[GTALUG] better than average article on why the federal payroll system is a mess

o1bigtenor o1bigtenor at gmail.com
Fri Aug 12 11:49:35 EDT 2016


On Fri, Aug 12, 2016 at 10:41 AM, Alvin Starr via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> On 08/12/2016 11:13 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
>
> There have been a bunch of headlines about the new federal payroll
> system "Phoenix" is screwing up a lot.  This article does a reasonable
> job of describing how the problems happened.
>
> <http://www.itworldcanada.com/blog/phoenix-payroll-report-by-michael-wernick-the-clerk-of-the-privy-council/385370>
> ---
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> Interesting.
>
> I have a slightly different take.
>
> Through my wife's work I have had a chance to see lots of government
> projects (mostly Ontario) and I have come to the conclusion that the
> insistance of project managers to go with safe products like Oracle and
> Microsoft and Cisco are the reason lots of projects are off the rails.
> Big companies know how to bill and charge for changes but the products and
> services seldom come close to the sales pitch.
>
> But nobody will get fired for buying IBM/Cisco/Oracle/Microsoft.....

My suggestion is that management get paid on effectiveness - - ie poor outcomes
first wage reductions (starting at 25% and growing quickly) and termination for
outcomes that just don't work (that's with an independent review to make sure
that something wasn't torpedoed because of an even goofier more senior exec!).

How would that work you think?

Dee


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