Home > Articles > Software Development & Management > Management: Lifecycle, Project, Team

Lessons in Software Project Management from Healthcare.gov

Ron Lichty and Mickey Mantle talk about how the orchestrators of Healthcare.gov clearly ignored the many of the rules of thumb for software development that are important for those of us tasked with such responsibility.
Like this article? We recommend

As the woes to the roll out of the “Obamacare” Affordable Care Act (ACA) website continue to unfold, it becomes clear that those tasked with responsibility for this initiative don’t really understand software or programmers.  If they did, then they would not have managed or be continuing to manage the roll out the way they appear to be.  They clearly have never heard, or have ignored, many of the rules of thumb for software development that are important for those of us tasked with such responsibility to know. 

In our book Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams we collected over 300 such rules of thumb, some of which seem obviously applicable to this software debacle.

For example, in spite of the promise that the ACA website will be rolled out fully functional by the end of November, this rule of thumb known to anyone practiced in the art of software development may yet prove true:

Brook’s Law:  “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”
             -Fredrick Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month

This undoubtedly applies to adding “experts” too.  Also, did anyone else wonder why they didn’t consult these “experts” earlier in the project?

Other rules of thumb from the book that seem broadly applicable to the ACA project include:

“For every 10-percent increase in problem complexity, there is a 100-percent increase in the software solution’s complexity. That’s not a condition to try to change (even though reducing complexity is always desirable); that’s just the way it is.”
              -Robert L. Glass, “Frequently Forgotten Fundamental Facts about Software Engineering.”

There were over 55 different teams working on this project at a reported cost of hundreds of millions of dollars billed by federal contractors, plus unaccounted costs for the government workers. To read the reports, they have to connect to every insurance company, access every insurance policy, and connect to every state system and a whole lot of municipal systems (every one of which is wired differently, of course). Just a bit of complexity…

 “Requirements engineering is primarily a communication activity, and it takes surprisingly little geographic separation to impede effective communication.
              -Karl E Wiegers, Principal Consultant, Process Impact

More than 55 different teams, disparate locations. 

 “Large teams (29 people) create around six times as many defects as small teams (3 people) and obviously burn through a lot more money.”
              -Phillip Armour

Over 55 different teams, many of them very large teams. No wonder it didn’t work. 

“In practice, [Fred] Brooks found, nearly all software projects require only one-sixth of their time for the writing of code and fully half their schedule for testing and fixing bugs.”
              -Scott Rosenberg, in his book, Dreaming in Code

Brooks himself wrote, “My rule of thumb is 1⁄3 of the schedule for design, 1⁄6 for coding, 1⁄4 for component testing, and 1⁄4 for system testing.”  From reports on the project management of ACA, this project was given a fraction of that QA.

 “Never trade a bad date for an equally bad date.”
              -Jim McCarthy

Let’s see what happens when the end of November rolls around.

“When you want a project in the worst way, that is often how you get it.”
              -Watts Humphrey

Case in point…

These are only a few of the rules of thumb that seem to apply to the ACA project.  From the outside, it seems a classic case of a date driven project.  Even when it’s the President or Congress that says “this must be ready by October 1st”, they can mandate that it will be delivered, but they can’t mandate that it will work. 

For something so complex, best software development practices appear to have been thrown out the window.  There was no comprehensive beta test. No more than cursory user testing could have been performed.  And perhaps the smoking gun most revealing of the ineptness of this project’s management was that reportedly there was NOT a comprehensive security audit completed before the initial roll-out on October 1st with the lame excuse given that “security testing is never complete and is an on-going process”.

The simple lesson from the ACA project is you cannot legislate or dictate good software.

As Donald Knuth, one of the true gurus of software development, said years and years ago,

“Software is hard.”

All of these “Rules of Thumb and Nuggets of Wisdom" come from the section titled "Managing Teams to Successfully Deliver,” which begins on page 203 of our book Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams.  There are many more Rules of Thumb in the book and in that section that provide excellent guidance for anyone managing programmers and the managers of the ACA project(s) in particular, if only they would read and understand them.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020