[SIGCIS-Members] my "take" on Obamacare

[James Cortada]

I had the same practices and same concerns as Ian based on my 38 years at
IBM.  What I will want to see are the GAO audits that inevitably will
appear on the ACA software and on its role out.  Paul, you may see those
before we do; if so, let us know that they have been published.  For those
not familiar with the GAO, it is an audit arm of the US Government that
reports directly to the Congress and has a reputation for finding the
problems with failed projects (not just ICT ones).  GAO interviews
participants, management, and looks at the paper trail on projects and
summarizes its finding in clear English and usually in a 25-25 page report.
 They make boring reading, but the ones on Obamacare will become best
sellers!


On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 12:01 PM, Ian S. King <isking at uw.edu> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 6:09 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP at si.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> I published this brief note on Obamacare as an on-line op-ed for the
>> HIastory News Network. <http://hnn.us/article/153810>. As the late Mike
>> Mahoney used to say, the study of software could benefit from the study of
>> history, but few who practice software engineering are aware of even the
>> fact that there was such a report in 1968.
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>
> Nicely turned, Paul.  I believe the practice to which you refer is what
> I've always called "code review", in which the author explains his code to
> his fellow software engineer, on the principle that if you can't explain it
> you don't really understand it.  :-)  In my years as a test manager at
> Microsoft I promoted this practice, often over the objections of (primarily
> young) developers who felt it was a waste of time and somehow an insult to
> their skill.  Sometimes the feedback for code that worked fine was that it
> wasn't maintainable, another artifact of overly "clever" code written by
> these young cowboys (and girls).
>
> I, too, find the problems of the ACA rollout disturbing.  As I think about
> what is needed in such a system, from the perspective of someone who has
> been responsible for more than one global-scope website, I just can't think
> there's anything new there.  Drawing from multiple data feeds and multiple
> databases, offering a consistent and even compelling user interface,
> protecting user data - been there, done that, got the t-shirt, wore it out.
>  While software engineering is hardly a mature discipline, these are known
> tasks addressing known challenges.
>
> I already have a dissertation topic, or this one could be fascinating.
>  :-)
> --
> Ian S. King, MSCS ('06, Washington)
> Ph.D. Student
> The Information School
> University of Washington
>
> "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."  - Oscar Wilde
>
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list
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-- 
James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
jcortada at umn.edu
608-274-6382
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