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Is it not also because the government contracting system is FUBAR? I.e. only certain kinds of companies can contract on the big projects, you need certain clear

Is it not also because the government contracting system is FUBAR? I.e. only certain kinds of companies can contract on the big projects, you need certain clearances for certain kinds of works, and the pay gap between public and private sector SWE & security? Also aren't their some pretty tough mandates like x% of companies must be minority owned etc. I imagine it allows those companies to charge extortionist rates because they hit the relevant quotas and nobody else does.

iguy 7y ago
Many of these complaints would apply to physical safety too. But we don't just wait for buildings to burn down to teach organizations a lesson about their heating contractors -- we have fire codes, and inspectors with teeth. Is there any chance that something like this might be done for IT? Or is it all too young to be done sensibly?
- wcip 7y ago
  >But we don't just wait for buildings to burn down to teach organizations a lesson about their heating contractors -- we have fire codes, and inspectors with teeth. We did wait for a fire to create building codes, it just was a long time before either of us were born: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_... There was certainly plenty of fires before that but this one was terrible enough to cause a public outcry.
  - iguy 7y ago
    Sure, I agree that fire rules are written in blood. But not the blood of every single district. Once we've decided, we impose these rules across many cities, millions of buildings. An individual city council is not free to learn the lessons again the hard way, no matter how tight the budget and how close the elections. Either it meets the code, or it gets closed down.
lliamander 7y ago
My first job out of college was working for a IT consulting firm on a project for a state government. All of this describes that experience precisely. > Also aren't their some pretty tough mandates like x% of companies must be minority owned etc. I imagine it allows those companies to charge extortionist rates because they hit the relevant quotas and nobody else does. One thing I saw was that the big players will have employees who fit the desired characteristics, and they just spin those employees off into their own corporation as needed.

iguy 7y ago

Many of these complaints would apply to physical safety too. But we don't just wait for buildings to burn down to teach organizations a lesson about their heating contractors -- we have fire codes, and inspectors with teeth. Is there any chance that something like this might be done for IT? Or is it all too young to be done sensibly?

wcip 7y ago
>But we don't just wait for buildings to burn down to teach organizations a lesson about their heating contractors -- we have fire codes, and inspectors with teeth. We did wait for a fire to create building codes, it just was a long time before either of us were born: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_... There was certainly plenty of fires before that but this one was terrible enough to cause a public outcry.
- iguy 7y ago
  Sure, I agree that fire rules are written in blood. But not the blood of every single district. Once we've decided, we impose these rules across many cities, millions of buildings. An individual city council is not free to learn the lessons again the hard way, no matter how tight the budget and how close the elections. Either it meets the code, or it gets closed down.

lliamander 7y ago

My first job out of college was working for a IT consulting firm on a project for a state government. All of this describes that experience precisely. > Also aren't their some pretty tough mandates like x% of companies must be minority owned etc. I imagine it allows those companies to charge extortionist rates because they hit the relevant quotas and nobody else does. One thing I saw was that the big players will have employees who fit the desired characteristics, and they just spin those employees off into their own corporation as needed.