TWD & Associates Executes IT Modernization Roadmap for US Citizenship and Immigration Services

Series of project successes achieved through use of Agile DevSecOps

McLean, VA – September 3, 2019 – TWD & Associates, Inc. (TWD), a technology solutions provider, today announced the latest milestones under its Joint Engineering Teams-Sustainment (JETS) contract with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Since contract award in November 2015, TWD has led its team in an unprecedented series of complex IT transformations that are resulting in significant benefits for USCIS and its stakeholders.

In June, Team TWD assisted USCIS in implementing an expansion of the digital Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Immigration Records System (FIRST). FIRST is the only system in the U.S. government that allows users to submit and track FOIA requests and receive documents digitally. This process will improve response time, efficiency and accuracy compared to the manual process. Read more.

In May, innovations in eProcessing were implemented that will allow an acceleration in USCIS’ transition to a digital business model. eProcessing will allow for a complete digital experience, covering benefit application, communications with USCIS and decision processing. Read more.

These achievements were preceded in December of 2018, with the successful migration of the USCIS Central Indexing System (CIS) to the cloud, with zero downtime. TWD worked in conjunction with DHS USCIS to modernize the system, moving it from the legacy mainframe-based architecture to a modern microservices cloud-based architecture resulting in an estimated (by the Product Owner) 200% increase in productivity. Read more.

“Managing any contract of this scope and complexity has its challenges,” said Larry Besterman, President and CEO, TWD. “TWD has coordinated with a broad ecosystem that includes Federal employees, stakeholders and industry partners. The volume of positive results in a mere 3 ½ years is really a testament to what can be accomplished with committed people working in a highly collaborative, Agile-driven environment.”

In addition to high-profile achievements, TWD’s DevSecOps teams have successfully modernized, developed and maintained numerous other mission critical IT systems and applications. Critical factors in all the USCIS projects have been a focus on User-Centered Design to minimize the need for retraining and the use of Open Source software to create a fast, secure path to affordable, custom solutions.

The development of a solid roadmap became critical as the JETS vision shifted from the originally envisioned “sustainment” model to a high velocity modernization effort involving refactoring and a unified technology stack. Besterman added, “The roadmap was essential in helping us sequence all the moving pieces, react to changing circumstances and shift resources as necessary while maintaining velocity. Sharing in these successes with such a talented and driven group of customers and teammates has been a golden opportunity.”

About TWD & Associates, Inc.

TWD delivers technology solutions that provide business value to customers, from large federal agencies in highly secure environments to commercial companies and non-profits. For more than 25 years TWD has been a trusted partner, demonstrating technological agility to deliver innovative solutions and bridge the gap between what is possible and what is practical in infrastructure, systems and applications. TWD uses Lean Agile processes to provide IT modernization and cloud transitions that are scalable and aligned with modern technology evolution.