What's Next for 18F?

Two years after its founding, the federal government’s much-hyped tech consulting team 18F will expand its work for state and local governments, grow its federal business and hire more techies, according to one of its leaders. The 169-member group, sustained by the revenue it collects from customer agencies, also plans to focus on its existing portfolio of projects including: the agile Blanket Purchase Agreement, which pre-vets tech companies to sell incremental software development services to the government; a new online "micropurchasing" marketplace for bits of code; and Cloud.gov, an app platform. Another 18F team is working on a governmentwide “identity management problem."

18F Executive Director Aaron Snow discussed the group's priorities. In the past 12 months, 18F has signed 116 project agreements with other government agencies, and is hiring about 25 employees each quarter. The group plans to at least sustain, if not exceed, its current hiring rate without causing "organizational pain." Because the group is fueled by its own revolving fund, budget isn't a limiting factor, Snow said. "There’s a lot more demand for our services than we can fulfill," he said. Eventually, Snow said he hopes federal agencies will create their own internal versions of 18F's digital consulting team so the flagship group can focus on acquisition-related services, as well as building products and platforms.