When the Best of IT Came Out of the Worst of IT
Healthcare.gov—one of the worst large-scale IT implementations in recent memory. It was so bad I wrote a lengthy article on the debacle late last year. (And I generally don’t pile on like that.) But fair is fair. Now that Healthcare.gov is working just fine, let’s take a moment to point out the heroes who turned the platform around.
Who Fixed Healthcare.gov?
Behind the scenes, a crack-team of IT professionals identified and corrected the original implementation’s errors and saved the day. They worked silently—the White House never acknowledged the work they were doing or even the fact such a “trauma team” existed in the first place.
They worked, almost to a man, for free.
The team leaders accepted a fractional payment of their normal salaries, and everyone else volunteered their time.
They worked tirelessly.
Many worked around the clock, without the chance to duck out to take even a 20 mile commute to Baltimore to see their families. The team leaders flew out of California and arrived in the capitol expecting to consult for a few days, but ended up staying on the East Coast for the months it took to get the job done.
Sounds like a nightmare, right? But at the end of the day no one grumbled. Many called fixing Healthcare.gov the most rewarding work they ever completed.
Net, net: as much as Healthcare.gov’s faulty implementation demonstrated just how bad an IT implementation could go, the team who salvaged the project demonstrated the best that IT had to offer.
So hats off to Gabriel Burt, Mikey Dickerson, Paul Smith, Mike Abbott, Marty Abbott, Andy Slavitt, Jini Kim, Jeff Zients, and the people working for them. (Which, by the way, included members of the original implementation team who were happy to be able to fix their original blunder now that competent management gave them the opportunity to do so.)
For the full story, check out this excellent Time piece.
