Field notes
Notes from the work.
Short, practical pieces on buying and building the systems agencies run on: how to scope a pilot, what to ask for, what goes wrong. Written by the engineers who do the work.
- Modular open systemsWhat MOSA and SOSA ask of an integrator
The Modular Open Systems Approach and the SOSA Technical Standard are written for programs, but they land on whoever builds and integrates the system. What each one asks for in practice, and where AI fits inside a modular, open system.
· 7 min - Voice & phone automationPiloting an AI voice agent on an agency call line, scoped under the micro-purchase threshold
How a 311 line or a program's call queue can try an AI voice agent in weeks, with a scope small enough to buy directly, and what the pilot has to prove before anyone commits to more.
· 7 min - Software & modernizationModernizing a legacy case-management system without a cutover weekend
The incremental path off an aging case system for a state or local agency: put a new front door on it, move one workflow at a time, and never ask staff to stop working while it happens.
· 8 min - Sensors & research systemsBuying scientific equipment for a research program, from specification to verified delivery
What goes wrong between a lab's equipment list and a working instrument on the bench, and how a single accountable supplier closes the gaps: specification review, sourcing, integration, verification, and documentation.
· 7 min - Cloud & DevSecOpsA GovCloud landing zone for a small agency, and what you actually need on day one
The minimum set of accounts, guardrails, logging, and pipelines that lets a small agency put its first workload in AWS GovCloud or Azure Government without inheriting a decade of cleanup.
· 8 min - IoT networks & connectivityConnecting field sensors where there is no network: LTE, LoRa, and satellite, honestly compared
How to choose the link for a field deployment when the site has patchy cell coverage or none, what each option costs to run, and why the gateway and the power budget decide more than the radio does.
· 8 min - Data & analyticsFrom operational records to decision-ready data, without a data-lake project
A mid-size agency does not need a data platform program to answer its own questions. It needs a few pipelines, one place the numbers agree, and a definition of each number that everyone signs.
· 7 min - Procurement & teamingTeaming with a small engineering firm on GSA MAS and NASA SEWP task orders
For primes and for the agencies they serve: how a small senior engineering firm fits into a task order as a subcontractor, what it should bring, and how to structure the workstream so it delivers.
· 6 min