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The government IT procurement process puts people that don't know what they are doing in charge of multi-million dollar budgets. The primary determinant of whe

The government IT procurement process puts people that don't know what they are doing in charge of multi-million dollar budgets. The primary determinant of whether or not a company gets hired is its ability to navigate the procurement process - not their ability to actually do the job. In fact, many companies specialize in winning government contracts and then subcontract the work out to others. It's a sad, broken system that will almost certainly never change - in part because we don't vote for the people in charge of these things. It really doesn't matter who is in the White House or in control of Congress. The fiefdoms within the government that control these issues have maintained a culture of mediocrity for decades, and it will likely remain that way.

dnautics 13y ago
how do you propose reconfiguring the procurement process? Remember, it's got to be fair. You have to figure out how to charge a fair price. Everything has to be documented, so that it can be audited by the bureaucrat in a few months and given a second rubber stamp. Also we have to score the service providers, don't forget to ask them if they are minority-, veteran-, or disabled- owned, because each of those gives them +20 points.
- lisper 13y ago
  > it's got to be fair Why? It's not fair now.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > how do you propose reconfiguring the procurement process? For most of the problem areas, the answer isn't to mend it, but to end it. Stop contracting out core functions.
nhebb 13y ago
I believe the exchanges are run by the states. Since there is overlap - a federal law being implemented at the state level - the procurement process may have had to follow federal guidelines, but I wouldn't be surprised if this were a case of 50 states with 50 different procurement processes.
- nutate 13y ago
  Nearly all of the GOP states refused to play ball and are just defaulting to the federally made site. I have a feeling one state's site will be the best and will perhaps be mirrored to other states within the coming decade. This is clearly not an overnight problem, but in the end, once each user gets their insurance they should never need to visit again unless they want to switch.

dnautics 13y ago

how do you propose reconfiguring the procurement process? Remember, it's got to be fair. You have to figure out how to charge a fair price. Everything has to be documented, so that it can be audited by the bureaucrat in a few months and given a second rubber stamp. Also we have to score the service providers, don't forget to ask them if they are minority-, veteran-, or disabled- owned, because each of those gives them +20 points.

lisper 13y ago
> it's got to be fair Why? It's not fair now.
dragonwriter 13y ago
> how do you propose reconfiguring the procurement process? For most of the problem areas, the answer isn't to mend it, but to end it. Stop contracting out core functions.

nhebb 13y ago

I believe the exchanges are run by the states. Since there is overlap - a federal law being implemented at the state level - the procurement process may have had to follow federal guidelines, but I wouldn't be surprised if this were a case of 50 states with 50 different procurement processes.

nutate 13y ago
Nearly all of the GOP states refused to play ball and are just defaulting to the federally made site. I have a feeling one state's site will be the best and will perhaps be mirrored to other states within the coming decade. This is clearly not an overnight problem, but in the end, once each user gets their insurance they should never need to visit again unless they want to switch.