Healthcare.gov and the Gulf Between Planning and Reality

An anonymous reader writes in with this excerpt from Shirky.com. "The idea that 'failure is not an option' is a fantasy version of how non-engineers should motivate engineers. That sentiment was invented by a screenwriter, riffing on an after-the-fact observation about Apollo 13; no one said it at the time. (If you ever say it, wash your mouth out with soap. If anyone ever says it to you, run.) Even NASA's vaunted moonshot, so often referred to as the best of government innovation, tested with dozens of unmanned missions first, several of which failed outright. Failure is always an option. Engineers work as hard as they do because they understand the risk of failure. And for anything it might have meant in its screenplay version, here that sentiment means the opposite; the unnamed executives were saying 'Addressing the possibility of failure is not an option.' ... Healthcare.gov was unable to complete even a thousand enrollments a day at launch, and for weeks afterwards. As we now know, programmers, stakeholders, and testers all expressed reservations about Healthcare.gov's ability to do what it was supposed to do. Yet no one who understood the problems was able to tell the President. Worse, every senior political figure—every one—who could have bridged the gap between knowledgeable employees and the President decided not to. And so it was that, even on launch day, the President was allowed to make things worse for himself and his signature program by bragging about the already-failing site and inviting people to log in and use something that mostly wouldn't work. Whatever happens to government procurement or hiring (and we should all hope those things get better) a culture that prefers deluding the boss over delivering bad news isn't well equipped to try new things.'"

Comments

Six months from now

[Anonymous Coward]

the worst fears of the GOP will be realized - people will be getting better healthcare at lower cost.
No one will remember the hysterical media and its 24/7 garbage reporting
People will remember the almost unbelievable distortions of "news" sources like S Hannity, which had what amounted to out and out lies about PPACA
u an anti obamacare politician, get ready to duck as a tidal wave of your constitutents march with signs saying, keep the gov't out of my medicare/obamacare
of course, that some person (or a few million people) are living much happier healthier lives will only be a page 3 story

Re:Bipartisanship

[Anonymous Coward]

So you are saying that Republicans' opposition to the ACA law is somehow responsible for the failed website? What is your evidence? Just like when the law was passed, the GOP was completely shut out of the process when it came to implementation. They couldn't offer any amendments, debate any of the issues (other than in the press), or stop any of its funding. Obama had over 3 years and nearly a billion dollars to get the web site ready and he blew it. Other than failing to be his cheering section from the sidelines like the Democrats, nothing the GOP did prevented or caused Obama from falling flat on his face on the field.

Re:guy at the top was in on the ruse too

[GodfatherofSoul]

From the article:

All told, of the 45 items in which CGI had expressed high confidence at the late August meeting in Baltimore, most were still not ready by the time consumers were supposed to be able to start to buy health plans online through the federal marketplace

And, do you really think a President who spent 4 years convincing people he's actually American is going to blow off a major website snafu and hope to ride his middling approval rates through it all? The thought that this is another conspiracy and that you'd equate it to Watergate is ludicrous.

What about the past 5 years would make you think Obama could have a high profile failure and expect to be forgiven? That is utter nonsense.