Articles on Healthcare.gov software development disaster
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I wrote a couple of articles on the Healthcare.gov software development disaster, and I'm looking for advice on the best way to submit them to CodeProject. I did three months of research, interviewing developers and whistleblowers, and reviewing numerous media reports. I'm not a mainstream journalist, but I was a tech journalist for years, as well as being a senior software engineer. As far as I know, I'm the only journalist who has done such a thorough technical review of what happened. The first article is a journalistic treatment: ** Healthcare.gov -- The greatest software development disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.hcgov150823.htm The second article contains "lessons learned" for managing software development projects, and dealing with project stakeholders who either are incompetent or who actually try to sabotage the project. This article is targeted to managers, researchers, and academics, and contains a lot of technical information that would be useful to both programmers and managers: ** For academics: Dysfunction, subversion, sabotage and fraud in software development projects ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.academic150823.htm The following is my daily World View column, which summarizes the above two articles: ** 23-Aug-15 World View -- Fraud and subversion in Healthcare.gov - the greatest IT disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/xct.gd.e150823.htm#e150823 I would appreciate any advice on the best way to submit these articles to CodeProject. Thanks. John J. Xenakis john@jxenakis.com john@generationaldynamics.com
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I wrote a couple of articles on the Healthcare.gov software development disaster, and I'm looking for advice on the best way to submit them to CodeProject. I did three months of research, interviewing developers and whistleblowers, and reviewing numerous media reports. I'm not a mainstream journalist, but I was a tech journalist for years, as well as being a senior software engineer. As far as I know, I'm the only journalist who has done such a thorough technical review of what happened. The first article is a journalistic treatment: ** Healthcare.gov -- The greatest software development disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.hcgov150823.htm The second article contains "lessons learned" for managing software development projects, and dealing with project stakeholders who either are incompetent or who actually try to sabotage the project. This article is targeted to managers, researchers, and academics, and contains a lot of technical information that would be useful to both programmers and managers: ** For academics: Dysfunction, subversion, sabotage and fraud in software development projects ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.academic150823.htm The following is my daily World View column, which summarizes the above two articles: ** 23-Aug-15 World View -- Fraud and subversion in Healthcare.gov - the greatest IT disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/xct.gd.e150823.htm#e150823 I would appreciate any advice on the best way to submit these articles to CodeProject. Thanks. John J. Xenakis john@jxenakis.com john@generationaldynamics.com
It looks like you've done a lot of good research, but the articles seemed structured more like opinion pieces than technical articles. They are also too long to read in one sitting. I think if you'd like to make a technical article, you should narrow the focus of the document to the technical issues, and then allude to the political problems, fraud, and mismanagement as contributing factors rather than as the main topic themselves. Furthermore, the article should be much shorter. On a side note, the official name for "Obamacare" is the "Affordable Care Act". Generally, you want your first reference a piece of legislation to be its official name rather than its popular nickname.
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I wrote a couple of articles on the Healthcare.gov software development disaster, and I'm looking for advice on the best way to submit them to CodeProject. I did three months of research, interviewing developers and whistleblowers, and reviewing numerous media reports. I'm not a mainstream journalist, but I was a tech journalist for years, as well as being a senior software engineer. As far as I know, I'm the only journalist who has done such a thorough technical review of what happened. The first article is a journalistic treatment: ** Healthcare.gov -- The greatest software development disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.hcgov150823.htm The second article contains "lessons learned" for managing software development projects, and dealing with project stakeholders who either are incompetent or who actually try to sabotage the project. This article is targeted to managers, researchers, and academics, and contains a lot of technical information that would be useful to both programmers and managers: ** For academics: Dysfunction, subversion, sabotage and fraud in software development projects ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.academic150823.htm The following is my daily World View column, which summarizes the above two articles: ** 23-Aug-15 World View -- Fraud and subversion in Healthcare.gov - the greatest IT disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/xct.gd.e150823.htm#e150823 I would appreciate any advice on the best way to submit these articles to CodeProject. Thanks. John J. Xenakis john@jxenakis.com john@generationaldynamics.com
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I am not sure that your articles are relevant here. CodeProject is for technical discussions and articles. What you have written is more about bad management in a government department, probably more relevant to a newspaper or civil service journal.
OK, thanks for your responses. I had thought you covered software development management issues as well. By the way, as you say, the "Affordable Care Act" is the name of a piece of legislation. The word "Obamacare" is more than a popular nickname. It's the name endorsed by Obama himself to describe its implementation. My article is not about a piece of legislation. It's about the implementation, and especially the web site implementation. Thanks again.
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OK, thanks for your responses. I had thought you covered software development management issues as well. By the way, as you say, the "Affordable Care Act" is the name of a piece of legislation. The word "Obamacare" is more than a popular nickname. It's the name endorsed by Obama himself to describe its implementation. My article is not about a piece of legislation. It's about the implementation, and especially the web site implementation. Thanks again.
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I wrote a couple of articles on the Healthcare.gov software development disaster, and I'm looking for advice on the best way to submit them to CodeProject. I did three months of research, interviewing developers and whistleblowers, and reviewing numerous media reports. I'm not a mainstream journalist, but I was a tech journalist for years, as well as being a senior software engineer. As far as I know, I'm the only journalist who has done such a thorough technical review of what happened. The first article is a journalistic treatment: ** Healthcare.gov -- The greatest software development disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.hcgov150823.htm The second article contains "lessons learned" for managing software development projects, and dealing with project stakeholders who either are incompetent or who actually try to sabotage the project. This article is targeted to managers, researchers, and academics, and contains a lot of technical information that would be useful to both programmers and managers: ** For academics: Dysfunction, subversion, sabotage and fraud in software development projects ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.academic150823.htm The following is my daily World View column, which summarizes the above two articles: ** 23-Aug-15 World View -- Fraud and subversion in Healthcare.gov - the greatest IT disaster in history ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/xct.gd.e150823.htm#e150823 I would appreciate any advice on the best way to submit these articles to CodeProject. Thanks. John J. Xenakis john@jxenakis.com john@generationaldynamics.com
Just out of curiosity I checked out one the first of links... And immediately turned back. I'd recommend changing the font. Arial Black isn't designed to be used for text paragraphs. At least for me, it's highly irritating to read, as each word was screaming for attention. I'd also stick to black color for the text.
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Just out of curiosity I checked out one the first of links... And immediately turned back. I'd recommend changing the font. Arial Black isn't designed to be used for text paragraphs. At least for me, it's highly irritating to read, as each word was screaming for attention. I'd also stick to black color for the text.
This is an interesting issue. I chose Arial Black over ten years ago because it's the easiest to read. Most of the people who read my web site are knowledgeable and interested in international and geopolitical issues, which means that they're older, and their eyesight isn't always the best. I know from personal experience that there are many web sites that are absolutely gorgeous to look at but almost impossible to read because of font and color choices. Interestingly enough, in all these years, you're only the second person in all these years to complain about the font. With all the crises going on in the world, I make a point of spending all my time on content, without worrying too much about web site format, since the people who visit my web site every day do so for the analytical content. On the other hand, I'm considering digging back into the code in order to make the pages more mobile-friendly. When I do that, I'll ask some people whether they think that I should change the font and color. Thanks for your suggestion.