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> it's extremely hard to build software teams and manage their performance in permanent government roles

this problem should be solved by making it not-hard to build the teams etc, not by throwing 10s of millions of dollars at vampiric consultants

it seems it is far less risky to bleed money than it is to make any kind of meaningful change to the way gov depts are run

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It’s difficult because civil service is designed for stable professions, clerks, attorneys, finance people. IT is too variable, and it’s usually impossible to attract mid career talent. So you hire early career talent, especially second career people, and “grow them”.

Usually gov IT is not a sexy place for smart political people to land. That is the key talent you need. You can always get smart technical people. Big 5 consultancies will deliver, but you need to always keep them afraid, and that’s a political problem.

Smart IT professionals specifically EXCLUDE working directly for Australian government organisations because of the dysfunctions and politics. Even being one of the consultants working 'for' them is bad but not as bad as being directly employed if you prefer doing IT to politics and bs.

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