Article

2014-01-22 Government

Oregon could take down its Obamacare website in April

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Posted by badanov 2014-01-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 But state officials admitted last week they didnt know how many have paid their premium.

TRANSLATION: Damn few, if any.

Posted by Besoeker 2014-01-22 02:26|| 2014-01-22 02:26|| Front Page Top

#2 Democratic governor John Kitzhaber, himself a physician, admits he was entirely outside the loop on development of the $160 million website.

Did he ask for a detailed budget for this project? I mean, exactly where did all that money go? I'd like to look at every single line on that budget because I just can't see how they could spend that much on a software development project.

Say you hire 160 programmers, which is a helluva lot of programmers. You could pay them each a million dollars a year with that kind of money. But then, of course, you need computers, offices, infrastructure. How much does it cost to lease an office building, or even buy an office building that could accommodate that many workers with all of their computers? Ten million? Twenty million? Thirty million? Here, check this out...

Rental Rate: $19.50 /SF/Year

So then you're down to 130 workers at $1 million each. That's still an awful lot of programmers and they still couldn't produce a website that works? But then remember that the real cost of a programmer is more likely less that $200,000 a year including benefits and I'm thinking 16 programmers should be able to do the job. How big of a job is it? How complex, how sophisticated is this software? What are the specs? Where are the specs? What was required to make this thing work for a state no bigger than Oregon? I know these are rough estimates. Tell me how far off I am and I bet it's still nowhere near $160 million.

This isn't rocket science. We're not sending a man to the moon. There is no way in hell it could cost that much money.

How much did it cost to buy the Rantburg server? You don't need to answer. I'm thinking $20,000 max. Am I high or low? How many programmers work on it and how much do they get paid? Don't answer. It's a labor of love and I know it was less that $160 million. But it works!

You blew it, governor. What I really want to know is how much the vendor contributed to your election campaign and how much he put directly into your pocket.

Does Oregon have an attorney general? Does Eric Holder have his arm twisted behind his back? If not he should be looking into this, er, that is if the vendor didn't grease him too.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2014-01-22 14:34|| 2014-01-22 14:34|| Front Page Top

#3 Carolyn Lawson, the embattled state technology executive... decided the state could manage the complex exchange project itself, rather than hire a private-sector systems integrator, a decision since criticized by her superiors.

As The Oregonian reported [December 15, 2013], the exchange has been plagued by poor work by Oracle. Miscues by state managers have also figured prominently in the exchange's issues. An August 2012 report from the project's quality assurance contractor found the exchange project was disorganized, lacked basic management and budget controls to ensure contractor performance. The exchange's fate was further endangered by distrust and lack of communication between Lawson's Oregon Health Authority and Cover Oregon, the public corporation that took over responsibility for the exchange's contracts in May 2013.

As recently as [mid December 2013], Lawson defended the choice of Oracle and the decision not to hire a systems integrator. The exchange was built with Oracle software and hardware, so who better than Oracle to manage the process, she said. Lawson worked closely with Oracle when she worked for two California state agencies before her hiring by Oregon.

Tina Edlund, acting OHA director, sent out an email shortly after 2 p.m. [December 19, 2013] announcing Lawson's departure. In an email to her bosses, Lawson said the recent death of her mother-in-law convinced her to make the move. She'd been commuting to Oregon weekly from her home in the Sacramento area.

Posted by Pappy 2014-01-22 15:21|| 2014-01-22 15:21|| Front Page Top

#4 Did somebody say Oracle? They do a lot of good stuff but I think we all know Mr. Ellison can be a bit on the sharp side at times. Maybe Gray Davis could tell us a story or two about Oracle.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2014-01-22 15:32|| 2014-01-22 15:32|| Front Page Top

#5 Isn't Oracle supposed to know something about databases? Also excellent analysis EU. I mean sheeesh..... Hell with that kinda money I would have at least had the worlds largest Rick Roller in place.

Posted by Shipman 2014-01-22 15:34|| 2014-01-22 15:34|| Front Page Top

#6 Cover Oregon was to be the vaunted "national model" for Obama Care; and so it is.

