Posted on 10/23/2013 4:57:27 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obamacare contractors: Don’t blame us By: Jennifer Haberkorn and Jason Millman and Brett Norman October 23, 2013 05:19 PM EDT
The Obamacare website contractors plan to tell Congress on Thursday that they are not to blame for the massive problems at HealthCare.gov and that they completed successful testing before the Oct. 1 launch.
But, according to prepared testimony, the four contractors ran into unforeseen problems once open enrollment began. The testimony offers a slight glimpse into the problems that made the website all but unworkable — and warnings that the problems are far from over.
Lawmakers are expected to press the four contractors for details on what went wrong and when they – and the White House – knew about it.
The federal exchange underwent eight technical reviews before Oct. 1 and passed, CGI Federal senior vice president Cheryl Campbell plans to tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee. CGI is considered the lead contractors on HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange website.
“Unfortunately, in systems this complex with so many concurrent users, it is not unusual to discover problems that need to be addressed once the software goes into a live production environment,” she said in her written testimony. “This is true regardless of the level of formal end-to-end performance testing — no amount of testing within reasonable time limits can adequately replicate a live environment of this nature.”
Quality Software Services Inc., another major contractor that built the federal data hub and a key part of the account registration process, said that its contributions to the system are functioning well and, for the most part, have since the launch.
Coding for the data hub was finished in June, tested and the signed off on by CMS in early September...
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Another Congressional spectacle. Can’t wait!
This is all the way down the line. It’s part of our cultural dryrot right now.
7, 10 year software implementations a success? That speaks for itself. But that’s the perspective of the implementers who continue to milk that cow, and not the customers who have committed to feed that animal and can’t back off. I have seen it too, have seen the cynicism and opportunism of the consultants, have seen good vice presidents of companies fired and replaced by none other than these consultants, and have seen one company go under as a result of the cynicism and opportunism of software sellers.
(finished too early)
... as a result of the cynicism and opportunism of software sellers who committed to delivering in 6 months and took years and years, and never fully delivered and completed.
It is a racket, and the biggest of all companies which produce corporate software has been known for 30 years not for the quality of its products but for the aggressiveness of its sales force.
No matter how this plays out, this is NOT going to look good on the resume’.
“The site runs on the nginx webserver, THE premier high traffic, highly scalable webserver.”
Bad design can bring the most powerful hardware and the most ingeniously efficient software platforms down to their knees, begging for mercy. I don’t care how much money is thrown at it.
We're certain the Obama Regime will tell us that's there was no quid-pro-quo but these shocking new details just add fuel to the fire of the disaster that is known as ObamaCare...(Daily Caller) President Barack Obama received financial support for his re-election campaign from a senior executive of the firm that built Obamacare’s dysfunctional healthcare.gov website.
George Schindler — President, U.S. and Canada, of CGI Group, the Canadian parent company of U.S. subsidiary, CGI Federal — donated $1,000 to Obama’s reelection campaign in Aug. 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org.
By that time, CGI Federal had already been awarded the contract to build the exchange for nearly a year, according to a congressional testimony given by CGI Federal senior vice president Cheryl Campbell. …………………………..”
Quality Software Services, Inc. Wins $109.93 Million Federal Contract for Medicare and Medicaid Services -
Jun 20 12
Quality Software Services, Inc. Wins $5.26 Million Federal Contract - Jun 7 13
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=30942011
Excerpts and link only due to copyright
I’ve worked on large scale websites with healthcare plan selection. Also time absence management.
Each of the 50 states have different regulations/excuses and these can change every year. There are legal problems if you do NOT have the site operational (and correct) in time for healthcare plan selections (I am referring to annual enrollment PRIOR to Obamacare/HUACA).
As with NASA, “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION”.
We met the dates and were correct.
Sounds like there was no budget for testing (site navigation, load testing, etc.) or else upper management didn’t want to hear bad news, or else forced “sign off” signatures knowing they were going public with a faulty system.
Success or fail, if Obamacare IS implemented, we will be shackled with it into eternity as we are with Socialist Insecurity, Income Taxes, Death Taxes, etc.
It may become “unpopular” but it affords government control of our lives and therefore government will not relinquish the power it holds.
No worry here, Obama is getting to the bottom of it and will correct everything! In time of course, he has a stack of getting to the bottoms of on his desk, Benghazi tragedy, IRS fiasco, etc. But he will get to the bottom of it, in time of course. He has a stack of getting to the bottoms of on his desk!
“BINGO, what they weren’t told until late in the GAME, was that there would be a pit-stop, so the regime could capture the users info, for future use..”
I think you’re correct. I saw a screen shot on FNC and it also allows them to register to vote. Why is that on a healthcare registration (rhetorical question with this admin). I didn’t see the screen long enough, but I don’t recall seeing anything on it asking if they’re an American citizen.
I also recall reading that they were offering the site in like 150 languages - why?
I can’t find it now but I read an article recently that said that the website was using Google Chrome (and various other Google apps were used and/or tied into - -great for PII collection)
Speaking of scams, I wonder if we’ll ever know the dollar amount this company actually received? How much was funneled elsewhere?
BULLPUCKY!!! I’ve been developing large scale, complex, multi teir web sites since 1994. While it is true no amount of testing can catch every single possible issue you may find in production, the idea that you go to production completely unusable, particularly after spending 600 MILLION to do it is NONSENSE.
I don’t blame the contractor soley, I am sure they were made to do things absolutely stupid by politicians and their representatives... Politicians are like the marketing department, only on steroids... wanting all sorts of things that are technically unwise and unfeasable but in government there is no one to keep those folks in check. Now with that said do I think the contractors probably took big checks and did less than great work? Probably as well.
End of the day, this fiasco shows you the complete inefficiency of government that will never be able to fixed. And these are the folks you want to run your health care?
Morons.
——But fortunately we have accountability.-——
I don’t think so. If there is one major attribute of Obama et al it is there is no accounting for failure.
In fact there is no accounting for any thing. The money is being stolen so fast there is no opportunity to pause and determine the total take. Not only have they looted the Treasury, they have borrowed the money to steal.
Only revolution 1792 style will produce accountability and punishment.
‘Twas a satirical comment. 0bama is responsible for nothing other than the huge rise in the stock market and getting Bin Laden. George Bush, OTOH, is responsible for the Arab spring, the crappy economy, racism, and fifteen other things that escape my early morning mind.
“Until I hear different I’m not going to lay the blame primarily on the contractors. The problem begins and ends with the client.”
Actually, disallowing scope creep or if impossible, pushing out the end date AND bumping the cost IS the job of the contractors (assuming that the “project manager” is the lead contractor). To do otherwise is bad customer management; If the customer doesn’t understand this, and changes the project scope but will not allow you to increase the cost and/or push out the end date, then you call in the lawyers.
Unfortunately, I suspect that “the government” was the project manager in this case, which, of course, is Automatic Total Fail.
Excellent points. Worth repeating. A true “systems analyst” is an all-too-rare talent. Lots of pretenders have it on their business cards and very few really do it. In my twenty some odd years of IT I’ve only met one true systems analyst.
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