Developing software in a politically charge environment often leads to a pathological gap between actual progress and plan. This must be especially troubling when critics are confuting software development problems, that have plagued the profession for 40 years, with problems with the ACA itself.
The work is being lead by a Canadian company with experience implementing a healthcare website for the Canadian system.1 The article includes hints at the lethal combo of serious requirement creep and inflexible delivery date. What's a development manager to do with a company's reputation riding on the line?
Today the following showed up in an article published by Reuters. (see As Obamacare tech woes mounted, contractor payments soared)
How and why the system failed, and how long it will take to fix, remains unclear. But evidence of a last-minute surge in spending suggests the needs of the project were growing well beyond the initial expectations of the contractor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (emphasis added)
It's a textbook case. I can't help but wonder if anyone on the team was waving "The Mythical Man-Month" in the air in a plea for sanity.
1. Apparently the company missed deadlines on the Canadian project and the contract was cancelled. (see Meet CGI Federal, the company behind the botched launch of HealthCare.gov
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