Posted by regular joe 2014-01-22 15:35|| 2014-01-22 15:35|| Front Page Top

#7 Theres a lot more to software engineering than 'a bunch of programmers' especially for a project this size and complex.
It looks here like the management didn't have a clue about what they were doing and actively ignored and suppressed any sort of criticism. I imagine they also made basic changes late in the project causing a lot of re-design and re-work. And of course they didn't even *TEST* it (where have we heard that before?).

Things got so bad that Ying Kwong, a technology analyst working for the state, talked about going to Oregons Department of Justice to block the exchange from going live. How can the state conduct business like this? he asked in an e-mail.

Kwong compared the relentless advance of the exchange website to the monster in the sci-fi movie classic The Blob. The Oregonian reported that Cover Oregon seemingly couldnt be stopped due to its amorphous shape and political momentum. Kwong wrote that you simply dont know how to shoot this beast, because it does not have a known anatomy with the normal vital organs that make it tick.

And it hasn't even been TESTED before opening.

Kwong, the IT specialist, couldnt believe the self-delusion.
"After all, there is no testable software release, no technical environment, and the paper forms are not even ready to go to the printer.

Posted by CrazyFool 2014-01-22 16:14|| 2014-01-22 16:14|| Front Page Top

#8 They didn't follow the usual business model. Usually, the route is to wait until after launch to gut QA. Looks like they gutted QA right after drawing up requirements. Somebody was going to try it at some point.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2014-01-22 16:27|| 2014-01-22 16:27|| Front Page Top

#9 I imagine they also made basic changes late in the project causing a lot of re-design and re-work.

Yes. That's always a killer, especially when the managers don't know the first frickin' thing about what they're doing. Been there. Done that. But that's what I'm asking: How big? How complex? How many lines of code? Where's the spec? And, finally, was anybody watching the budget or did they just get a blank check? If I can ask these questions why couldn't the governor or the legislators? What about the reporters?

And, yes, Oracle has been known to contribute to election campaigns.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2014-01-22 17:08|| 2014-01-22 17:08|| Front Page Top

#10 #6 is my nomination for snark of the day.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2014-01-22 17:15|| 2014-01-22 17:15|| Front Page Top

#11 The website cost 7000 dollars PER APPLICANT..

W T F !

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2014-01-22 17:28|| 2014-01-22 17:28|| Front Page Top

#12 I am just glad it rolled of the assembly line and sunk to the bottom of the ocean like a brick. We don't need socialist medicine.

Microsoft server farms, with either SQL Server or Oracle as the backend database with a .NET web portal written in C# would have worked and is scalable and easily integrates with other platforms used by the government, insurance companies, etc.. Load/Stress testing of both the server farm and network as well as blackbox testing of the web pages would have perfected the system.

BUT the ultimate goal was reached, politicians who couldn't get a job flipping hamburgers got rich while the general public got a sack of you know what in return. Guess who is laughing all the way to the bank.

Posted by Omavising Ebbemp9815 2014-01-22 18:15|| 2014-01-22 18:15|| Front Page Top

#13 It looks here like the management didn't have a clue about what they were doing

Remember the feds held back on particulars in, rightful, fear that if they leaked out before the election, O and the bunch would get hosed in November. A little hard to program something when big (decision tree and options) boxes litter the design up till a couple of months before launch.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-01-22 19:19|| 2014-01-22 19:19|| Front Page Top

22:08 Redneck Jim
21:55 Frank G
20:40 Glarong Sneart4734
20:12 Bright Pebbles
19:59 JosephMendiola
19:48 JosephMendiola
19:39 JosephMendiola
19:23 KBK
19:19 Procopius2k
19:15 Bright Pebbles
18:16 Besoeker
18:16 Pappy
18:15 Omavising Ebbemp9815
18:11 SteveS
18:05 Pappy
17:31 Mugsy Glink
17:28 Bright Pebbles
17:25 Bright Pebbles
17:15 Ebbang Uluque6305
17:08 Ebbang Uluque6305
16:52 Don Vito Matzarrella
16:27 Rex Mundi
16:25 regular joe
16:14 CrazyFool