Aligning cross-functional teams at ACF with a shared roadmap for efficiency and better delivery

About ACF

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), within the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, supports programs and services for refugees, unaccompanied children, and other eligible populations.

When U.S. Digital Corps Fellows began supporting ORR in 2023, its internal technology organization was relatively small, with approximately six contract and technical teams supporting different products, systems, and capabilities.

USDC Fellows across product management, design, cybersecurity, and software engineering disciplines worked alongside ORR technology staff and contract teams as the organization continued to grow. Over approximately two years, the internal technology team grew from around five people to more than 20.

That growth created a need for repeatable ways for an increasingly multidisciplinary organization to understand priorities, identify dependencies, and plan interconnected work together.

The challenge

When U.S. Digital Corps Fellows began supporting ORR, there was no cross-functional planning process. ORR’s federal staff and its contract teams largely worked in silos, with little regular communication with one another, with no cross-team demos, and no shared view of how their work fit together.

Teams planned and delivered work on different schedules, using different sprint dates and cadences. One major contract team was a resource other teams needed to reach for different kinds of support, but it was not routinely included in those teams’ planning meetings. Other teams often planned work that depended on the contract team without a shared understanding of its priorities, schedule, or capacity.

Cross-team dependencies were limited at first, but ORR’s technology strategy meant they grew over time. As teams built APIs, connected systems, took on more integrated work, and even grew in team size, a change in one area often affected several teams. The organization needed a way to see those connections early and plan from the same shared view.

The approach

Shortly after joining ORR, a U.S. Digital Corps Product Management Fellow asked whether the organization had a recurring planning process. It did not. Drawing on experience with quarterly planning elsewhere using Program Increment (PI) Planning—an agile planning practice that helps multiple teams align around shared priorities, objectives, dependencies, risks, and upcoming work—the Fellow suggested trying a similar approach at ORR.

The suggestion started the conversation, but leadership support made it possible to turn the idea into an organizational practice. ORR’s leadership backed the effort, helped align teams around priorities, and supported expanding planning beyond product management. USDC Fellows, ORR staff, product managers, designers, engineers, cybersecurity specialists, program staff, and contract teams shaped the process together.

The first PI Planning event required three days of dedicated in-person time for teams to share priorities, discuss dependencies, and build a plan together. One of the first practical changes was establishing a common two-week sprint cycle across teams. A shared sprint calendar gave teams common planning increments and made it easier to coordinate handoffs, communicate changes, and plan work that depended on other teams.

As the practice matured, more preparation moved into the ORR’s established processes. Before each planning session now:

• Stakeholder conversations help inform product priorities.
• Leadership aligns on priorities before the session.
• Product, design, engineering, and cybersecurity teams prepare their upcoming work.
• Teams use reusable templates, and project management and design tools to capture priorities, outcomes, dependencies, risks, and milestones.

The impact

The current planning event takes place in one day—significantly reduced from three days—with a central session of approximately two and a half hours. Each team receives about 10–15 minutes to share its priorities, planned work, dependencies, risks, and needs. Teams then discuss how their plans connect and record the shared roadmap and follow-up work.

PI Planning has grown from a product management-led practice into an organization-wide process. Now, designers, engineers, and ORR’s cybersecurity team members—including a USDC Fellow—each bring their priorities, sequencing, and dependencies to the planning process as well. The established PI Planning process gives ORR’s technology team and its program partners a recurring way to connect program needs, technology priorities, the shared roadmap, sprint work, and delivery.

The 10–12 week planning view gives the organization a longer-range roadmap, while shared two-week sprint cycles let teams continue planning and delivering together. Biweekly cross-team coordination provides another opportunity to surface dependencies, risks, blockers, and changes. Cross-team demos give teams a way to share progress and build awareness of work beyond their own area.

ORR’s shared technology planning process is now mature and is designed to carry on beyond the tenure of its USDC Fellows. ORR product managers rotate facilitation in pairs, and each team now builds on reusable templates, documented planning resources, communication channels, and an established cadence. Continued support from ORR leadership helps sustain the practice as the organization and its work evolve.