I don't think this is a "government low bid" issue as I have seen this occur quite often in the private sector (it's just that the private sector can keep these issues quiet). Poor design and development, inadequate testing and problematic support are far too common. IT is still a very immature industry/discipline (and seems to be getting worse) and management looks upon products/projects like a new version of Office...not realizing the tens/hundreds of thousands (millions?) of hours that went into it. There has to be a fundamental shift in IT with management/business support....but I won't be holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
Daniel Fink -- Daniel Fink Oracle Performance, Diagnosis, Data Recovery and Training OptimalDBA http://www.optimaldba.com Oracle Blog http://optimaldba.blogspot.com Lost Data? http://www.ora600.nl/introduction.htm Andrew Kerber wrote:
Well, before you go and blame the DoD, blame the process that congress stuck them with. Its amazing to me that anything works considering how much of it has to be done by the low bidder. The rule that always gets me is the one that requires them to sit back and wait for bids, instead of going out and shop around for the best price/performance. Its entirely possible in this instance, that someone thought they could save software licensing fees, and instead of going out and looking around and pricing things out to see if that was indeed the case, they had to write it into the contract and have it bid that way, without knowing if it was a good decision to begin with. The DoD is stuck with the rules that congress made for them, and just keeping track of them can be a full time job.On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 3:03 PM, Rick Ricky <ricks12345@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:ricks12345@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:Here is a newer article, but it does not have any money numbers in it. I checked on it. I belive the $600 million + includes the DoD total costs, which include their user acceptance testing, their requirements, and project management, plus they pay many millions of dollars to a third party testing group to test the applications functionality. I think that is where the higher number comes from. http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3486872 here is another old one: http://www.fcw.com/print/12_26/news/95360-1.html -- Andrew W. Kerber 'If at first you dont succeed, dont take up skydiving.' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message.Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.9/1419 - Release Date: 5/7/2008 7:46 AM