Replies

When did they begin writing the massive software program? What 3 or 4 years ago?

Doesn’t matter when the contract was let.
a) Regulations which lead to the requirements for the program were deliberately not completed and released until after last November’s elections, so that Republicans couldn’t use them during the election. I would guess that jello-firm requirements weren’t available until the spring. That left less than 6 months to design, code, and test. Worse - the requirements were grossly unstable - as late as a week before 1 Oct there were still arguements as to whether they would let people browse without signing up.
b) None of the HHS managers had experience developing large software. There was no integration contractor or office to coordinate the 55 contractors developing the software, and integration with existing Social Security software.
c) the main website contractor was fired from a Canadian job for non-delivery.

Ask any software professioinal, and they will tell you that unstable requirements, no experienced management personnel, and development personnel with a poor track record will guarentee DOOM on a project. And you can’t test quality into bad software - testing reveals errors, and every fix you make has a high probabililty of introducing more errors.

These are the reasons that government agencies almost always hire an integration contractor for large software projects. I wonder if HHS was just plain ignorant, or whether they tried to hire one and no one wanted the job.

“Ask any software professional, and they will tell you that unstable requirements, no experienced management personnel, and development personnel with a poor track record will guarantee DOOM on a project. And you can’t test quality into bad software - testing reveals errors, and every fix you make has a high probability of introducing more errors.”

Well said!

From a software perspective, they can’t fix it and it will have to be torn down and re-implemented by someone who knows what they are doing and how to do it.

But they can’t — because no one knows how everything is supposed to fit together ==> no firm requirements.

The only answer, speaking logically, is to TEAR IT DOWN, and go back to status quo ante. The only thing keeping that from happening is the political hubris of Obamma&Co.

Can’t someone get an injunction to shut it down??

-— Ask any software professioinal, and they will tell you that unstable requirements, no experienced management personnel, and development personnel with a poor track record will guarentee DOOM on a project. And you can’t test quality into bad software - testing reveals errors, and every fix you make has a high probabililty of introducing more errors.-—

Burn baby, burn!

People who don't really know what it takes to write a program actually think that somehow you just turn the computer on and magic happens. They have no idea what software engineering is all about.

What has happened is a tremendous flaw the liberals have contracted and it may actually help us.