Sunday, November 03, 2013

I simply note that the government does not build the computers they use. They may set specifications (in some instances) and they run acceptance testing – they may even have contracts that penalize failure. What they don't do is translate any management techniques that work to other programs.
Healthcare.gov and the Inevitably Digital Future of American Governance
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on November 2, 2013
“It’s safe to say that Congress has never before passed a federal law whose primary mode of delivery is a web portal that will be used by tens of millions of people. And not just one portal, but a portal that serves as a gateway to numerous state healthcare exchanges along with the federal exchanges; a portal that must link up newly designed web pages and interfaces with legacy systems stretching from the Internal Revenue Service to the Veterans Administration to the Medicare and Medicaid systems, none of which are easily compatible or speak the same language. Many in the tech community have tried to analyze what went wrong with the web launch. Some think the government shouldn’t have hired low-bid contractors, choosing agile development teams instead. There was also a lack of sufficient testing of the site before launch, but the site went live anyway because of political considerations. That the site’s code is not public has limited the ability of even savvy tech-heads to fully explain the many problems. What is evident, however, is how inexperienced the federal government is when it comes to developing complicated technology systems unrelated to the defense department. Testing is certainly a major issue. Whenever a large or small tech company releases a new version of software, it is after months of assiduous testing of bugs and glitches in a beta version. Even then, the more complex the programs, the more problems there are.”

(Related) ...unfortunately.
The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on November 2, 2013
“The experience of airlines should give us pause. It reveals that automation, for all its benefits, can take a toll on the performance and talents of those who rely on it. The implications go well beyond safety. Because automation alters how we act, how we learn, and what we know, it has an ethical dimension. The choices we make, or fail to make, about which tasks we hand off to machines shape our lives and the place we make for ourselves in the world. That has always been true, but in recent years, as the locus of labor-saving technology has shifted from machinery to software, automation has become ever more pervasive, even as its workings have become more hidden from us. Seeking convenience, speed, and efficiency, we rush to off-load work to computers without reflecting on what we might be sacrificing as a result. Doctors use computers to make diagnoses and to perform surgery. Wall Street bankers use them to assemble and trade financial instruments. Architects use them to design buildings. Attorneys use them in document discovery. And it’s not only professional work that’s being computerized. Thanks to smartphones and other small, affordable computers, we depend on software to carry out many of our everyday routines. We launch apps to aid us in shopping, cooking, socializing, even raising our kids. We follow turn-by-turn GPS instructions. We seek advice from recommendation engines on what to watch, read, and listen to. We call on Google, or Siri, to answer our questions and solve our problems. More and more, at work and at leisure, we’re living our lives inside glass cockpits… Whether it’s a pilot on a flight deck, a doctor in an examination room, or an Inuit hunter on an ice floe, knowing demands doing. One of the most remarkable things about us is also one of the easiest to overlook: each time we collide with the real, we deepen our understanding of the world and become more fully a part of it. While we’re wrestling with a difficult task, we may be motivated by an anticipation of the ends of our labor, but it’s the work itself—the means—that makes us who we are. Computer automation severs the ends from the means. It makes getting what we want easier, but it distances us from the work of knowing. As we transform ourselves into creatures of the screen, we face an existential question: Does our essence still lie in what we know, or are we now content to be defined by what we want? If we don’t grapple with that question ourselves, our gadgets will be happy to answer it for us.”

(Related) If only to provide contrast... 25 software engineers, 4 months, and it works.
How Elon Musk Approaches IT at Tesla
Leave it to Elon Musk to buck conventional wisdom. When Tesla Motors Inc. the Silicon Valley-based automaker he founded, needed to improve the backend software that runs its business, he decided not to upgrade the company’s software from SAP AG. Instead, he told CIO Jay Vijayan to build it himself.
… His team built it in just four months.


For my Ethical Hackers. It's never too early to start planning your hacks!
INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
Vehicle-to-Vehicle Technologies Expected to Offer Safety Benefits, but a Variety of Deployment Challenges Exist


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