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The sentiment of this petition that government IT projects are ludicrously expensive and often fail due to a lack of internal technical knowledge I fully agree

by ses 15y ago

The sentiment of this petition that government IT projects are ludicrously expensive and often fail due to a lack of internal technical knowledge I fully agree with. However the world of the 'internet startup' and large scale software development are somewhat far apart. And you have learn to walk before you can run. Perhaps the government should start by making more use of IT / software sector experts, and encouraging career development and training for in house staff to help retain the young budding quality developers rather than have them disappear into the private sector. I'd happily work for something more constructive for less money if I knew I would be allowed to make full use of my skills and help the public sector to be more innovative with technology.

harel 15y ago
I would have classified big internet projects done by startups as 'large scale software development'. Maybe my use of 'start up' is not really accurate when you look at it from within the industry but I was trying to make it easy to digest to people outside who will think 'early google, early facebook' and apply the scale of these now to the moniker 'startup'. I'm not talking about small web apps with 1000 users. I am actually thinking 'google like' and 'facebook like' in terms of volume of interaction. Those dwarf any scale of government initiated project, and in contrast they actually work.
- ses 15y ago
  I don't think you can compare even the most successful startups' web apps to government systems. Yes there are some things government could learn from a variety of private sector software and web development businesses, but there are some major differences between things like social networks and b2b or government software. Although they manage it most of the time Facebook offer no guarantees about functionality or uptime. They don't have built into their 'contract' with users clauses that state that if something fails, Facebook are liable pay to huge costs to the users. For these sorts of issues, the government are surely better off seeking advice from businesses that develop software for the finance, engineering or manufacturing industries.
  - harel 15y ago
    I used to architect solutions used by the social services and those concepts of data integrity, security, guaranteed deliveries etc. are something I came across everyday, and I think those same aspects are valid in public enterprises. The fact some people ignore those points doesn't make them less valid. And it doesn't change the fact that a failure in government IT is 100 million pounds and private startup failure can range between just lost time to a few millions private/VC money: calculated risk (usually, I know there are exceptions like boo.com :)

by ses 15y ago

harel 15y ago

I would have classified big internet projects done by startups as 'large scale software development'. Maybe my use of 'start up' is not really accurate when you look at it from within the industry but I was trying to make it easy to digest to people outside who will think 'early google, early facebook' and apply the scale of these now to the moniker 'startup'. I'm not talking about small web apps with 1000 users. I am actually thinking 'google like' and 'facebook like' in terms of volume of interaction. Those dwarf any scale of government initiated project, and in contrast they actually work.

ses 15y ago
I don't think you can compare even the most successful startups' web apps to government systems. Yes there are some things government could learn from a variety of private sector software and web development businesses, but there are some major differences between things like social networks and b2b or government software. Although they manage it most of the time Facebook offer no guarantees about functionality or uptime. They don't have built into their 'contract' with users clauses that state that if something fails, Facebook are liable pay to huge costs to the users. For these sorts of issues, the government are surely better off seeking advice from businesses that develop software for the finance, engineering or manufacturing industries.
- harel 15y ago
  I used to architect solutions used by the social services and those concepts of data integrity, security, guaranteed deliveries etc. are something I came across everyday, and I think those same aspects are valid in public enterprises. The fact some people ignore those points doesn't make them less valid. And it doesn't change the fact that a failure in government IT is 100 million pounds and private startup failure can range between just lost time to a few millions private/VC money: calculated risk (usually, I know there are exceptions like boo.com :)