Fixing Federal IT Contracting: Proceed with Caution

2014 will certainly see the search for the guilty, and assignment of blame for the very flawed healthcare.gov website rollout.  Assuredly, there will be those calling for scrapping, streamlining, and/or modernizing the current IT procurement and contracting systems. The “Arcane IT contracting” meme makes for great headlines, for the Administration and for Congress (each seeking to suggest fault lies in the “system” rather than is their own execution or oversight shortcomings). I hope that the notions of “partnering” with the private sector gets true analysis, planning and controls… rather than irrational optimism, political impatience and marketing hype from the industry, Administration and Congress.  We certainly do not need another round of simple-minded ‘solutions’ to a very complex set of interrelated problems.

 We must remember the nature of those with whom the government would partner.  These systems integration and systems development firms may have excellent experience, skill, methods, and staff, but they also have stockholders, risk avoidance strategies, revenue targets, and other characteristics that may be antithetical to an agency’s needs and goals.

  I’m reminded of the tortoise and scorpion fable: The scorpion asked the tortoise to give him a ride across the stream.  The tortoise protested that the scorpion would sting and kill him.  

The scorpion argued that if he did so, they would both die.   Seeing the argument's logic, the tortoise relented.  Midstream, the scorpion stung the tortoise.  Shocked and surprised, the dying tortoise said “Why would you kill us both?” The drowning scorpion said “It is my nature”.

As the politicians rail against the Federal IT and contracting bureaucracy, they need to remember the other half of the equation: the IT contractors who continually participate in IT failures – knowingly or otherwise. Some of the publicized federal IT failures seem to me to be dysfunctional relationships with multiple ‘enablers’.  The very industry that claims to have the answers to the Federal IT challenges, is the same industry that is at the epicenter of most, if not all, major federal IT failures (and many state and municipal IT failures too).

 Oops, there goes another scorpion-tortoise partnership.  Where is the ‘value added?’ what about the delivery of ‘superior capability?’; ‘leading edge management expertise?’;  ‘solution sets?’;  ‘proven methodologies?’… and all of the other over-the-top marketing buzzphrases.  Congress, with analysis from the General Accountability Office (GAO), should cast a critical eye on the general claim that the major systems integrators and software development companies are “autoMAGICALLY” more efficient, less risky, less costly, better qualified, and better managed than the Federal IT bureaucracy.

New legislation that increases agency flexibility and accountability is wending its way through the Congress, but if that’s all the Congress has to offer, they need not bother. 

To me, flexibility means that more subjective judgments will be made by political appointees who will disappear before the judgments and decisions take effect, for better or worse.  Too many political appointees arrive with preconceived solutions, approaches, and an inner circle of acolytes, even before they learn their new organizational environment, culture, problems, strengths and challenges.  These appointees understandably act tactically to effect change within their few years of tenure, but that is often at the expense of fundamental strategic action.  Most federal IT professionals have experienced the attitude of some incoming appointees and their cadre: ‘if you’re here, you must be part of the problem’.

Accountability means that somebody gets fired when projects fail.  That’s a minimalist-retroactive approach that means virtually nothing to the taxpayer or to the agency’s mission.  The money and time is gone, the system isn’t built, and the citizen got nothing. So the only thing that happened is that some $180K executive(s) got fired for wasting $100M and several years on a failed system?  That is hardly satisfying or adequate. 

In fact, both the Administration and Congress have enough power to hold Federal IT and contracting bureaucrats accountable. The challenge is to use that power in sufficient time to make a difference.  While failed project autopsies and Congressional ‘inquests’ are somewhat useful, a better approach is to proactively prevent failures.  The only solution path to the Federal IT contracting conundrum is through the hard work of mission-dedicated, skilled, compensated, and respected IT and contracting work force.

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