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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

#681

Post by quickthrowman »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #679
quickthrowman wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it reads a bit like any government contract. I can assure you that the GSA does not treat its construction contractors so preferentially. Lowest public bid wins, with preference to companies owned by service-disabled veterans, women, and minorities. I’ve never been directly contracted by the GSA, but I’ve been a sub for GSA projects several times. The closest you get to “one party fits the contract” are systems lik…

So what is the downside of blowing your budget for the bid?

Are you asking what happens if you have the low bid and you go over budget on the project?

If you can’t get change orders to cover your budget overages, your company loses money.

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

#682

Post by menomatter »

I see this in big companies as well. I work for big pharma and 20-40 web projects are not unheard of. The dysfunction is not one sided. There are way too many people involved from the Big company that make it impossible to move fast allow engineers to do what's right. Instead it quickly turns in the Phinoix Project

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

#683

Post by enigma20 »

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.

This also happens a lot in some European countries, where governments/municipalities buy/lease cars for. They specify features list in the way, that only one car model form particular manufacturer matches the requirements. Pure corruption.

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

#685

Post by thw0rted »

closeparen wrote: post #420
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…

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.

This is a common trap that people fall in while trying to understand the problem. It's not that they chose the "wrong software", it's that they tried to scope every aspect of custom-designed software ahead of time.

Imagine if you had to describe in exact detail every possible aspect of a mission to Mars in 1940. You are guaranteed to wind up causing the death of everybody involved, because there is an enormous amount of research standing between where you are now, and having enough information to create a workable design.

The real problem is that the nature of the contracting system doesn't allow for open-ended / minimum-viable projects with iterative development, you have to do your best to write the requirements then throw it over the wall and hope for the best. Of course you're going to wind up with a mess.

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

#686

Post by L_Rahman »

andrewflnr wrote: post #583
vinay_ys wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cannot be volunteer work. It has to be sponsored from the top. If it is, then a team of qualified FTEs can do this job similar to an external consultancy. But rarely will old-timer well-settled FTEs will leave their current position and take on this temporary risky gig. Also, the end result and the path to get there isn't clear for FTEs – let's say they did the functional domain requirement gathering work – then w…

What if it wasn't temporary, but just part of the CEOs office? The first goal should be to actively prevent these foul-ups by keeping open lines of communication.

I've always thought that a team like this is critical to keeping a company running. Any org that's 1000+ needs a 5-7 person team outside of any department that the CEO can throw at problems, but no org that I'm aware of has adopted this structure.

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

#687

Post by 8bitsrule »

notmarkus wrote: post #425
8bitsrule wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geez, I thought the whole idea is that 'government is the problem. We need to let the private sector handle all these things.' Making the CDC look bad appears to have been part of that program last year. Shame the price has been so high.

Are you saying this isn't an example of "government is the problem?"

I'm sorry notmarkus, what I said was unclear. I apologize for that, I'll try harder to avoid doing that again. Too much at stake.

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

#688

Post by 2sk21 »

keanebean86 wrote: post #311
nataz wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is depressing but oh so true. I've worked at a few companies and they're all the same. The business team schedules an hour meeting with the project manager once a week for two years to figure out the requirements. I spend a sprint implementing the backend in parallel with a frontend person. We spend another sprint testing and fixing bugs. Then the project sits in UAT for 6 months while the business suggests cont…

This sketch comes to mind: https://youtu.be/BKorP55Aqvg
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