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> ... a broken contract award process, and decisions makers who don't understand IT. Those two lines pretty much nail the issue at hand. Not only for IT but fo

> ... a broken contract award process, and decisions makers who don't understand IT. Those two lines pretty much nail the issue at hand. Not only for IT but for other aspects of Governance as well.

Osiris 13y ago
Isn't that pretty much the same problem with military contracts? Non-technical people making requirements and changes during a project? I'm not sure how to solve that problem but it's clearly an issue.
- GVIrish 13y ago
  Big military projects have the additional problem of congressional interference. Congressmen regularly force military acquisitions that the military may not even want or need in order to funnel dollars to their home districts. So it might make more sense to build all of the components of something like the Joint Strike Fighter in the same state, but instead it's spread over something like 40 states to ensure the project's survival. And for whatever reason, the military seems to have a very short memory when it comes to major weapon system procurement failures. "Hmm, the V-22 went over budget, killed a good number of people, has higher maintenance needs and operating costs than we anticipated because of the USMC's requirements. I know, why don't we tie the entire future of our combat airpower to the JSF and hamstring that project with the needs of the USMC..." Long story short, the space constraints of operating from an amphibious carrier forced design compromises on the V-22 that significantly worsened that program. Now with the JSF, the same thing is happening with the VSTOL variant that the USMC wants.
  - hga 13y ago
    Read up on the '60s Robert Strange McNamara TFX debacle if you want to understand a lot about the F-35/JSF now and likely in the future, minus it also trying to do air superiority (we learned that lesson, although we didn't procure enough F-22s). The Strategy of Technology by Pournelle et. al. is a great source: http://jerrypournelle.com/slowchange/Strat.html http://jerrypournelle.com/slowchange/Strat.html

> ... a broken contract award process, and decisions makers who don't understand IT. Those two lines pretty much nail the issue at hand. Not only for IT but for other aspects of Governance as well.

Osiris 13y ago

Isn't that pretty much the same problem with military contracts? Non-technical people making requirements and changes during a project? I'm not sure how to solve that problem but it's clearly an issue.

GVIrish 13y ago
Big military projects have the additional problem of congressional interference. Congressmen regularly force military acquisitions that the military may not even want or need in order to funnel dollars to their home districts. So it might make more sense to build all of the components of something like the Joint Strike Fighter in the same state, but instead it's spread over something like 40 states to ensure the project's survival. And for whatever reason, the military seems to have a very short memory when it comes to major weapon system procurement failures. "Hmm, the V-22 went over budget, killed a good number of people, has higher maintenance needs and operating costs than we anticipated because of the USMC's requirements. I know, why don't we tie the entire future of our combat airpower to the JSF and hamstring that project with the needs of the USMC..." Long story short, the space constraints of operating from an amphibious carrier forced design compromises on the V-22 that significantly worsened that program. Now with the JSF, the same thing is happening with the VSTOL variant that the USMC wants.
- hga 13y ago
  Read up on the '60s Robert Strange McNamara TFX debacle if you want to understand a lot about the F-35/JSF now and likely in the future, minus it also trying to do air superiority (we learned that lesson, although we didn't procure enough F-22s). The Strategy of Technology by Pournelle et. al. is a great source: http://jerrypournelle.com/slowchange/Strat.html http://jerrypournelle.com/slowchange/Strat.html