3. OUR STORY: REALIZING AGILITY
§ ~19,000 employees across
200+ offices
USCIS administers the nation’s
lawful immigration system
§ Funded from filing fees
§ Processes ~8M filings annually
§ Largest immigration service in the world
5. WHERE WE STARTED
TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM
A robust digital
environment
is key to optimizing our
adjudication
processes
“
”
Agency-wide digital modernization
program to transition USCIS away from
decentralized paper-based processes to a
integrated electronic operating environment
6. WHO ARE THE KEY STAKEHOLDERS?
INTERNAL
USERS
EXTERNA
L
INTEREST
S
OVERSIG
HT
BODIES
Immigration
Officers
Background
Check
Officers
Record
s
Clerks
Operational
Directorates
Applicants
/
Petitioners
Employers /
Organization
s
Attorneys /
Representative
s
DHS
Acquisition &
Investment
Gov. Acct.
Office/ Inspector
General
Congression
al
Committees
We want the
system to do…
Our job is the
most important!
We like the old
way better!
Why is this
taking so long?
I need to hire
this person
today!
What is
happening with
my client’s case?
Document
your risks!
Does this support
Comprehensive
Immigration Reform?
Our audit is to
help you!
8. AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE
• Lots of hand-offs
• Waiting for requirements
• Schedule-driven releases
• Lack common design standards
• Low development maturity
• Low trust; power struggles
• Lack of clear vision
• Little visibility of what was
coming
• Important requirements de-
scoped to meet schedule
• System not intuitive
Technology Delivery Business Operations
13. MANAGEMENT DIRECTORATE PROGRAM OFFICES
EMERGING FROM OUR CORNERS…
U.S. CITIZENSHIP & IMMIGRATION SERVICES (USCIS)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS)
OPERATIONAL DIRECTORATES
RANSFORMATION
RIVACY
QUAL OPPORTUNITY
PPEALS
NVESTIGATIONS
INANCIAL (CFO)
ONTRACTING (CCO)
DMINISTRATION (CAO)
ERVICE CTR OPS (SCOPS)
EFUGEE, ASYLUM (RAIO)
RAUD DETECTION (FDNS)
ECHNOLOGY (CIO) IELD OPS (FOD) IELD OPS (FOD)
14. EMERGING FROM OUR CORNERS…
MANAGEMENT DIRECTORATE OPERATIONAL DIRECTORATES
IRIS/
FDNS
SCOPS
FOD FOD
SCOPS
IRIS
FDNS
ECHNOLOGY (CIO)
RANSFORMATION
Portfolio Managers
Associate Directors (ADs)
15. …AND STARTING ANEW
• Re-organized to support
business operations
• See the real-world impacts;
return re-energized
• Show, don’t tell
• Build trust through delivery
• Field visits reset relationships
• Reshuffled organization to
support technical delivery
• Proof that voices are heard
Technology Delivery Business Operations
20. NEW TOOLS AND DISCIPLINES
• Zero downtime deployment
• Feature toggles
• Test and deployment
automation
• Design and usability testing
• Product discovery; user
research
• Two-way communication
• Frontline staff influencing
product vision
• Code changes on the spot
Technology Delivery Business Operations
23. • Beta testing protected by
feature toggles
• Culture of running small
experiments
• Failing forward
CULTURE OF EXPERIMENTATION
• Learning new ways of working
• Control over field experiments
• Risk-based product launches
Technology Delivery Business Operations
25. • 10 years and ~$800M
development costs
• 150+ federal employees and
600+ contract staff
• 6 products delivered
• ~12% of total workload
• 2 Acquisition Breaches
KEY BUSINESS OUTCOMES/RESULTS
• 3 Years and ~$120M
• ~40 feds and ~300 contract staff
• ~17 products and 40+ services
delivered
• Approaching 50% workload
• Reducing agency backlogs and
case processing times
2007 – 2016 2017 – Present
27. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
1. Learning when to say “no”
2. Optimizing our DataOps workflow to gain
actionable insights
3. “Tools-First” approach to DevOps implementation
4. Driving ownership and accountability in a federated
environment
