4 ms·

Why make a tradeoff that dooms any chance of a person actually productively contributing?

by m0zg 5y ago

pimlottc 5y ago
People can and do make valuable contributions in short time periods at USDS. Most projects do not involve full time coding, but rather improving processes, making technical recommendations, helping write and award contracts effectively, scaling systems, building redundancy, rollout planning, analyzing failures, etc.
Jtsummers 5y ago
USDS is better seen as a consulting service than a contracted software development shop. Ownership of the systems remains with the agencies they work with. They help to modernize and refine ideas and systems, they don’t do the long term development work (including long term maintenance) themselves.
- m0zg 5y ago
  I've been doing contracting/consulting for the past few years, and not in a single case did any of my contracts last less than 10 months. I start my engagements with a 3 month worth of budget (so that we could amicably part ways if things don't work out for either side), with an option to extend, and people _always_ extend, even though my billing rate is, objectively, eye watering. And the work I do is far more straightforward than e.g. "fixing the IRS" (which is what, IMO, such services should be doing). It is no surprise that we see little to no output from USDS beyond "style guides" and powerpoints. Certainly nothing that would affect me, personally. Coincidentally, I have also worked with US Government as a sub-contractor in the past (or to be more exact, the company where I ran all of engineering worked through a federal contractor), and I can tell you it's the most inefficinent environment I can imagine. Endless meetings, budgets 10x larger than they need to be disappearing into the void, nobody knows anything or cares to know. You're lucky if you find even _one_ dude (and it's invariably a dude at those places) who knows what he's doing on the other side, and you hold on to him for dear life. If you told me I have to make any kind of meaningful difference in that environment in 6 months, I'd politely decline the job. But that's with the benefit of the hindsight, which I will concede some of these otherwise supremely qualified people do not have.

Why make a tradeoff that dooms any chance of a person actually productively contributing?

by m0zg 5y ago

Why make a tradeoff that dooms any chance of a person actually productively contributing?

People can and do make valuable contributions in short time periods at USDS. Most projects do not involve full time coding, but rather improving processes, making technical recommendations, helping write and award contracts effectively, scaling systems, building redundancy, rollout planning, analyzing failures, etc.

Jtsummers 5y ago

USDS is better seen as a consulting service than a contracted software development shop. Ownership of the systems remains with the agencies they work with. They help to modernize and refine ideas and systems, they don’t do the long term development work (including long term maintenance) themselves.

m0zg 5y ago
I've been doing contracting/consulting for the past few years, and not in a single case did any of my contracts last less than 10 months. I start my engagements with a 3 month worth of budget (so that we could amicably part ways if things don't work out for either side), with an option to extend, and people _always_ extend, even though my billing rate is, objectively, eye watering. And the work I do is far more straightforward than e.g. "fixing the IRS" (which is what, IMO, such services should be doing). It is no surprise that we see little to no output from USDS beyond "style guides" and powerpoints. Certainly nothing that would affect me, personally. Coincidentally, I have also worked with US Government as a sub-contractor in the past (or to be more exact, the company where I ran all of engineering worked through a federal contractor), and I can tell you it's the most inefficinent environment I can imagine. Endless meetings, budgets 10x larger than they need to be disappearing into the void, nobody knows anything or cares to know. You're lucky if you find even _one_ dude (and it's invariably a dude at those places) who knows what he's doing on the other side, and you hold on to him for dear life. If you told me I have to make any kind of meaningful difference in that environment in 6 months, I'd politely decline the job. But that's with the benefit of the hindsight, which I will concede some of these otherwise supremely qualified people do not have.