The US Geological Survey conducts a wide variety of software development projects across its many programs and science centers throughout the U.S. Most USGS teams have adopted agile development methods from Scrum to Lean and derivations in between. One particular case study involves work on a scientific data and information management platform called ScienceBase. Application of Scrum has resulted in an extremely positive direction for the teams involved with increased productivity, improved quality and timeliness of the end products for users, and improvements in how the project is communicated to managers and other stakeholders. Specific elements discussed:
Sky Bristol is currently the Director of Applied Earth Systems Informatics Research in the U.S. Geological Survey Core Science Systems Mission Area, where he is working to develop a new virtual organization with a three-part mission to conduct targeted computer and information science research and development, establish working partnerships with research institutions throughout the field, and conduct an education program to improve the ability for scientists to apply technology to earth systems research. Sky has led a variety of software engineering efforts in the USGS and the Fish and Wildlife Service over the last decade as a software developer, systems engineer, solutions architect, and product owner. Sky has driving passions to put "Information" firmly back in "IT" and to make government scientific information more robust and usable in the public domain.
