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CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

technologyreview.com

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Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#451

Post by rishabhd »

zaroth wrote: post #115

> Deloitte is the only contractor that can meet the project requirements, because configuration of the VAMS application is occurring using Deloitte’s propriety GovConnect platform. Therefore, no other contractor has rights or access to leverage the system to carry out O&M activities, such as the administration of the system, change and defect management and end user support. As the only contractor with the GovConnect…

Hate to say this, but having worked in similar industries, RFPs are sometimes deliberately skewed/ created in a manner that make it hard (or downright impossible) for others to participate.

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#452

Post by pm90 »

philjohn wrote: post #450
aasasd wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a copy of Russian government contract practices. Put up a contest, list requirements in such a way that only one company would satisfy them without going bust or mad, award the contract to that company. ‘Make the thing using this and that technologies’ does appear regularly.

This is endemic in tender processes the world over. I used to work in a role where I had to respond to tenders for the software I led, and it was obvious that if the requirements list wasn’t written by our competitor, the institution had decided they wanted their software and listed every feature they knew only that company offered.

Seems like the software procurement process itself is broken.

I guess this could happen with hardware too. But adding more features is much easier in software. Marketing can then argue that it makes a certain product “better”.

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#453

Post by p0d »

Ok government, give Deloitte the contract in a crisis. Pay them a year after they deliver. They are not short of money. Penalise them for not delivering.

Or alternatively spend a few billion making the government more business savy. It will probably save you money.

Then again maybe not. That will be another few billion going to Deloitte.

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#454

Post by anon4242 »

echelon wrote: post #433
brtkdotse wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was some hubbub in Sweden a while back about the armed forces putting up a _really_ specific job ad, like it was tailored to one person. Well, it turned out it was, because the person posting the add forgot to take out the phrase “Make sure Björn meets these requirements” in the middle of the ad.

Do you have a link to the story? That sounds both hilarious and disappointing.

Here's a link in Swedish: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/70eXyK/forsvarsmaktens-...

Under the first bullet in the screendump in the article it says:

* Experience from personnel management positions and documented good leadership qualities (Here Henric lacks the clear experience why I think it should be moved to meritorious)

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#455

Post by jon-wood »

rlonn wrote: post #432
StavrosK wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the analogy. Why would I give the requirements for making a website to someone who doesn't make websites? The government should do whatever anyone who wants a website does, hire someone to make a website. What's the issue?

I think this is what usually happens and what causes many public projects to fail: the customer has no competent staff that can a) write requirements or b) evaluate tenders. They're often incompetent enough to even hire someone competent to do those things. The government should maybe have a dedicated unit that assists other units with procurement of IT solutions. Where the staff gets very well compensated when a pro…

One of the responsibilities of the UK’s Government Digital Service is to review any IT spending by other departments, and are staffed so that in many cases they can implement and support products themselves rather than outsourcing them. My understanding is that other departments are making headway in being allowed to bypass that process, but at their peak GDS were fantastic at shutting down bad projects before they’d sucked up millions of pounds.

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#456

Post by oivey »

nataz wrote: post #284
eigenvector wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now think of the problem in reverse, from the government's side. Why are they contracting it out when all of the most difficult aspects involve integrating with government systems, policies and personnel - things that government already knows how to do? "Because we don't have the expertise to do software development." The comments in this thread, which I fully agree with by the way, just cement my belief that if gove…

Ha, I'm currently a federal government program manager, so I am thinking about it from the government's side right now. I've also been a consultant cog in a mega-corp and run my own small consulting business, so I've seen it from both sides. Tech folks underestimate non tech challenges (basically anything outside of their domain), and clients don't actually know what they want. It's an age old problem in lots of indu…

Domain expertise is important, but I really struggle to see the 10s of millions of domain expertise at play here.

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#457

Post by znpy »

nataz wrote: post #226
mdorazio wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These contracts are generally bloated, but if you've never seen how a $10M+ contract for things like this works you're probably thinking about it wrong. The actual development piece is a pretty small portion of the overall work. The bulk of it is figuring out all the requirements, wrangling legacy systems and data into some kind of shape that can either be interfaced with or imported, documentation, support (includin…

This guy gets it. Development is literally the simplest part of the problem set. The intersection of domain expertise, contracting/procurement creativity, and technical evaluation is the tough part to wrangle. Getting to the point where development can start is 95% of the battle in my experience. Not to trivialize the actual development portion of the project, but most missteps happen early, dooming projects before a…

Indeed, that guy really gets it.

One of my previous employers had a very good software and it sold such software to various other companies around the world. Such software was highly complex and really the top money could buy in the field. A yearly seat for a single user could cost up to around 5-7 k$.

Yet for years the company made most of its money from "installation projects" and "professional services", that is working with the client to understand its needs and implement customisation to the software to make it work well in the customer environment.

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#458

Post by komuher »

aasasd wrote: post #400
zaroth wrote: post #115

> Deloitte is the only contractor that can meet the project requirements, because configuration of the VAMS application is occurring using Deloitte’s propriety GovConnect platform. Therefore, no other contractor has rights or access to leverage the system to carry out O&M activities, such as the administration of the system, change and defect management and end user support. As the only contractor with the GovConnect…

Reads like a copy of Russian government contract practices. Put up a contest, list requirements in such a way that only one company would satisfy them without going bust or mad, award the contract to that company. ‘Make the thing using this and that technologies’ does appear regularly.

Sounds like poland and hungary today :)

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#459

Post by pas »

brabel wrote: post #404
offtop5 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions Florida using Eventbrite. That seems like a much better solution rather than rolling your own.

Tell that to the people on this thread trying to justify how 45M is reasonable for a project like this because "software development is just a small part of the process". If a state can use freaking Eventbrite for this, clearly they are wrong.

Are they justifying or explaining?

Re: CDC website built by Deloitte at a cost of $44M is abandoned due to bugs

#460

Post by moritonal »

StavrosK wrote: post #426
closeparen wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For your next laptop, car, etc. try doing what you think the government ought to do here. Write down the requirements, give them to a neutral third party who doesn’t doesn’t use computers/drive, and ask them to figure out the cheapest thing that meets the requirements. Commit yourself to buying only that. See how it goes for you.

I don't understand the analogy. Why would I give the requirements for making a website to someone who doesn't make websites? The government should do whatever anyone who wants a website does, hire someone to make a website. What's the issue?

If I asked our procurement team to get me a distributed version-control software to use I'd be given a site-wide license of Perforce before being given git.

So enevitably requirements are tailored to what I want. It seems someone wanted Deloitte, why (and how expensive was the dinner) is another question.

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