Marine Corps General Lewis William Walt had a reputation of
relieving/replacing commanders on the spot.
President Truman said, “The buck stops here.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
said, “I’m responsible.”
The calls for “heads to roll” because of the disastrous
Obamacare rollout may have a great basis in politics but they have no basis in “systems
development”, systems integration project management, or government acquisition
policies.
I was aghast when I heard that the system implementation
success rate was only 60% (or was it 40%).
Had I known you could keep your job if you failed, I may have become a
successful project manager.
We assist system integrators by requiring them to have small
and small disadvantaged business plans. The
interesting work for some of us is farmed out to subcontractors. We think of such wonderful criteria as past
performance cannot be a selection criterion.
During my working years, “mission critical” and then
“embedded systems” were given special consideration because “failure was not an
option.”
Support for Obamacare should not be considered in the same
category with military and naval mission critical systems. If we have time to sue over the incident, the
situation is not that critical. Also,
insuring success is extremely costly.
I joined the Marine Corps Operations Analysis Group in
August, 1968, and became the group’s amphibious doctrine expert (“stuckee”,
would be more descriptive.) For a high
risk cannot fail operation like an amphibious landing, it is necessary to
practice the landing. There is no LFM-01
and/or NWP 22B/C for the Affordable Care rollout.
In previous acquisitions, women and foreigners have been
more concerned about receiving some of the money than they were about subsequent
contract performance.
Two Marine Corps generals were dismissed recently for
failures related to Afghanistan – a place where the Marines should never have
gone and the military should have left long ago. It seems that the touchy feely days of the
Postmodern Era have given way to a return to Reality and/or Common Sense. People are being held responsible for their
performance or lack thereof.
Republicans should be aware that each “fix” costs money. The verification check for income is an additional
functionality and cost of the system. If
these costs are recovered, it will not be until in the “long term” when,
according to John Maynard Keynes, we are all dead.
If we agree that it is a legitimate role of the Government,
then we really probably do want the “Best Value” in the acquisition
process. Isn’t the competent provider
that agrees to provide the product or service to the Government for the lowest
expected cost our “best value?”
President Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that he has no
real world military command and control expertise. David R. Gergen of Harvard and CNN and the
Washington Post’s Bob Woodward of Watergte fame have both commented on this.
On October 18, 2013, on CNN, President Obama declared that
the glitches in the rollout (of Obamacare) are “unacceptable.” President Obama and I know what “responsible
party” means when BP dumps oil into the gulf.
Do we share an understanding of “unacceptable?” I fear it’s like Mandatory Disclosure List
(MDL) in Florida. MIL-STD-188C was
Mandatory throughout the world where US Military operated. The spelling is the same.
Throughout my life the Democrat Party has transitioned from
advocating “compromise” to just say, “No compromise on Obamacare.” People seem more concerned about the Role of
Government than the Role of the Taxpayer.
Citizens should not be forced to violate their consciences. We have recognized “conscientious objectors”
in the armed forces. Shouldn’t we make
the same concessions to Taxpayers (in funding undeclared war) and organizations
in implementing Obamacare?
