Government software is a different world from commercial development. The requirements are stricter, the timelines are longer, the compliance burden is heavier, and the consequences for getting it wrong are more severe. But for companies that can navigate it, government work represents some of the most stable, well funded contracts available.
We have built systems that meet federal and state compliance standards. The process is not mysterious, but it does require understanding a set of rules and constraints that most commercial developers never encounter. This post covers what you actually need to know to build software for government contracts, from procurement to production.
Understanding the Procurement Process
Before you write a single line of code, you need to understand how government software gets bought. Unlike commercial sales where a decision maker can sign off in a week, government procurement follows a structured process that typically takes 6 to 18 months from RFP (Request for Proposal) to contract award.
The key stages are: opportunity identification (monitoring SAM.gov and agency specific portals), proposal preparation (technical volumes, past performance references, pricing), evaluation period (where your proposal competes against others on technical merit and cost), and contract negotiation. Each stage has specific deadlines and formatting requirements that are non negotiable.
Most government contracts fall into one of a few vehicles: GSA Schedule contracts, GWACs (Government Wide Acquisition Contracts), BPAs (Blanket Purchase Agreements), or direct awards for smaller projects. Getting on a GSA Schedule is an investment, often taking 6 to 12 months to complete, but it dramatically simplifies future procurement because agencies can buy from you without running a full competitive process every time.
The takeaway for development teams: your software must be designed with these timelines in mind. You cannot promise a feature for "next sprint" when the contracting officer needs a 90 day lead time for a contract modification. Building with solid system architecture from day one saves you from painful rework when contract requirements shift.
Security and Compliance Standards
Government software lives and dies on compliance. The specific standards depend on the agency and data classification, but here are the ones you will encounter most often.
FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is required for any cloud service used by federal agencies. Achieving FedRAMP authorization involves documenting your system in a System Security Plan, completing a third party security assessment, and maintaining continuous monitoring. There are three impact levels: Low, Moderate, and High. Most SaaS products target Moderate, which requires implementing approximately 325 security controls from NIST SP 800 53.
FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) requires federal agencies and their contractors to implement information security programs. If you are building custom software for an agency, your system must meet the FISMA requirements for the data it handles.
Section 508 requires all federal technology to be accessible to people with disabilities. This is not optional and not a nice to have. We will cover this in more detail below, but every interface, every document, and every piece of content must meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards at minimum. Our post on WCAG accessibility compliance goes deeper on this topic.
ITAR and EAR apply if you are working with defense related technical data. These export control regulations restrict who can access the data and where it can be stored. In practice, this means US persons only on the development team and US based hosting infrastructure.
We have seen teams underestimate the compliance workload by 50% or more. On projects we have shipped for regulated industries, compliance documentation alone can account for 20 to 30% of the total project effort. Build this into your project budget from the start.
Technical Requirements That Differ From Commercial Software
Government software has technical constraints that commercial apps rarely encounter.
Data sovereignty matters. Your data must reside in specific geographic locations, typically US based data centers. Many cloud providers offer GovCloud regions specifically for this purpose. You cannot use standard commercial regions, even from the same provider.
Authentication is more complex. Government systems typically require PIV/CAC card authentication, SAML based SSO with the agency identity provider, and multi factor authentication that meets NIST 800 63 guidelines. Username and password alone is not acceptable. Plan for integration with agency directory services from the beginning.
Audit logging is mandatory. Every action in the system must be logged with the user identity, timestamp, action taken, and data affected. These logs must be tamper resistant and retained for a minimum period (often 3 to 7 years). This is not just logging errors. This is logging every single operation for accountability and forensics.
Uptime and disaster recovery standards are contractual obligations. SLAs in government contracts are not aspirational targets. They are binding commitments with financial penalties. Typical requirements include 99.9% uptime, Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 4 hours or less, and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 1 hour or less. Your cloud and DevOps infrastructure needs to support these from launch.
Code scanning and software supply chain security are increasingly required. Agencies now expect a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), regular static and dynamic code analysis, and documented vulnerability management processes.
Building for Accessibility (Section 508)
Accessibility is one of the most common areas where government software fails review. Section 508 requires compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA, which means every part of your application must be usable by people with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities.
In practical terms, this means: all images need descriptive alt text, all interactive elements must be keyboard navigable, color cannot be the only means of conveying information, forms need proper labels and error handling, and dynamic content changes must be announced to screen readers.
We recommend building accessibility into your development process from sprint one, not as a retrofit at the end. Retrofitting accessibility on a completed application typically costs 3 to 5 times more than building it in from the start. Automated accessibility testing tools catch about 30% of issues. The rest require manual testing with screen readers and keyboard only navigation.
Working With Government Stakeholders
Government project management follows different rhythms than commercial work. Your primary point of contact is typically a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) who may or may not have technical expertise. Decisions that take a founder 10 minutes might require a government review board that meets monthly.
Document everything. In government work, if it is not documented, it did not happen. Every requirement change, every stakeholder decision, every deviation from the original scope needs to be captured in writing and acknowledged by the contracting officer.
Agile is accepted but adapted. Most agencies now accept agile methodologies, but they still need the documentation artifacts that waterfall traditionally produced. This means you run sprints and demos, but you also maintain requirements traceability matrices, produce formal test reports, and deliver comprehensive system documentation. We covered the importance of thorough requirements documentation in our technical requirements guide.
Is Government Software Worth the Effort
Government contracts offer multi year stability, reliable payment (the government always pays, even if slowly), and the potential for follow on work once you are established. A single $500K contract can turn into $5M over five years through task orders and extensions.
The barrier to entry is real, but that barrier also means less competition than the commercial market. Teams that invest in understanding procurement, building compliant systems, and navigating the bureaucratic requirements find a market that rewards long term relationships over flashy demos. For organizations weighing whether to build an in house team or partner with a firm, government work tips the scale toward experienced partners who already understand the compliance landscape.
If you are considering building for government contracts and need a development partner that understands compliance, security, and the technical standards these projects demand, reach out to our team. We build software that passes review the first time.