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This was never a technology problem -- it was a business problem. Extremely complicated industry dealing with legacy infrastructure, data, and processes with sp

by chaz 13y ago

This was never a technology problem -- it was a business problem. Extremely complicated industry dealing with legacy infrastructure, data, and processes with sprawling, out of control requirements. As context, take a look at Alabama's RFP for their health exchange. [1] It's 286 pages long. A version of it was issued just a month earlier. And this is just the RFP -- I assume the product spec was longer, much more detailed, with changes issued right into summer 2013 or later. [1] http://www.aldoi.gov/PDF/Consumers/FINAL-Alabama-HIX-RFP-v47_acceptedchange.pdf http://www.aldoi.gov/PDF/Consumers/FINAL-Alabama-HIX-RFP-v47...

malandrew 13y ago
I simply don't know why we don't handle this like we do tech startups. Start a small $15 million dollar fund with $1 million for each startup and a project whose scope is a very small starting point for the long term project. Give all 15 startups 6 months to a 1 year to develop the first version. Whittle it down to like 3-4 startups and grow the scope for the second round of funding. Give each like $3-4 million. Whittle it down to two or so startups. Anything is better than this big design up front with a million must have requirements. I also don't understand why every state has their own portal. There should be maybe at most half a dozen different teams/designs/systems. We could expand on the startup funding idea by having each state act like a venture capitalist. They hear pitches and invest in the teams and designs that are most promising each round. All code from all participating startups should be some open source license, preferably a Public License, but a BSD-style would work too. This allows the creation of an ecosystem where all are allowed to borrow from one another.
- rmc 13y ago
  > a project whose scope is a very small starting point I can see the headlines and complaints now. People will complain that you're forgetting about $EDGE_CASE, like pensioners who worked abroa/new unmarried mothers/mothers who divorced recently/young children with $RARE_DISABILITY/etc./etc. No matter what you do, so photographic sympathy story will have been "delibrately left behind". No politican wants to sign off on that. You can't win.
- MetaCosm 13y ago
  Some people are working on it, but startups are DOA for government work because they can't survive the absolutely grueling proposal process. It isn't about the tech at all, it is about getting the contracts. To pick those 15 companies, you would still need a proposal system, a validation system, an auditing system. Because the scope would be small and doable, and 15 independent contracts going out -- tens of thousands would flood in with proposals. Now you created a brand new problem, now you can't even START the contract, because picking winners has become to onerous. The reason government gets so bogged down is an attempt at fairness and legal constraints in how they work -- the problems are actually really complex, even for stuff that seems simple on the surface.

by chaz 13y ago

malandrew 13y ago

I simply don't know why we don't handle this like we do tech startups. Start a small $15 million dollar fund with $1 million for each startup and a project whose scope is a very small starting point for the long term project. Give all 15 startups 6 months to a 1 year to develop the first version. Whittle it down to like 3-4 startups and grow the scope for the second round of funding. Give each like $3-4 million. Whittle it down to two or so startups. Anything is better than this big design up front with a million must have requirements. I also don't understand why every state has their own portal. There should be maybe at most half a dozen different teams/designs/systems. We could expand on the startup funding idea by having each state act like a venture capitalist. They hear pitches and invest in the teams and designs that are most promising each round. All code from all participating startups should be some open source license, preferably a Public License, but a BSD-style would work too. This allows the creation of an ecosystem where all are allowed to borrow from one another.

rmc 13y ago
> a project whose scope is a very small starting point I can see the headlines and complaints now. People will complain that you're forgetting about $EDGE_CASE, like pensioners who worked abroa/new unmarried mothers/mothers who divorced recently/young children with $RARE_DISABILITY/etc./etc. No matter what you do, so photographic sympathy story will have been "delibrately left behind". No politican wants to sign off on that. You can't win.
MetaCosm 13y ago
Some people are working on it, but startups are DOA for government work because they can't survive the absolutely grueling proposal process. It isn't about the tech at all, it is about getting the contracts. To pick those 15 companies, you would still need a proposal system, a validation system, an auditing system. Because the scope would be small and doable, and 15 independent contracts going out -- tens of thousands would flood in with proposals. Now you created a brand new problem, now you can't even START the contract, because picking winners has become to onerous. The reason government gets so bogged down is an attempt at fairness and legal constraints in how they work -- the problems are actually really complex, even for stuff that seems simple on the surface.