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HHS calls in high-tech cavalry for Obamacare website fixes

3 points by grej 13y ago

The Obama administration Sunday said it’s called on “the best and brightest” tech experts from both government and the private sector to help fix the troubled website at the root of the Obamacare enrollment problems. The unusual Sunday 600-word blog post from HHS was the first update in more than a week on the many failings of an expensive website that HHS itself described as “frustrating for many Americans.” But it didn’t specify who the administration had called in, or when the American people would see clear-cut results on Healthcare.gov.

grej 13y ago
From Politico: The Obama administration Sunday said it’s called on “the best and brightest” tech experts from both government and the private sector to help fix the troubled website at the root of the Obamacare enrollment problems. The unusual Sunday 600-word blog post from HHS was the first update in more than a week on the many failings of an expensive website that HHS itself described as “frustrating for many Americans.” But it didn’t specify who the administration had called in, or when the American people would see clear-cut results on Healthcare.gov.
hga 13y ago
“We’re kind of thinking of it as a tech ‘surge,’” an HHS official told POLITICO. The powers that be haven't read The Mythical Man Month. Specifically the principle that adding people slows a project down, outside of unusual circumstances or methods (e.g. a Tiger Team). Which might be happening. Then again, from the multiple independent reports from both the right and left, with CMMS doing the integration and the requirements changing through the week before it was launched, ditto last minute testing, it is clear the powers that be had no experience whatsoever in directing software projects of any size. E.g. we're seeing mistakes a lot of us learned about in small projects.
- grej 13y ago
  Yep I agree. They're now employing the "code like hell" strategy, but it rarely works - especially when a project has undergone as little integration testing as healthcare.gov appears to have undergone.

3 points by grej 13y ago

grej 13y ago

From Politico: The Obama administration Sunday said it’s called on “the best and brightest” tech experts from both government and the private sector to help fix the troubled website at the root of the Obamacare enrollment problems. The unusual Sunday 600-word blog post from HHS was the first update in more than a week on the many failings of an expensive website that HHS itself described as “frustrating for many Americans.” But it didn’t specify who the administration had called in, or when the American people would see clear-cut results on Healthcare.gov.

hga 13y ago

“We’re kind of thinking of it as a tech ‘surge,’” an HHS official told POLITICO. The powers that be haven't read The Mythical Man Month. Specifically the principle that adding people slows a project down, outside of unusual circumstances or methods (e.g. a Tiger Team). Which might be happening. Then again, from the multiple independent reports from both the right and left, with CMMS doing the integration and the requirements changing through the week before it was launched, ditto last minute testing, it is clear the powers that be had no experience whatsoever in directing software projects of any size. E.g. we're seeing mistakes a lot of us learned about in small projects.

grej 13y ago
Yep I agree. They're now employing the "code like hell" strategy, but it rarely works - especially when a project has undergone as little integration testing as healthcare.gov appears to have undergone.