Army Futures Command Makes DevSecOps a Long-Term Priority An interview with Maj. Vito Errico, Army Futures Command, Software Factory Lead Established in 2018 by the Army to identify and prepare for the battlefields of the future, Army Futures Command (AFC) is one of the military’s newest commands. The Army believes those battlefields will likely occur in “contested communications environments” where soldiers may be unable to draw on outside technical assistance. Errico leads AFC’s Software Factory, which focuses on DevSecOps, because if the Army’s prediction is correct, “the Army must integrate user feedback faster than ever to field better solutions, and soldiers must have greater ability to diagnose and code their own solutions to problems ‘on the edge’ as warfare evolves,” Errico said.
AVOIDING TUNNEL VISION In getting AFC off the ground this summer, Errico said the program started with linking to the chief security professionals from the beginning. “Even before there was any authority to operate or any paperwork to be signed, they were brought into the fold so their voices would be heard and their input incorporated,” he said. “That turned out to be pretty instrumental…having the leadership buy-in. That was a pretty big lesson learned.” There is always a need to set priorities, and in a young organization like this, with limited human resources, Errico said the priorities are to work on applications with the widest user groups, the largest number of soldiers.
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A GovLoop + Carahsoft Guide
