White House officials released a new policy framework to help federal agencies adopt agile and modular approaches for information technology development and procurement.

Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel and Joe Jordan, administrator of the Office for Federal Procurement Policy, announced the Contracting Guidance to Support Modular IT Development on June 14.

The report outlines how agencies ought to shift away from traditional “waterfall” development of major federal IT systems, which involved long-term planning, development and acquisition, resulting in systems that often were behind schedule and technologically out of date by the time of delivery.

With agile, modular development, the emphasis is on small, incremental projects that can be achieved quickly.

The guidance also encourages agencies to use acquisition methods to support modular development, with shorter acquisition cycles and more rapid incremental deliverables.

The White House guidance document recommended IDIQ contracts because agencies can issue small orders over short time periods. The goal is to fulfill specific agency needs within six-month intervals and also support rapid response activities with releases within 90 days, OMB said in the report.

The guidance cites a Immigration and Customs Enforcement IT procurement strategy as a model. It includes IDIQ contracts for requirements, architectural design and software development and a blanket purchase agreement under the GSA schedule for software operations and maintenance.