Special Ops Software Office Takes on Pentagon Bureaucracy.

• Author: Roaten, Meredith

Special Operations Command is aiming to deliver software at a rapid pace, keeping up with industry standards for speed and flexibility.

Almost two years after it was stood up, the Special Operations Forces Digital Applications program office is barreling past the infamous Defense Department bureacracy to attract nontraditional vendors.

While its original goal was to field software such as artificial intelligence and machine learning every six months, the office's program executive officer Col. Paul Weizer said staff have achieved a quarterly delivery pace and hope to move even faster.

When asked about his proudest accomplishment during his tenure at the SDA, Weizer said the office surviving was an accomplishment on its own.

"It's new and because what we were doing didn't align with the same strategy people had observed or witnessed in the past, there was some reticence in different areas that I think we overcame when people saw the potential and the attitudes and the desire to achieve something," he said in an interview with National Defense.

When the office was stood up in the summer of 2020, Weizer said he didn't understand how quickly it could move when he set the biannual goal of delivering capability--meaning anything from minor software bug fixes to major applications.

"Initially, that's a good goal because the government never delivers anything that fast," he said.

But through the speed of other transaction authorities and a greater prioritization of software Pentagon-wide, the office is meeting deadlines every quarter and aiming eventually for a two-week rate, he said.

This is fast even for other government programs that claim to use "agile software development," an iterative software process that promotes rapid delivery.

The Government Accountability Office released a report last fall and found six of 36 weapons programs that used this process were delivering software in less than three months. The report, "DoD Software Acquisition: Status of and Challenges Related to Reform Efforts," said efforts to eliminate faster delivery cycles have been stymied by difficulty hiring experienced software developers.

"DoD officials noted that the department continues work to address challenges and acknowledged that the transition to Agile will take years and require sustained engagement throughout DoD," according to the report.

Other transaction authorities, or OTAs, have been a key tool for the office, Weizer said. When program officers start...