January 27, 2021

Strategies for Making Agile Process and Design Thinking Work Together

For many years, designers and developers have been debating the compatibility of user-centered design principles and Agile development processes. In 2018, one of the foremost experts on user centered design, Don Norman, said “the new Agile programming methods are very…
August 19, 2020

3 Tips for a Successful Shared Services Partnership

By Brendan O’Meara, TCG Partner Engagement Manager Shared services establish “partnerships” with customers, in recognition that the service exists to serve customers’ needs and will be improved in concert with customers’ evolving requirements. So partnerships are foundational to every Shared…
August 13, 2020

Managing Cloud Spending is a Challenge; Here Are Some Ways Agencies Can Improve

By Daniel Proctor, TCG Data Analyst Over the last ten years, spending on cloud services has increased across federal agencies. In 2010, OMB made cloud computing an essential part of government’s plan to modernize IT and IT management, and early…
August 4, 2020

For Shared Services, Effectively Scaling Up and Quality Customer Service are Symbiotic

While Federal agencies have historically struggled to find shared services that meet their needs, OMB’s focus on Quality Service Management Offices (QSMOs) is making effective changes. Efforts to establish more robust shared service marketplaces with clearly identified options for customers,…
April 13, 2020

No, You Don’t Need Kubernetes for DevSecOps

By Robert Buccigrossi, TCG CTO If you google “DevSecOps”, you will find many references to deployment pipelines, and one of the most popular is from AWS (depicted in the diagram on the below). The pipeline involves many quickly evolving technologies such…
April 25, 2019

What’s the Process for Creating Federal IT Policy?

Managing more than $80 billion of IT investments across 26 agencies is no small feat. Using sophisticated tools such as ITDashboard.gov, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) works with agencies to collect vast amounts of data and uses…
December 18, 2017

Shared Services that Streamline Government Processes

Built from a shared service, as a shared service, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Budget Formulation and Execution Manager (BFEM.gov) supports the strategic planning, formulation, and performance management of the federal budget. Initially designed as a tool for the Treasury to collect information…
August 7, 2017

A Year of Happiness at Work

By Peter Fedders, TCG Employee Happiness Associate There aren’t many companies that dedicate an entire department to employee happiness. Human Resources might throw a birthday party for Janet in Accounting, or Executive Management might put a foosball table in the break room,…
July 17, 2017

Cleaning the Federal Policy House

If You Haven’t Used it in Two…or 15 Years, It’s Time to Throw it Away. On June 15, the White House released Memorandum M‑17–26 to agencies, to eliminate, modify, or pause 59 policies that they deemed out of date or unnecessary.…
June 28, 2017

Shared Services Maximize Federal Grants for Discovery Science

The Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC) is one of TCG’s longest-running projects and is among the most fruitful government shared services. What started as a small project to create a way for the federally funded neuroscience community to share their…