Park has been running his part of the massive government agency "like a Silicon Valley company," according to the Atlantic. That approach was particularly relevant in the development of HealthCare.gov, the first government website that provides consumers with a searchable database of public and private health insurance plans available across the U.S. by zip code - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Park
Purely cosmetic move. At that level, that "tech guy" is probably 3-5 levels above any real key decision makers and managers involved in the actual implementation. Blaming this on him is like blaming Sepp Blatter for Barcelona's under-13 team's shortcomings. Having worked on federal software projects not even half this large there's a lot of layers. A lot of buffers.
and btw, "head tech guy"? Really? Is the Washington Post a serious news organization?
Jumping off what is perceived to be a sinking ship like that (by choice) before it was fixed would be career suicide. It is however very understandable that he would be found a job to get him out of the way for someone else to do damage control.
Do you guys have any link where the whole HealthCare.gov disaster is explained? When I first heard of it, I visited the website and saw no problem - actually found it quite nice.
I suspect that the 'private sector' is one of the contracting companies that did the site to begin with. The guy is lobbiest gold since he knows who is and who isn't able to be influenced in the department.
At least the private-contractors are finally facing the consequences, in the beginning the outrage would have let you to believe that it was the President himself who was the one programming away the exchanges!
Sacrificial lamb. Executing this SNAFU required layers upon layers of incompetent and unmotivated people completely detatched from the consequences of their lack of performance. Since this describes a vast majority of the people who work for government it is easy to imagine a one million dollar website turning into a six hundred million dollar website that does not work. In any other universe people would have been fired by the hundreds and some even brought up on charges. Not in government.
Until we have a system that makes them all fully accountable for their actions this will not change. Many of you are just waking up to the horrible reality that this is how nearly everything is done in government. Just. Like . This.
It's easy to blame one guy, but I'm sure his task was next to impossible.
It's not just some independent website where you have full control of your creation. It had to interact with a dozen of other systems, and I'm sure a bunch of APIs were created just for that, and I'm sure bugs in just some of them could render the whole system nonfunctioning.
And yes, maybe it is this guy's fault. We don't really know.
But, but, his credentials on LinkedIn for running a huge IT project are impeccable! He once was a program manager of satellite stuff in the 1980s!! He even got a degree in Business and Finance from Loyola. Clearly the man could have started Google.
1984 to 1988:
"Held several increasingly responsible project/program management positions for implementing large satellite telecommunications projects for Fortune 500 companies. Responsibilities included program and project administration,logistics management, financial management, and quality assurance for GTE Spacenet projects."
1988-1999:
"Held a variety of increasing responsible IT policy positions. Established the Office of Electronic Commerce which had governmentwide responsibilities for developing policies, coordinating initiatives, and monitoring Federal electronic commerce. Also co-chaired with DoD the Federal Electronic Commerce Program Office. "
1999-2005:
"As the Deputy AC, oversaw the development and implementation of all public (beneficiary) Internet applications (from a business and operations perspective) including the website business planning and development, identity management solutions, and analysis of website and on-line application use trends"
Wow. A real Nikola fucking Tesla this guy is. This is the kind of shit that turns people into Republicans. There is literally nothing in this guy's resume that would suggest he should be a CIO handling a $2 billion budget.
This guy is a typical management idiot. He has no qualifications except "leading" (not specified any further, of course), and making decisions about other people's money. While it's hard finding disastrous decisions in his CV, I'm not seeing anything that suggests he did more than show up.
As for leading, he has zero qualifications in either healthcare or IT.
I see this at a lot of companies, and someone really should explain it here, where I can ask the question anonymously : how the fuck do these guys get their positions ? Suppose I came in for a job interview about programming cars. First thing I say is that I have zero knowledge about either programming or cars. But I've got "executive awards" and I managed a few people in a completely unremarkable company in a project no-one's ever heard of, or ever will hear off, they were that important.
Would you hire me ? I hope not. Why the fuck did this guy get hired ?
I can't even fault the guy himself. Of course he's not the right person to lead anything, but he's responding to incentives put in place by the US government, and by companies more generally. Given what he gets paid, of course he's doing whatever his superiors want him to do, without question, and without taking reality into account. Of course he's extremely motivated to lie to everybody to keep that job for just a few more months. The guy who hired him to make responsible decisions about IT, or healthcare, that's the guy that needs firing.
