Heads Should Roll?

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?