..."Obama the worst headlines of his presidency in 2013, but at year’s end a range of management experts interviewed by POLITICO said a central question tended to get lost in the partisan firefight: To what extent do Obamacare’s early problems reflect the limitations, in experience and intellectual interest, of its namesake?
The heart of the issue, many of these people say, is that Obama and his inner circle had scant executive experience prior to arriving in the West Wing, and dim appreciation of the myriad ways the federal bureaucracy can frustrate an ambitious president. And above all, they had little apparent interest in the kind of organizational and motivational concepts that typically are the preoccupation of the most celebrated modern managers.
“No one asked you to write code or be a technical expert, but the expectation is you can set up a process,” said Kellogg School of Management professor Daniel Diermeier. “Companies do it every day.”...
And this extends down. Even Karen Sebelius, former governor, with I assume managerial experience, doesn't know how to set up a project with project managers and deadlines and beta testing? WTF?
It is like we are being goverened by amateurs.
(It is almost like they want ACA to fail.)
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
FredHayek wrote: And this extends down. Even Karen Sebelius, former governor, with I assume managerial experience, doesn't know how to set up a project with project managers and deadlines and beta testing? WTF?
It is like we are being goverened by amateurs.
(It is almost like they want ACA to fail.)
Even someone with management/executive experience is hamstrung by the layers of bureaucracy in a federal agency.
When I was a contractor at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a DOE entity, we couldn't change a line of live computer code without creating 10-12 various planning documents and set up and attend 4-5 meetings with "stakeholders" to verify and confirm that everyone is happy with the change.
Normally a code change would be analyzed by an analyst (or the programmer him/her self if that programmer is a programmer/analyst), the changes would be reviewed by a manager and he/she would decide if the code change was necessary.
Most companies use the Agile Method of application development and maintenance. From the term "agile" you can imagine what this implies. Fast, smart and knowledgeable development not encumbered by layers and layers of top heavy overhead.
But I will agree with the article, Obama has NO executive skills, he voted "present" on most issues while a senator and he seems to refuse to take any advice from someone who is not himself or his frat house staff.
I'm afraid that any president without executive prowess would have had the same problem with the ACA roll out and subsequent problems.
But if the project at least had a real private industry Information Technology expert who was dedicated to the project (and not the politics) at the helm, that person would not have let the website roll out until it was really ready.
And even then there would probably still be problems. This was not a job for a bloated government.
IMO the whole web site exchange idea was flawed by design requirements from the start. There was and is no need for a gov't shopping exchange, ehealth, health sherpa and the insurance cos. already knew how to do that part online. The ACA web site could have been a much simpler means testing site where you get qualified for a tax subsidy coupon and take it with you shopping. Simple.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
