I live in Oregon and none of this surprises me. They’ve had some pretty big software/vendor blunders over my adult life (38yo), but I don’t imagine they’re that different from any other state/federal organization with big software projects.

To put it bluntly, government contracts under pay for the complications they provide, are never straightforward, have too many competing stakeholders, and huge changes will be required mid-way through every project.

On top of that, only certain companies that have been vetted and approved to be a vendor can even apply, which effectively weeds out most potential companies. What you wind up with is Oracle selling a one-size fits all “platform” to one state for DMV, and the next state for Electronic Medical Records.

Additionally, the FTE pay scale is shit compared to the private sector so they will never have any chance at getting, let alone retaining, any decent talent.