Having been through this two major reasons. they never talk to users. Seriously it’s crazy - you think it’s bad in industry - govt is wild. A bunch of folks 10

Having been through this two major reasons. they never talk to users. Seriously it’s crazy - you think it’s bad in industry - govt is wild. A bunch of folks 10 levels away decide on things. They will literally never even do one click in a demo - it’s all paperwork based - so when in 10 seconds users can tell it’s hot garbage (ultra slow, ancient Java version required and all) it’s too late. Sane developers are smart enough not to contract with the government. McBride principles compliance? Virgin redwood compliance? Race info on all staff. Ethnicity for all staff? I once escalated to city attorney a compliance requirement that we hand out an IRS form for a program that no longer existed (advance earned tax credits I think) and they said form still had to be handed out (because some political body had required it be) but we could tell employees who filled out the form it was for a program that was no longer in operation and we would not process the form. Multiply by 20. So you get compliance and other middlemen who exacerbate the first issue - the folks developing are super removed from users.