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Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#11

Post by rayiner »

coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

> The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up

And when it failed, the government would be criticized for hiring a start-up to do a job that was obviously so enormous that only a big established contractor could take it on. And rightfully so.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#13

Post by erbo »

coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

Would you take that contract? I sure wouldn't. Something this big, and this failure prone, and which is being used as a political football besides...no amount of money is worth that.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#14

Post by coherentpony »

rayiner wrote: post #11
coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

> The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up And when it failed, the government would be criticized for hiring a start-up to do a job that was obviously so enormous that only a big established contractor could take it on. And rightfully so.

>And if it failed

Fixed that for you.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#15

Post by angersock »

erbo wrote: post #13
coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

Would you take that contract? I sure wouldn't. Something this big, and this failure prone, and which is being used as a political football besides...no amount of money is worth that.

I'd be willing to try for 20M.

Worth a shot.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#16

Post by Iftheshoefits »

coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

I rather think that depends on what technological expertise the the start-up brought to bear on the problem.

I understand it's chic to think that Healtcare.gov is "just another website", especially among a certain crowd who think that all development is web development, and best done on a MacbookPro using RoR/node//Go + . It's a mistaken impression, though, because we aren't talking about some from-scratch system. We're talking about communication with and between a lot of legacy systems requiring what is almost certainly a frankenstein-like nightmare of patchwork APIs that dive into programming languages and styles hipster 20-somethings at hot S.F. Start Up X wouldn't understand because it's beneath them (I'm exaggerating and generalizing here for effect--this isn't to impugn all 20-somethings, start-ups, etc.).

Honestly I don't think there is any contractor who could have pulled this project off flawlessly, or even very much better than the group of misfits who did Healthcare.gov did, just because of the sheer complexity of the project compounded with the increased politically-motivated interference from government officials that comes with such high-profile projects.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#17

Post by angersock »

greg5green wrote: post #5

>>Accenture, which is one of the world’s largest consulting firms, has extensive experience with computer systems on the state level, and it built California’s new health insurance exchange. Hasn't California's exchange had big problems too?

Accenture is Arthur Andersen, and they've got a long history of extracting maximum value for shareholders from government contracts (state and local).

EDIT:

Arthur Andersen spawned Andersen Consulting spawned Arthur Anderson Business Consulting spawned Accenture. Some of AABC splintered off and joined Hitachi Consulting, some went elsewhere.

The history of computer consulting is varied, interesting, and tragic.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#18

Post by coherentpony »

erbo wrote: post #13
coherentpony wrote: post #8

No shit. This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a complete and utter fucking disaster. And how much did the government pay to have this work done [1]? This is procurement at its finest. The government could have easily paid 10% of what they did to a tech start-up who would have done a much better job utilising scalable technologies. [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

Would you take that contract? I sure wouldn't. Something this big, and this failure prone, and which is being used as a political football besides...no amount of money is worth that.

This shouldn't even be about politics. Amazon serves millions of people a day and their site works perfectly (even if it is horribly designed) every time I've tried to use it. Healthcare.gov is used once by everyone (that needs coverage) to pick a plan and pay for it.

People are fucking dying because they can't get coverage.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#19

Post by dclowd9901 »

Pxtl wrote: post #10
crbnw00ts wrote: post #9

What's sad is that it wasn't so long ago we were treated to breathless articles regarding the software that was used as part of the President's re-election campaign, which apparently was well-tested and well-engineered enough to actually do its job when the time came: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/when-t... It seems today's politicians are (at least in some cases) familiar with what it takes t…

The requirements for working with the USGov are restrictive enough that only specific companies are capable of participating in the bidding process. The Democratic party itself and Obama's re-election are, by contrast, private organizations that are not limited by these rules. Basically, it seems like the government sourcing process has shrunk the pool of potential bidders too small to provide a properly competitive…

> Basically, it seems like the government sourcing process has shrunk the pool of potential bidders too small to provide a properly competitive marketplace for software for USGov customers.

And don't think for a second that this is unintentional.

Re: Obama administration to end contract with company behind HealthCare.gov

#20

Post by kevingadd »

greg5green wrote: post #5

>>Accenture, which is one of the world’s largest consulting firms, has extensive experience with computer systems on the state level, and it built California’s new health insurance exchange. Hasn't California's exchange had big problems too?

The website for California's exchange is still broken; it's broken so badly that the customer support phone # the site tells you to call is outright rejecting calls (lots of people having issues). You get a recorded message saying that due to high call volumes you should (slightly paraphrased) go fuck yourself and use the nonfunctional website.

They have an online chat queue for customer support that's similarly busted; you sit in the queue for hours with the ETA randomly changing before it says you've been booted out of the queue.

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