. . .Sure, the website rollout could have been handled a lot better. With all the delays and warning signs, the government could have stopped touting HealthCare.gov and teasing the public with messages such as “5 days to open enrollment. Don’t wait another minute.”
But the federal government has never had a fantastic track record in dealing with technology projects. This was not just an Obamacare problem. Most of the government has little experience in managing such a big, complex project, and management is a remarkably large part of the effort; building a system like this takes far more than just programming.
Maybe it should have hired a general contractor to supervise the 55 contractors who worked on the website. Maybe it should have looked into launching at a later date instead of October 1. But the bottom line is that technical glitches are an inescapable part of our digital life. . .