
working with the Health and Human Services’ Head Start Office to procure
a centralized system for their Training and Technical Assistance
platform. We’ve also updated the 18F site to include more information
about our [acquisition services](https://18f.gsa.gov/how-we-work/).

### National Security and Intelligence Portfolio

At the end of last year we added [our second
portfolio](https://18f.gsa.gov/2019/12/10/announcing-the-18f-national-security-and-intelligence-portfolio/)
to support our work with agencies on projects that relate to national
defense. The National Security and Intelligence Portfolio allows 18F to
partner with traditional defense and intelligence agencies, and also
with civilian agencies working on projects that have a clear nexus with
national defense.

Some of the agencies we’re currently working with include the Department
of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. Marine
Corps Installation and Logistics group, and the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. You can learn more about the portfolio’s
work in their [Github Repo](https://github.com/18F/national-security-portfolio)

## Top three projects of 18F for 2019

### Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Electronic Advanced Planning Document (eAPD)

Medicaid information systems have had difficulties delivering value for
money in states’ projects, with many instances of large contracts not
delivering good outcomes or failing entirely. The Center for Medicaid
and CHIP Services (CMCS), the main investor in these projects,
recognized that states spent excessive time and resources on the
paperwork of an Advanced Planning Document (APD), which not only took
attention off of the real outcomes, but also did a poor job conveying
information for decision-making.

CMCS brought 18F to coach them and help research, design, and pilot a
system to steer their investments toward successful, cost-effective
outcomes for states and beneficiaries. This resulted in a new electronic
Advanced Planning Document (eAPD). The system is designed to be more
effective but also more efficient, decreasing the burden on states and
state officers compared to the existing document-based process.

As a pilot, the benefits of eAPD are still being realized as the
application is built out and eventually rolled out to all states and
territories. Even at the pilot stage, though, state officers are already
making better judgements about their investments because they’ve had
first-hand experience developing software. This means CMCS is making
more funding decisions which work with, rather than against, good
practice to improve outcomes for states and the public.

### Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration's Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence

The Nuclear Security Administration's Nuclear Smuggling Detection and
Deterrence (NSDD) program needed to develop a data strategy, something
that we are increasingly hearing from agencies about as they look for
ways to make their data more actionable. This project required on-site
visits to DOE facilities and to several of the national laboratories
maintained by DOE across the country to talk to data users and generate
an understanding of what they are trying to achieve by using various
data sources.

18F conducted a Path Analysis and worked with NSDD staff to “journey
map” data across the enterprise — to depict how data travels from points
of production to those who eventually make use of it — to better
understand barriers and opportunities for making better use of data.
18F’s experience in user research and in centering users in our work are
a good fit for this kind of work, and will enable us to help other
agencies trying to make better use of their data.

The benefits of this data strategy for NSDD data users will be:

- More *available* data, meaning reduced time to identify relevant data that might be critical in supporting detection and deterrence efforts.
- More *actionable* data, meaning less time to combine disparate data sources, and easier access for decision makers.
- More *strategic* data, supporting NSDD’s efforts to streamline and modernize their data infrastructure.

### Open Forest

We’ve been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest
Service (USFS) [since 2016](https://18f.gsa.gov/tags/forest-service/)
to launch the [Open Forest platform](https://openforest.fs.usda.gov/),
an online permit issuing system. Open Forest launched in 2018 and USFS
scaled the pilot last year to include 13 different forests, which is
nine more forests than available at launch. During last year’s holiday
season, Open Forest sold nearly 21,780 Christmas tree permits. This
accounts for nearly 37% of Christmas tree permit sales in pilot forests
(up from 30% of sales in 2018).

In December 2019, Open Forest began piloting USFS’s first online,
interactive permit application process for special use permits.
Currently, special uses applications require months of back and forth
information exchange between USFS staff and applicants—much of which is
carried out through the U.S. Postal Service. Moving this paper-based
process online saves considerable time for applicants and USFS staff and
speeds application review and approval. 18F is now helping them prepare
to include additional complex permit types and integrations with legacy
USFS systems.

## What’s next for 18F

18F is well positioned to play an important role in accelerating digital
transformation and building modern work environments across the federal
government. For the remainder of FY2020 and through FY2021 the goal is
to mature as an organization by focusing on two key priorities.

First, we are going to focus on solidifying business operations. This
means looking at ways to make it easier to engage with 18F, provide
greater impact for our partner agencies, and ensure our services align
with what we do well. Providing greater impact not only requires
assessing how we operate internally, but also who we partner with for
success. This year we intend to form greater partnerships in the civic
tech space and bring the strength of 18F’s network to solve the most
complex challenges of our partner agencies.

Second, we are going to focus on refining our culture. 18F is successful
because of its people. The folks that work at 18F come to this
organization because of how we work, the problems we solve, and the
investment we make into our culture. We plan on doubling down on culture
this year by increasing employee engagement with a focus on prioritizing
diversity and inclusion, growing our skills and expertise, identifying mentors,
building our peer networks, and pursuing projects that stretch our
capabilities.

Join us in celebrating 18F’s 6th anniversary by sending a message via
[Twitter](https://twitter.com/18F) or
[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/18f/). We look forward to
hearing from you and wouldn’t be here without your support!