3 chapters across the catalog
Healthcare.gov Costs, IT Version Control Failures
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified that the Healthcare.gov website cost approximately $118 million. IT insiders report that the contractors, including CGI Federal, failed to use basic version control systems like Git or Subversion. The project is described as "amateur hour," with testing consisting of simple command-line tools rather than robust quality assurance.
Healthcare IT Consultants, Software Versioning Rollbacks
The return of Jeffrey Zients to fix the Healthcare.gov website prompts a discussion on IT project management. The hosts argue that if the contractors used standard software versioning systems, they should be able to roll back the code to a functional state prior to the problematic last-minute change orders.
Federal CIO Role, Healthcare IT and Greater Washington Initiative
The role of the Federal Chief Information Officer is defined as overseeing strategic planning and technology spending for the executive branch. Concerns are raised regarding the push for nationalized medical records and the potential for massive IT budget failures similar to those seen in the United Kingdom. The Greater Washington Initiative is identified as a networking club involving major banks like Wachovia and Bank of America.
