Comment by JPKab | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JPKab | Hacker News Reader

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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 reminds me. I once did work for this guy in Chicago. This guy was responsible for leading a team that converted all government computers in the city from Windows NT to 2000. The man does not know how to program, create websites, remove viruses, configure routers, build computers, or configure networks. I would not trust him with Ikea furniture! He was also a terrible manager, never knew what he wanted to see, mainly because he simply did not know what was possible. And yet, the city paid him a ton of money to do IT. In case you are wondering, the transition project took 5 times longer then budgeted for, surprise, surprise...

It gets worse - the UI team lead had an associate's degree in Art & Web Design from a community college, and a bachelor's in Zoology. [1] Normally, I would say credentials generally don't matter - but combined with the code quality, the argument writes itself.

I started looking him up after seeing this mention (and the awful code below). [2]

1. http://www.linkedin.com/in/mkayan

2. https://github.com/STRML/Healthcare.gov-Marketplace/blob/mas...

Please delete this. This is in poor taste.

[2] is terrifying.

What do you hope to achieve with this comment? What good could possibly come from it?

Instead of attempting to shame while pointing fingers, say something constructive or leave the issue alone.

I agree with 'danielna, your comment is in really poor taste.

Oh god. Not only does [2] feature extremely creative uses of eval() (always a good sign), but also features the comment gem "create a new java date" in reference to a call to "new Date( ... )". Always nice to see nothing short of profound gulfs in understanding when it comes to our $9-digit technology initiatives...

man!!!!!!! Healthcare reform, now i see. Shhh... It will be our little secret. Jon Stewart will have a heart attack if he learns about it.

//determine if due date is valid

//based on 10-month pregnancy (sprint 9 requirements)

Am I the only one that is impressed that we are actually allowed to see the backend code?

I need to raise my expectations...

This is JavaScript frontend code, not the backend code.

Ah, so this was just lifted from the webpage source?

I assume so.

Really lame to attempt to name and shame someone by (ultimately) mocking their credentials and linking to code without context. Sure, some of that JS is bad, but I've seen much worse code that has been successfully deployed to solve problems.

Naming him wasn't the right approach and I apologize for that - however I cannot edit or delete the post. His involvement as the UI team lead is, however, public information. His credentials are not the main issue, of course.

There are serious quality issues along the entire codebase and a number of snippets that strongly suggest the team's primary skill is not JS. Given the cost and gravity of the project, I believe it is fair to say that the American public expects (and deserves) better. It speaks to the vast inefficiencies of the RFP process and gov IT contracting in general that code quality is so far down on the priority list.

It's not just aesthetic, either. There are serious functionality issues, as anybody who has used the site will attest to. And those bugs are not just limited to the backend. Backend bugs have seriously compromised the security of user accounts [1] and frontend bugs prevent major sections of the site from running at all [2].

It is one thing when ugly code is "successfully deployed to solve problems". It is quite another when ugly code on such a high-profile, expensive project is deployed to such disastrous effect.

The constructive part of the post is the repository I linked to (issues are being reported and fixed, for better or worse), and in bringing attention to the fact that government IT does not follow serious engineering practices. Serious attention needs to be brought to the problem so that it can be fixed. I am not happy about it, I am not pointing fingers with glee. I just hope that it has embarrassed HHS & the administration enough to make substantive change.

1. http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com/2013/10/does-healthcareg...

2. http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com/2013/11/stuck-in-middle-...

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