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

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Peter Renzland via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| 1. I don't like the literary form of this article.  Too much theatre.  
|    I prefer non-fiction, not info-fiction.  Even the URL misleads.

Each to his own taste.  I thought it was fine but I didn't think of it
as a tour de force

| 2. (Why) was there no parallel test period?  At least for a stratified 
|    sample.  That might have shown the unanticipated problems (which 
|    should have been anticipated).

The article hinted that there was one.

  PSAC wanted to delay the second phase of the rollout because
  thousands of its members had already been shafted on payments from Phoenix.

| 3. When a sufficiently complex system is replaced, it should not be 
|    assumed that the old system was completely or consistently correct.

Right.  But there is an effect like common law.  If something goes on
for long enough, it seems like the Right Thing.
  
|    (CF: the allusions to interpretation differences.)  Systems that 
|    operate for a long time tend to become corrupt.  Errors, ambiguities, 
|    interpretations, may creep in.  Some of these are never discovered.  

In theory, fixing these things is good.  But many people might be agrieved.

Just imagine the screems if police started enforcing the actual speed
limits?  Or charged everyone running red lights.

| 4. The vendor shares in the responsibility for taking on a task that 
|    contained "unanticipated complexities".  There should have been 
|    vendor-penalties for such failures.  And a responsible vendor would 
|    do enough due diligence to anticipate "complexities" early.

You worked in government a long time.  Not me.  So your guesses are
more likely correct than mine.

My understanding is that RFQs are always overly precise so that the
system appears fair: all are bidding on the same thing.

The downside is that the customer is on the hook for changes.
Changes become a profit centre because there is no competition in this
phase.

To be fair, capturing the behaviour of the current system and
capturing the behaviour desired is a very lare part of the work to be
done.  It seems unreasonable to do that outside of some contract
(perhaps a separate one).