The Business and Enterprise Systems Product Innovation (BESPIN) Development teams made up of Air Force professionals and private industry partners like Fearless, are driving digital and mobile transformation within the Air Force.
The BESPIN software factory was created by Air Force BES in 2018. And it strives to deliver exceptional custom mobile experiences for all Airmen. These mobile experiences improve quality of life, mission success, and safety.
Using a human-centered approach for Air Force software delivery.
The BESPIN Air Force software delivery teams use a human-centered approach to work with their users to prioritize feature delivery and needs. This approach allows for rapid identification of value. It also ensures an improved understanding of the product to be created.
One significant area for consideration with each product created with the BESPIN software factory is the pursuit of high-quality, secure applications. This is enforced through:
- A series of security guardrails,
- Software development kits,
- Enterprise services,
- Shared best practices.
BESPIN leadership encourages delivery teams to experiment and adjust as needed in pursuit of a high-value product. And to do so while remaining within the established boundaries to also ensure an appropriate security posture for the product.
This experimentation and fail-fast mentality is fundamental to Agility and innovation within the Air Force.
To speed up application development and delivery to users, BESPIN teams are utilizing a second continuous ATO (authority to operate). When an organization or team is granted a continuous ATO they're agreeing to use a specific framework and guardrails during development to ensure a necessary level of security. This is BESPIN’s second continuous ATO.
Mobile Delivery as a Service.
The BESPIN Mobile Delivery as a Service (MDaaS) team is enabling the creation of automated pipelines to streamline development and ensure faster approval and delivery. MDaaS makes the pipeline components and then works with the development teams to build their unique pipelines. They provide guidance and assistance from the MDaaS team to support high-quality and high-speed delivery of value-driven products.
“We now have rules of engagement,” said Fearless Scrum Master Bryant Noel. “If the application follows the established repeatable processes and tools throughout the development cycle, they can go live. By following the established guardrails and with security approval, teams don’t need to wait months for each update they make.”
The BESPIN process and MDaaS pipeline components enable any BESPIN Airmen developer to build deployable Air Force software applications. And to connect to the Cloud One computing platform to maintain security for all users.
“BESPIN and the Air Force at large are in a period of accelerated digital transformation," said James “Guideaux” Crocker, BESPIN’s Chief Technology Officer. "No longer can teams afford to spend months waiting for a single feature to be delivered to our Airmen. Using automated pipelines and BESPIN’s ATO means our developers get features, applications, and products into the hands of users faster to fulfill our mission of improving quality of life, mission success, and safety for all Airmen."
The BESPIN pipeline is designed to deliver to multiple endpoints. Teams have the ability to push to:
- App stores,
- Master Data Management Solutions,
- Enterprise Mobility Management Solutions,
- Cloud One,
- And more.
MDaaS developers from the Air Force, Fearless, and Clarity have facilitated ATO pipeline success for the BESPIN application AF GearFit and Digital University program.
This announcement was published independently of the Air Force and Department of Defense. This release does not constitute or imply an endorsement by DoD or the United States Government of the product, process, or service, or its producer or provider. The views and opinions expressed in any referenced document do not necessarily state or reflect those of the DoD or the United States Government.