Contractors See Weeks of Work on Health Site

[B2G]

This is not good.

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October 20, 2013
Contractors See Weeks of Work on Health SiteBy SHARON LaFRANIERE, IAN AUSTEN and ROBERT PEAR

Federal contractors have identified most of the main problems crippling President Obama’s online health insurance marketplace, but the administration has been slow to issue orders for fixing those flaws, and some contractors worry that the system may be weeks away from operating smoothly, people close to the project say.

Administration officials approached the contractors last week to see if they could perform the necessary repairs and reboot the system by Nov. 1. However, that goal struck many contractors as unrealistic, at least for major components of the system. Some specialists working on the project said the online system required such extensive repairs that it might not operate smoothly until after the Dec. 15 deadline for people to sign up for coverage starting in January, although that view is not universally shared.

In interviews, experts said the technological problems of the site went far beyond the roadblocks to creating accounts that continue to prevent legions of users from even registering. Indeed, several said, the login problems, though vexing to consumers, may be the easiest to solve. One specialist said that as many as five million lines of software code may need to be rewritten before the Web site runs properly.

“The account creation and registration problems are masking the problems that will happen later,” said one person involved in the repair effort.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/us/insurance-site-seen-needing-weeks-to-fix.html?pagewanted=1&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1382360696-C9lu3hmVQ/FhR9e%20dVRCUQ&_r=0

[My Pet Goat]

1. Revising Five MILLION (?) Lines of Code

One specialist said that as many as five million lines of software code may need to be rewritten before the Web site runs properly.

Yeah, this seems like someone trying to get a fatter contract or grinding a political axe. How is the need to revise 5 million lines of code even possible? Has there ever been any program in the history of the work that required revising 5 million lines of code after roll-out? I wish the NY Times had pressed for further explanation of this startling claim or at least expressed some skepticism.

[B2G]

3. There are 500 million lines in total

according to the article. That's 1 percent.

[My Pet Goat]

4. 500 Million Lines of Total Code Doesn't Seem Right Either...

I wonder is the 50 Mil and 500 Mil specialist are one and the same?

From the article:

According to one specialist, the Web site contains about 500 million lines of software code.

I have more experience on the data communications side of IT, but I've never heard of a web/database project requiring 500 million lines of code unless they're referring to low-level machine code (that would be misleading and even there I doubt the total would be 500 million).

By code I mean unique lines of code and not off-the-shelf objects or methods that are instanced over and over.

I wonder how the unnamed specialist estimated his numbers?

From the article:

By comparison, a large bank’s computer system is typically about one-fifth that size.

I hope this isn't how the figure is estimated, you don't just count all lines of code being run at a data center (e.g., operating system, http servers, database servers etc.). That's not the same as the specific web/database application.

[NoOneMan]

5. Yeah, thats crazy in terms of size

Especially for web applications. I think that it highlights the incompentence of the contractors.

I've always been taught to produce simple, elegant code, which has the same behavior with the minimal amounts of code. Of course, I can't look at this to make a judgement, but in no way could I fathom how this could be the case (unless they are just duplicating altered classes instead of extending them and multiplying that by 50 for each state)

[B2G]

6. I'm sure that includes all of the backend interfaces

Many of which are having problems as well. But the extent won't be known until the front end is working properly.

[ladjf]

2. Just get good programmers and do whatever it takes to get it running smoothly. nt

[Marr]

7. How much of it was outsourced to India, I wonder.

I've had to coordinate on site development with enough Indian firms that I immediately wonder if something was built in India when it doesn't function. Every firm I've worked with over there has been sloppy and full of real incompetents.

[B2G]

9. A lot, I'll bet.

My experience is the same as yours.

[Zorra]

8. Is it possible for them to identify the specific individuals who deliberately sabotaged the system?

Maybe we can get some of them to sing about who paid them to do it, unless they did it out of their own personal hatred for Obama and government subsidized healthcare.

[B2G]

10. This is not about sabotage

It's about faulty desing, constantly changing requirements, a late development start, a design change at the last minute, and a severe lack of testing...all in order to meet an non-negotiable implementation date.

A perfect IT storm waiting happen. Crying 'sabotage' just makes you look incredibly ignorant.