And Healthcare.gov becomes a clusterfuck.

[maxomai]

One of Obamacare's biggest cheerleaders is pissed off, because Healthcare.gov is a complete clusterfuck this morning.

Dear government developers, at all levels: this is why you talk to your private sector colleagues. There are ways to load test your applications with artificial data, and with live data through beta testing. You're just too lazy to find them before the shit hits the fan, because you mistake your tenure for an excuse to be lazy as opposed to an opportunity to take risks. Hopefully this morning is a counterexample.

Comments

[fengi.livejournal.com]

"this is why you talk to your private sector colleagues" You mean like LiveJournal?

I have yet to encounter a significant site tweak which didn't have some element which crashed or confused users. The introduction of an entirely new system and site which incorporates diverse databases from multiple sources - including legal requirements which differ from state to state - is going to be buggy on the first day.

Any time a task involves multiple systems or programs, there are issues even within a single company. Recently Verizon updated its corporate customer service site and screwed up every equipment order for a week plus because the underlying databases barely integrated before the update.

I've dealt with the institutions involved via the AMA and the University of Chicago Press. Even processing a text doc or image file revealed how many conflicts and issues arise with large public/private institutions that work with years of data collected through changing programs and platforms.

Ventra - the new private company handling the CTA cards, is struggling with a basic task of getting cards to current Chicago Card Plus users, even though these are the most valuable customers and the CTA had a smoothly running system in place. Because such events expose all the jury rigged aspects and workarounds, often close or after the project is active.

[arkham4269.livejournal.com]

I like how the GOP can oversee a cluster-fuck of mammoth proportions (i.e. Operations Iraqi Freedom) and yet get gleeful over a bad IT project as if this proves how incompetent government is.