Most government agencies have dozens of different computer systems of all different vintages in a hilarious chaotic patchwork.
This is partially the result of the appropriations system which occasionally gives money for upgrades and then a year or two later takes that money away.
One result is that different computer systems do not talk to each other or there are glitches when they do.
Adding to the fun is affirmative action or “equity” contracts means that the vendor skills are often mediocre. In the early days of affirmative action this was overcome by having a “front” minority owner with old white guy subcontractors doing the actual work. These days the .gov contract enforcement rules makes this more difficult—and the results are chaotic and unpredictable.
Ayn Rand called it—this ship is going down—slowly and gradually at first—and then at some point it will be too obvious to ignore.
Very true. I was approached to work on an upgrade project. When I met the principals at their office I was told “Oh we have met our hiring quota...as soon as they saw the grey hair and the race”. Nothing really overt but I certainly wouldn’t work for an outfit like that.
Last I heard about said project was they were on their 3rd team of people and the project was nowhere near completion...:) I happen to know some folks who work at the site of the project and they have some great stories about the sh** that goes on. It’s this type thing that effects the end users in a very negative way and they can’t do their jobs. But the mgmt looks good because they saved all this money...NOT.