California: CalPERS rolling out new computer system late and at higher cost ($507mn)

LAT ^ | 09/17/11 | Marc Lifsher

[TigerLikesRooster]

CalPERS rolling out new computer system late and at higher cost

California Public Employees' Retirement System officials hope the complex $507-million project for tracking data of 1.6 million members will work as planned, though they expect start-up problems.

Reporting from Sacramento — At nearly twice the estimated cost and a year late, a new computer system for the state's giant public pension fund is scheduled to go live Monday, tracking the contributions, healthcare coverage and retirement benefits for 1.6 million members.

Officials at the California Public Employees' Retirement System hope the complex $507-million project, dubbed My CalPERS, will work as planned, though they expect start-up problems with software.

"It won't be perfect on Day 1, but we do have a solid plan for continued improvement," Karen Ruiz, the fund's project manager, told the CalPERS board last week.

The effort turned more complicated than anticipated as computer engineers had to find a seamless way to combine the information and the functions of 49 unrelated older computer systems into a single network that could accommodate CalPERS staff, government agencies and CalPERS members, using a self-help feature. That led to the delay and cost overruns of $228 million, CalPERS said.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[palmer]

The effort turned more complicated than anticipated as computer engineers had to find a seamless way to combine the information and the functions of 49 unrelated older computer systems into a single...

As usual, blame the "computer engineers". As a sort of one of those, I could probably get most data from 49 systems in a few weeks, but I would have to leave out some. I could get a lot of useful functions done in a few months, but would take a lot longer if required to do stupid or pointless ones. The more staff I was given, the longer and more expensive it would be, particular if I had government reviewing and approving requirements. Given enough system engineers overdesigning and government stupidity I could easily see spending 1/2 billion.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Programming for stupid people is indeed something.

[updatedscreenname]

The system was so expensive because of the several sets of accounting required and the built in future features to switch from dollars to vouchers and eventually to payment in toilet paper.

[CodeToad]

I’d bet dollar to donuts that the entire Project Management team did not consist of a single qualified eningeer, that each had such “credentials” as a Project Management Professional (PMP) 12 week-wonder certification combined with BA or business degrees, and that the entire project was in chaos from day one, that there was no adult supervision of the project and everyone was playing politics.