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Per the NYT: "But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people

by sunraa 13y ago

Per the NYT: "But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people familiar with the process." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start-signs-of-trouble-at-health-portal.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start... (October 12) And from today (Oct 21): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/us/insurance-site-seen-needing-weeks-to-fix.html?hp http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/us/insurance-site-seen-nee... In a previous life I worked on similar software development projects at the US State level. This project was several orders of magnitude larger in scope and in complexity than what I worked on. Assuming a generous start date for Spring - say March 1 - this boils down to ~7 months to design and develop to the Oct 1 hard deadline. Nearly impossible in my opinion. I'm not discounting that there couldn't be issues else where in whole process. These would include: communication overhead between all the various agencies and contractors, integration nightmares, and not enough skilled folks at Medicare to manage all of this. But having the requirements delivered several months before roll-out seems to me a recipe for disaster.

Retric 13y ago
You don't need 100% final requirements to start building the system. If nothing else start working though the interfaces with other systems, and try and get as close as possible to a working prototype. Granted funding is often an issue, but even a tiny team given a few months head start can get a lot done.
- Plasmoid 13y ago
  On government contracts that's actually a problem. You can't bill for any work you did without 'authorization'. Which means you can't do anything until a finalized spec, signed in triplicate, is physically delivered to you.
  - betterunix 13y ago
    I have wondered for some time now if it is legal to develop tools and libraries that are relevant to an upcoming contract, but which are also general purpose and could be used elsewhere.
    - Plasmoid 13y ago
      Totally legal. You just won't get paid for it.
- lymie 13y ago
  By airboat on a thumbdrive that gives you the PO box where you can retrieve the encrypted CD with password to website (the password is "cat" and its already in a hidden field if you view source) that tells you how to call their IT department in Bangladesh who will give you unclear and contradictory instructions on how to use the RSA dongle who's key changes every 3 seconds and is 47 characters long. (RSA stands for Ron, Stan, and Adam the guys who wrote the "Algorithm" that generates the key. Its actually just 3 strings of random gibberish that rotate. (Adam's cat got on the keyboard and they thought it would be a nifty way to get random numbers)) Even if you managed to type all 47 characters in 3 seconds it wouldn't work because the strings don't match what's on the production servers, only "Staging" which isn't really staging, its dev, and dev is staging.

by sunraa 13y ago

Retric 13y ago

You don't need 100% final requirements to start building the system. If nothing else start working though the interfaces with other systems, and try and get as close as possible to a working prototype. Granted funding is often an issue, but even a tiny team given a few months head start can get a lot done.

Plasmoid 13y ago
On government contracts that's actually a problem. You can't bill for any work you did without 'authorization'. Which means you can't do anything until a finalized spec, signed in triplicate, is physically delivered to you.
- betterunix 13y ago
  I have wondered for some time now if it is legal to develop tools and libraries that are relevant to an upcoming contract, but which are also general purpose and could be used elsewhere.
  - Plasmoid 13y ago
    Totally legal. You just won't get paid for it.
lymie 13y ago
By airboat on a thumbdrive that gives you the PO box where you can retrieve the encrypted CD with password to website (the password is "cat" and its already in a hidden field if you view source) that tells you how to call their IT department in Bangladesh who will give you unclear and contradictory instructions on how to use the RSA dongle who's key changes every 3 seconds and is 47 characters long. (RSA stands for Ron, Stan, and Adam the guys who wrote the "Algorithm" that generates the key. Its actually just 3 strings of random gibberish that rotate. (Adam's cat got on the keyboard and they thought it would be a nifty way to get random numbers)) Even if you managed to type all 47 characters in 3 seconds it wouldn't work because the strings don't match what's on the production servers, only "Staging" which isn't really staging, its dev, and dev is staging.