Really, I'd love to understand. What, assuming it isn't flat-out corruption or nepotism, motivates someone to hire people like this into important positions they flat-out know nothing about ?
[+] [-] chintan|12 years ago|reply
Park has been running his part of the massive government agency "like a Silicon Valley company," according to the Atlantic. That approach was particularly relevant in the development of HealthCare.gov, the first government website that provides consumers with a searchable database of public and private health insurance plans available across the U.S. by zip code - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Park
[+] [-] thetylerhayes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djKianoosh|12 years ago|reply
and btw, "head tech guy"? Really? Is the Washington Post a serious news organization?
[+] [-] ep103|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anigbrowl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmorici|12 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wghDZagJ_nM
[+] [-] jorgem|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davidbanham|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] computerslol|12 years ago|reply
Jumping off what is perceived to be a sinking ship like that (by choice) before it was fixed would be career suicide. It is however very understandable that he would be found a job to get him out of the way for someone else to do damage control.
[+] [-] omegote|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] garg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattkrea|12 years ago|reply
EDIT: To print an article with that title, not job title.
[+] [-] leeoniya|12 years ago|reply
so long and thanks for all the rotting fish?
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluedevil2k|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ne0codex|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robomartin|12 years ago|reply
Until we have a system that makes them all fully accountable for their actions this will not change. Many of you are just waking up to the horrible reality that this is how nearly everything is done in government. Just. Like . This.
[+] [-] ye|12 years ago|reply
It's not just some independent website where you have full control of your creation. It had to interact with a dozen of other systems, and I'm sure a bunch of APIs were created just for that, and I'm sure bugs in just some of them could render the whole system nonfunctioning.
And yes, maybe it is this guy's fault. We don't really know.
[+] [-] JPKab|12 years ago|reply
1984 to 1988: "Held several increasingly responsible project/program management positions for implementing large satellite telecommunications projects for Fortune 500 companies. Responsibilities included program and project administration,logistics management, financial management, and quality assurance for GTE Spacenet projects."
1988-1999:
"Held a variety of increasing responsible IT policy positions. Established the Office of Electronic Commerce which had governmentwide responsibilities for developing policies, coordinating initiatives, and monitoring Federal electronic commerce. Also co-chaired with DoD the Federal Electronic Commerce Program Office. "
1999-2005:
"As the Deputy AC, oversaw the development and implementation of all public (beneficiary) Internet applications (from a business and operations perspective) including the website business planning and development, identity management solutions, and analysis of website and on-line application use trends"
Wow. A real Nikola fucking Tesla this guy is. This is the kind of shit that turns people into Republicans. There is literally nothing in this guy's resume that would suggest he should be a CIO handling a $2 billion budget.
[+] [-] waps|12 years ago|reply
http://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Leadership/ois/index.html
This guy is a typical management idiot. He has no qualifications except "leading" (not specified any further, of course), and making decisions about other people's money. While it's hard finding disastrous decisions in his CV, I'm not seeing anything that suggests he did more than show up.
As for leading, he has zero qualifications in either healthcare or IT.
I see this at a lot of companies, and someone really should explain it here, where I can ask the question anonymously : how the fuck do these guys get their positions ? Suppose I came in for a job interview about programming cars. First thing I say is that I have zero knowledge about either programming or cars. But I've got "executive awards" and I managed a few people in a completely unremarkable company in a project no-one's ever heard of, or ever will hear off, they were that important.
Would you hire me ? I hope not. Why the fuck did this guy get hired ?
I can't even fault the guy himself. Of course he's not the right person to lead anything, but he's responding to incentives put in place by the US government, and by companies more generally. Given what he gets paid, of course he's doing whatever his superiors want him to do, without question, and without taking reality into account. Of course he's extremely motivated to lie to everybody to keep that job for just a few more months. The guy who hired him to make responsible decisions about IT, or healthcare, that's the guy that needs firing.
Really, I'd love to understand. What, assuming it isn't flat-out corruption or nepotism, motivates someone to hire people like this into important positions they flat-out know nothing about ?
[+] [-] yeukhon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asmithmd1|12 years ago|reply