100%!!!
Posted on 10/25/2013 3:43:13 PM PDT by Ramius
One in six IT projects face out of control costs, and bring much disruption, making them 'black swans'
WASHINGTON - Despite partisan sniping over the Affordable Care Act, members of a U.S. House committee probing the problems at Healthcare.gov Thursday asked some tough, IT-specific questions that revealed some key facts.
Two members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, U.S. Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), were especially focused on the testing process for the ACA website that's had problems since its launch on Oct. 1.
It turns out that project's 55 contractors had only two weeks to conduct end-to-end testing of Healthcare.gov prior to launch.
"What's the recommended industry standard for end-to-end testing," asked Walden.
"Months would be nice," said Andrew Slavitt, executive vice president of Optum, one of the contractors that built the site. Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI Federal and a witness, perhaps the largest contractor on the project, agreed with Slavitt.
The contractors for the site all said they performed their part of the project as required while making it clear that they weren't responsible for the overall outcome of Healthcare.gov.
None could say, with any certainty, when the website will perform as designed. There was no one from the federal government to explain the project's IT decision-making, though federal officials are expected to testify as early as next week.
The problems at Healthcare.gov may qualify as a black swan event, something that's difficult to predict and is disruptive. A black swan event in Mother Nature might include a solar geomagnetic storm that knocks out sensitive electronics and power grids. In IT, a black swan event is a project with out-of-control costs, and consequences so severe that it may cause a company to fail.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Larry David killed one when he was Golfing on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Must have been the beginning for his love of Obama.
I would love to see the gantt chart for this project. Whoever was responsible for managing this fiasco had to be aware that there was no way in he** that this would fly.
I loved Sebelius’s comment that she had ‘Hoped’ that the rollout would be successful.
Rule #1 in IT: If you are ‘Hoping’ that a software rollout will be successful, then you are already screwed.
Black swan? Das racess ain’t it?
Heh. One ping. Spasibo.
100%!!!
Black FAG is more like it... 
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 12:03:49 PM · 46 of 46
jpsb to PA-RIVER
I was thinking something very similar. Auto insurance, fill out a form and then check your email. Insurer that what your business will respond to the email address you left. Simple and effective. Now, the back end that allows insures to check you eligibility would still have to be built, but that would not be to difficult to build. I could bring in such a system for way less the 640 million. lol.
I spent six very hard weeks telling the president of my (start up) company "No way" when she showed me the gantt chart of the project she wanted to build. We had a two hour meeting every day and she pounded me without mercy trying to get me to agree to build the monstrosity she wanted to build. Two hours every day, "No, No, No". Finally she gave up and said OK fine, do it your way. We were in production a year later with a very nice object management/configuration management system that is still in use today. Sadly maintenance was outsourced to India so it likely the project it on it's last legs. But we had a good 25 year run. Some times you just have to say No.
I took a personal hit, and she never really liked after that, but when something really needed to get done and no one else could figure out how to do it, she always turned to me. Lol, but as soon as I figured out a solution she gave the project to someone else. WTF!
If gov is reading this and interested in my services I am available. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.