November 25, 2025
Every federal agency prepares a backup strategy to protect data. This is a rigorous endeavor in which teams practice what to do in the event of a breach or system failure.
However, nobody really has a plan for a temporary federal shutdown.
Any political pundit worth his salt knows there will be another federal shutdown sometime in the future. It is reasonable to consider intelligent workflows and automation to see how it can be used to bridge services during a temporary shutdown.
David Grundy is the Public Sector CTO for Tines. He has decades of experience in and outside the federal government. He highlights the challenges of human-centered workflows. For example, just because the staff is reduced does not mean attackers will take the day off. Adversaries work 365 days a year and are immune to political infighting.
Based on David Grundy’s experience, an agency should start with visibility to know which workflows exist. From there, document processing can be detailed, enabling scaling.
During the interview, Grundy shares his experience in a federal agency that had to make digital transitions while complying with federal regulations. He is optimistic that operational resilience can be achieved through initiative-taking by all federal agencies.
If you liked this interview, you may want to listen to
Episode 264 – How Automation Is Accelerating Digital Transformation Across Federal Agencies
Why: Focuses on automation in federal agencies, tying directly into your post’s theme of automation as part of continuity strategies.Episode 243 – From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs: Boosting Federal Efficiency with Automation
Addresses process inefficiencies and how automation can help—excellent context for a shutdown scenario where resources are constrained.
