Building digital acquisition capability across government

Summary

The challenge

Government acquisition practices were built around traditional, long-cycle IT delivery models, but modern digital services require fundamentally different approaches — including iterative development, user-centered design, and continuous delivery.

Most agencies lacked the internal expertise to apply these practices in procurement. As a result, even when organizations wanted to modernize, they struggled to write effective solicitations, evaluate vendors, and manage delivery in ways that aligned with modern digital practices.

The challenge was not just introducing new acquisition techniques, but building sustainable, in-house capability across agencies to apply them consistently.

The solution

We designed and led the Digital Acquisition Accelerator as a “train-the-trainer” program to help agencies build their own multidisciplinary teams of digital acquisition experts.

The program brought together expert practitioners from 18F, the Presidential Innovation Fellows, and the U.S. Digital Service — creating a first-of-its-kind cross-government training model.

Participating agencies assembled internal teams and developed expertise through a combination of:

• Classroom instruction on modern digital acquisition practices
• Hands-on learning through real-world procurement scenarios
• Coaching and mentorship from experienced practitioners
• Knowledge capture and sharing to support reuse across agencies

This approach ensured that agencies were not just exposed to new concepts, but were equipped to apply them in practice and scale them within their organizations.

The results

• Attracted participation from more than a dozen federal agencies through a formal Office of Management and Budget announcement
• Built internal digital acquisition capability across participating agencies
• Produced the first government-wide guidance on modern digital procurement, the “Digital Acquisition Playbook”