RAISE - Rapid Acquisition of Innovative Software Solutions with External Experts

RAISERapid Acquisition of Innovative Software Solutions with External Expertsenvisions a combination of software and services that enables SOCOM and the Federal community in general, to rapidly, securely procure global talent with competitive reverse auctions and other FAR compliant approaches. The proposed Phase I feasibility study will analyze the IT Governance processes required within SOCOM to enable this innovative approach to come to fruition, the workforce training required, the human resource policies to vet freelancers, the requirements elicitation processes, project management, solution acceptance and testing, rapid deployment via a devops environment, and invoice presentment and payment. The feasibility of an integrated platform that supports all of the business processes leveraging open source technologies and commercial-off-the-shelf products will be explored to rapidly build out the solution. Since the original introduction of reverse auctions for services by GE, innovative companies have expanded this concept to IT services. Despite early successes, several challenges remain since procuring services is not as simple as procuring goods, and issues such as proper requirements, testing and deployment models need to be more rigorous to ensure success. The Phase I study will encompass these issues, provide recommendations and a roadmap for this transformative business process.