A strange time to be a software engineer...

I'm pretty sure I would agree if I knew more about the job and subject. Any idea why congress is taking such testimony?

Could you give me a place to look this stuff up so I would have some idea of what the hell your talking about?

Most likely looking for fraud. $650 million for software that doesn't work. Someone mucked up bad.

An example of the crappy coding can be found here: https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/global/en_US/registration.js

Yes.

They royally screwed up a big software project. This isn't the first time a large software project has run into big problems after it has been released... but they really should have gotten this one right. You really should do end-to-end testing, run at scale, before a big public release.

All us engineers know this, but given time constraints it is surprising how many times corners are cut.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/obamacare-website-testify-congress-live

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Lawmakers-Updated-on-Health-Law-Implementation/10737442257-1/

Thanks to both of you.

Time constraints? They had 3 years.

Have you ever been part of a large failed software rollout, McGentrix? If you had then you would understand.

I am not here to defend it, I am just saying that most experienced software engineers have been there.

heh, no. But I have been project manager of many successful software rollouts. Does that count? Does that allow me to understand?

Damn Butterfly. Now I'll have to do a bunch of reading. I thought just a one or two word explanation would be adequate.

I work for a startup-ish company. 3 years ago it was just an idea, and it is mostly software. We use pre-manufactured hardware (we didn't invent the hardware only the software). I understand problems with a new roll out, but this level of failure? If my company had that many issues upon first release of the OS, we would have been out of business. You can't have a less then 10% success rate with your program and then pass the buck.

This morning sounded a lot like a pass the buck session.

Me to.

I got about 5 min of the republicans on c span blaming Obama for the screw up and than it quit downloading. I guess all government is having problems with computer glitches even the omnipotent republicans.

In the United Kingdom, where I come from, there is a dismal history of failed government IT contracts, some of them costing amounts like 100 million pounds before they had to pull the plug.

I am a bit surprised at the responses. There are plenty of big software project launches that have failed from Windows 8 to the Mars Climate orbiter.

I am not trying to make a political statement or excuse anyone.

I am just pointing out that since upwards of 40% of software projects fail, and there are many examples of spectacularly bad software rollouts, many of us in the industry for any time have experience with this.

I have been on both successful teams and failed teams. That is why the congressional testimony made me chuckle a little.

If everyone else here has had the good fortune of only working on spectacularly successful projects, then I am happy for that.

I did find it odd, that the CEO lady when asked if they told the govt, that the product wasn't ready, she replied with "Well we didn't say anything, because it wasn't our call to make."

I almost cried out loud. What do you mean it wasn't your call to make? It was indeed your job to tell the govt, that it wasn't ready. Your company was writing the code, you should have said something! 3 years and millions of dollars, and you didn't think it was important to let the customer know that the product wasn't ready yet? How does that work?

The Guardian link I posted gives summaries of the testimony.

K.-----

I didn't find that surprising at all. That is the way the contract business works.

If a company is contracted to provide a specific set of functionality, their focus is to provide that specific set of functionality. If their requirements are met, then they have fulfilled their contract. It would odd for them to worry about integration (beyond what is part of their contract). The company tasked with, and paid for, doing integration tests is responsible for doing the integration tests.

That is normal in the software business.

(I just re-read my response and realized how odd it is that I give more blame to the Obama administration than Baldimo does, but I stand by my opinion).