Tech Talks
The GSA CTO team hosts in-depth Tech Talks, where presenters discuss technology topics affecting the agency. Each Tech Talk is a 30-minute informal meeting with an audience of internal GSA members. Demonstrations are often provided along with follow-up Q&A. Registration is limited to internal GSA personnel. To register to attend a Tech Talk event, please contact Joe Novak at Joseph.Novak@gsa.gov.
For general questions about the Tech Talks, please contact the GSA CTO team at cto@gsa.gov.
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Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and GSA
July 20, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
Do you ever wonder how applications are synced across multiple devices? How you are able to receive instant updates to your mobile apps? This is possible because of Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs. APIs are software programs that enable computer programs and systems to talk directly to each other.
If you would like to understand how APIs work, then this Tech Talk is for you! Ryan Day and Joe Castle of IC and the GSA Digital Service team are going to explain APIs with particular focus on data transfer over web protocols and RESTful design with considering endpoints, nouns, and verbs. They will also demonstrate popular commercial and GSA examples while discussing the value they provide to the Agency and end consumers. Furthermore, information will be provided about GSA’s API strategy, API inventory, and API standards for those wanting to create APIs.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Ryan Day and Joe Castle
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Application Performance Monitoring within GSA's PBS IT
June 20, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
IT applications are getting more robust and complicated each year. Applications developers are expected to deliver more features while improving application performance for end users.
This can be a challenging endeavor without the right tool to baseline and track application performance and identify where the bottlenecks are occurring.
During this tech talk, Phil Klokis and Allen Samuel will present how PB-ITS has used Riverbed ARX to improve application performance and identify usage of the application in supporting application rationalization activities.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Phil Klokis and Allen Samuel
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The Agile Product Owner: Beyond the Books & Classrooms
June 6, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
As organizations embark on Agile transformation, many traditional project managers or business and technical leads are often assigned the Product Owner role with limited (or no) training or even an understanding of what the new role truly entails. In the midst of changing environments, conflicting mindsets, and other change-related issues, they are expected to start operating within a Scrum team after a few days of CSPO training and perhaps some reading. So, what are some of the tools and real-life experience required from a Product Owner?
During this Tech Talk, Alicia Cyrus will explore the differences between product ownership and traditional project management, and share some approaches on how Product Owners can effectively manage relationships and the responsibilities of their new role.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Alicia Cyrus, CTO Office
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Internet of Things & GSA/PBS
May 17, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
Did you know that PBS at GSA uses The Internet of Things for Their Smart Buildings? The next Tech Talk on May 17th at 1 pm will have GSA-PBS IT’s Charles Matta and Andrew Vanjani sharing their insights into this very exciting topic.
They will talk about PBS and smart buildings, and The Internet of Things within the building industry, PBS, Federal Facilities and the real estate industry. How it works, Applications, Risks/Rewards, Cybersecurity, Contracting, Innovation and Opportunities will all be discussed.
Location
Virtual and 1800f
Who
Charles Matta and Andrew Vanjani
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Version Control and GitHub
May 9, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
Version control software allows multiple people to manage changes to a project at the same time without getting in each other’s way. At GSA, we use it to help share and collaborate on open source software but it can be used for many other things as well. In this session, we’ll talk about the basics of version control, look at how you might use it on your projects and take a tour of the GitHub ecosystem. This is a beginners session and no coding experience is required.
Please join Sara Cope from the CTO Office in this Tech Talk for a friendly introduction to Version Control and GitHub.
Location
Virtual
Who
Sara Cope, CTO Office
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DevOps
April 25, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
DevOps is a growing collection of practices that unify software development, QA, IT operations, and security. These practices are primarily focused on two areas: cultural change and process automation. By applying DevOps principles to our IT products, we can realize better product quality, lower costs, shorter lead time to release changes, increased reliability, and happier customers.
Please join Jeff Fredrickson from the CTO Office for this Tech Talk to learn more about DevOps and how GSA can benefit from it.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Jeff Fredrickson, CTO Office
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Solutions Strategy
April 11, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
Like most organizations, GSA IT is embracing the shared services model to optimize common IT functions to more efficiently meet GSA’s mission of delivering best value in real estate, acquisition and technology services. This means re-evaluating the way GSA IT defines and creates IT solutions and investment strategies for the enterprise.
In 2016, GSA IT established Solutions Strategy Division within the Office of the CTO to partner with you to innovate, guide and architect IT solutions that fit your needs and support GSA IT’s shared services model.
Please join Akanksha Sharma from the CTO Office in this Tech Talk to learn more about how Solutions Strategy is helping GSA move to a shared services model. Furthermore, she will explain how to engage with the division for assistance with your current and future projects.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Akanksha Sharma, CTO Office
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Agile Behaviors
March 30, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
Like most organizations, GSA is embracing Agile to more effectively respond to rapid market opportunities, and is investing in approaches that facilitate the delivery of business value and quality products to its internal and external customers.
So, is there a “right” way to becoming Agile? Should an organization care about “going” Agile or better business results?
Please join Lulit Tesfaye and Alicia Cyrus from the CTO Office in this Tech Talk. They will discuss what Agile behaviors look like at the Team, Program and Organization level; enabling a supporting environment and share resources from coaching pilot Agile teams across GSA organizations.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Lulit Tesfaye and Alicia Cyrus, CTO Office
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GSA Digital Services
March 14, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
Technology in the federal sector is rapidly changing with focus on new technologies to meet emerging customer and end user needs. Design elicitation, rapid and continuous software deployments, open source technologies, sprint management cycles, etc., are the new norm. This talk will provide insight into Digital Services at GSA, how it started, its focus, and current projects.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Joseph Castle, Digital Service Team, CTO
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Open Source at GSA
February 28, 2017, 1p-1:30p
Objective
In this Tech Talk, Joseph Castle and Jeffrey Fredrickson from the Digital Services Division provided an overview of the OMB and GSA policies, discussed implementation and measurement, and discussed the importance of OSS to the agency.
Location
Virtual and 1800F
Who
Joseph Castle and Jeffrey Fredrickson, Digital Service Team, CTO
