Originally reported by FedScoop. Original post date: January 8, 2020.
Background: Federal DevOps Collaboration Gets a New Forum
The Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), a nonprofit known for bridging federal agencies and the private sector, announced a new DevOps Working Group set to launch on February 6, 2020. The group aims to give federal officials a structured, ongoing channel for engaging with industry on modern software delivery practices.
DevOps — the discipline of merging software development and IT operations to enable rapid, continuous delivery of services and features — has been gaining significant traction across the U.S. federal government. Federal agencies already discuss DevOps best practices through the DevOps Federal Interagency Council (DFIC), which agreed to serve as a government sponsor for the new ATARC working group.
The IRS: A Federal DevOps Pioneer
The DFIC was originally founded by the Internal Revenue Service, which has made DevOps a central pillar of its broader IT modernization strategy. ATARC founder and president Tom Suder cited the IRS as a model of federal technology leadership.
“They just have tremendous leadership. We want to align with them.”
— Tom Suder, Founder and President, ATARC
A pivotal moment for the working group came from an October 30 ATARC forum on the IRS’s use of container technology. The event drew more than 200 attendees — roughly 60 from the IRS alone — and confirmed the appetite for cross-agency collaboration on DevOps topics.
“Once we did that event, then the floodgates opened. Yes, we need to have cross-agency collaboration.”
— Tom Suder, ATARC
Working Group Leadership
Three senior government officials were named to lead the DevOps Working Group:
- Annette Mitchell, IRS DFIC Initiative Lead — Working Group Chair
- Nicolas Chaillan, Air Force Chief Software Officer and Department of Defense Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative Co-Lead
- Army Maj. Gen. Garrett Yee
Working Group Structure: Subcategories and Focus Areas
The working group is organized into focused subcategories, each with designated government leads. These subgroups are expected to meet in person or virtually and produce concrete deliverables — ranging from panel discussions in Washington, D.C. to formal playbooks.
| Subcategory | Lead(s) | Agency / Role |
|---|---|---|
| Lessons Learned | Brian Fox | 18F Strategist |
| Agile Philosophy | Brian Fox | 18F Strategist |
| Emerging Technology | Lon Gowen | USAID Chief Technologist |
| DevSecOps – CI/CD | Rajeev Dolas & John Soscia | USPTO Senior IT Executive; IRS CI/CD Initiative Manager |
| Application Development | Jack Wayman | Army Integration Improvement Initiatives Director |
| Metrics | Chazara Clark-Smith | IRS IT Program Manager |
| Human-Centered Design | Paul Tibbits | VA Office of Technical Integration Executive Director |
| Containerization | Nicolas Chaillan | Air Force Chief Software Officer |
| Low-Code / No-Code | To be determined | — |
Suder noted that additional subcategories can be introduced based on agency interest and government sponsorship, keeping the working group flexible and demand-driven.
Bringing in Industry
With government participants recruited, the next phase involves adding private-sector representatives to each subcategory. This mirrors ATARC’s existing model for working groups in cloud, data and analytics, mobile, and security — areas where the organization has a track record of convening civilian, defense, and intelligence agencies alongside industry leaders.
“Government kind of has their own tiger team. We take that and are a force multiplier for them.”
— Tom Suder, ATARC
Why This Matters for Federal DevOps
The ATARC DevOps Working Group represents a meaningful step toward institutionalizing DevOps and DevSecOps practices across the U.S. federal government. By combining the IRS’s operational experience with the DoD’s security-focused DevSecOps push — exemplified by Chaillan’s DoD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative — the group spans both civilian and defense use cases.
The deliberate launch timing (avoiding tax season, given the IRS’s central role) reflects the practical constraints of working with operational agencies, and underscores the group’s intent to be a functional, working body rather than a ceremonial one.
For DevOps practitioners and vendors interested in the federal space, this working group’s subcommittees — particularly the DevSecOps/CI/CD, Containerization, and Metrics tracks — are likely to produce guidance that shapes agency procurement and implementation standards in the years ahead.