The Army Software Factory (ASWF) is a first-of-its-kind, Soldier-led tech initiative in which the U.S. Army is partnering with higher education to redefine workforce readiness and support the tech innovators of tomorrow. A humming hive of activity located on the campus of Austin Community College in the heart of Texas, the facility is part software development hub, part college career training and learning hub, and all Army.
“It’s amazing what you can do when your students are used to taking orders, said Dr. Garrett Groves, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives for Austin Community College, when speaking to attendees of Tech & Learning’s recent Texas Regional Leadership Summit.
Touting that it is “By Soldiers, for Soldiers,” “the program solves Army problems with Soldier-developed solutions.” said U.S. Army COL Jason Zuniga, Director of the Army Software Factory, U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command.
“Our No. 1 goal is to better equip Soldiers,” added Steven Ruh, Chief of Community Outreach & Engagements for the U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command. “How do we have the competitive advantage?”
To that end, in a unique partnership with Austin Community College, ASWF trains Soldiers and students in modern software and platform engineering, user design, and product management. The program offers credentialing, academic credit, and accelerated pathways to Bachelor’s degrees. Thanks to its ongoing success, the institution and the Army recently signed a 10-year Inter-Governmental Support Agreement extension.
ASWF is also a true collaborative innovation center where developers from both the military and civilian worlds come together to create digital tools, platforms, and apps specifically designed for Army use. The key tasks are to rapidly build mission-specific software, conduct responsible cybersecurity, and train Soldiers in commercial best practices. Projects, which can range from improving tactical maneuvers to digitizing military archives for better planning, are sent to ASWF for consideration from any unit in the Army. Each is chosen in the belief that creating a solution will help “to dominate and win on battlefields.”
“In the Army, traditional software engineering roles and disciplines didn’t exist,” said Zuniga. “We had to be able to generate the pipeline to train Soldiers in these areas.”
Soldiers who are selected for a two-year assignment at ASWF choose either the platform engineer, software developer, product manager, or UI/UX designer track.
One project successfully developed at ASWF on display during the visit involved tracking flight data within a 10-kilometer radius to deconflict air space between drone aircraft and manned helicopters to ensure both can operate safely. Another tackled the issue of the high attrition rate of the Delayed Entry Program (DEP). When a future Soldier enters the DEP but doesn’t ship to Basic Combat Training on time, the Army sees an increase in recruiting costs and a reduction in training efficiency. For this, the ASWF gave a full makeover to its outdated DEP Soldier portal, which now includes more dynamic and engaging elements, including gamified activities.
While on site, Tech & Learning summit attendees got to see Soldiers and students working together on various Army-focused projects and hear real stories of how software developed at ASWF has been deployed in the field.
“How Might We Fail”
ASWF’s philosophy is “seeking aptitude over skills,” including how teachable soft skills are integrated into a high-stakes environment. That includes learning how to fail, and during the visit, attendees got a hands-on peek into how that process is managed at ASWF.
Given the stakes for much of military operations, failure is typically not an option. However, at ASWF, the idea of productive failure has been embraced. Attendees were asked to brainstorm what they thought of when they hear the word “failure,” and the responses were then organized into groups to help explore and inform the innovation process.
Software design thrives on the process of finding mistakes and flaws during each iteration and then improving. At ASWF, it’s a three-step process:
- Go fast and expect failure
- Reframe failure as learning
- Incentivize honesty and retrospection, not perfection
By better understanding this process and how failure in the design process can lead to a better end result, it can help the Army be more responsive, move quicker to solve problems, and find success.
Solving Soldier – And The World’s – Problems
In addition to hearing more about the ASWF’s history, mission, organization, and operations, attendees were also able to learn about the many career and educational opportunities available to students through Army enlistment, including the advantages of ROTC and JROTC programs. Army representatives from the Austin area explained how they have cultivated strong working relationships with the local school districts to better facilitate students who are interested in pursuing any of the options available.
Ultimately, ASWF embodies the Army’s longtime motto of “Be All You Can Be!” And then some.
“We teach our students and Soldiers to collaborate and work in teams,” said Zuniga. “We don’t say, ‘Go out and solve the world’s problems by yourself.’”