We spoke to Chianti Lomax, CivicActions’ Workforce Development Lead about her work with Digital IT Acquisition Professional (DITAP) training, supporting a program that is “humans first,” and why the work is so rewarding.
Chianti Lomax, Workforce Development Lead
To someone unfamiliar with DITAP, how would you describe the program?
The DITAP Program is a transformative learning journey that helps federal procurement professionals revolutionize procurements in the world of IT/Digital Services while becoming change ambassadors in their own right. It’s a 6-month graduate-level certification program specifically designed to empower federal government procurement professionals. Throughout this immersive experience, participants gain insights into crafting procurements that are not only cutting-edge but also flexible, keeping pace with the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Part of why the DITAP Program is so effective is that it doesn’t stop at just imparting knowledge and skills; it’s an opportunity to cultivate a mindset of transformation and become a catalyst for change within their organizations.
How would you describe CivicActions’ unique approach to DITAP?
Our approach is always humans first. We’re thoughtful about the learning experience and are always figuring out ways to help our participants feel supported — often this is through Bi-weekly Office Hours so all students can succeed.
Most of the current DITAP vendors are training companies, but what makes us unique is that we’re an actual Digital Services company that delivers digital service projects. We lean into our expertise by inviting our in-house experts to share new and trending technology as well as share what we’re implementing in the federal government. We have also developed a special foundations class that prepares the cohort with high-level concepts from digital services such as human-centered design (HCD) and agile.
How does your team continuously evolve DITAP?
In terms of evolving the program in the short term and iteratively improving it, we follow agile principles as a team. We have sprint retros which helps us to see what’s going well, what we need to let go of in delivery, and then what we need to work on. There are also two formal opportunities for feedback for each cohort throughout the program via surveys, which we take into account for improvement.
At the conclusion of each cohort, we work to synthesize survey results for each area of the program and reflections from individual team members. This allows us to make improvements to the overall learning experience, the online/self-paced experience (learning management system), and our channels for program communication.
What has been the most rewarding part of your job?
The most rewarding part of my job has been supporting individual transformations for each member of the cohort that will ultimately have a larger impact on government acquisition and transformation. Witnessing participants in the DITAP Program go from being uninformed at the beginning to knowledgeable and confident throughout the span of the program has been especially rewarding. It is always exciting to know that they can take their learnings and apply them to resolve real-world issues in their agencies. I feel proud that we are really impacting the transformation of government in a real and practical way.
Are you ready to join our DITAP community of leaders? Register for our next cohort! Learn more here.