Thursday, December 12, 2013

American Thinker: Column from a “Brunswick Thinker?”

             

Your faithful correspondent spent the vast majority of his career working on the Aegis Combat System.  This is the command and control element deployed aboard the U.S. Navy Cruisers and Destroyers built at BIW over the last 30 years or so.  As well as the same type of ships built in Pascagoula, MS, wherever the hell that is.

While the details may not excite you as much as they do us, here is a photo of the technology on which we invested our career energies:

File:USS Vincennes (CG-49) Aegis large screen displays.jpg

Our career was a marvelous experience, during which we worked with superb team-mates, made many lasting friendships, and learned enduring lessons about how to execute complex mission critical system engineering developments. 

Based on this experience, we and a colleague from those years decided to compare what we learned to the rather embarrassing ‘roll-out’ of ObamaCare in recent months. 

So we wrote up an article that lays out the primary keys to a successful development process.  We compared them to what we have seen in recent months as the DHHS led introduction of the ‘Affordable Care Act’ unfolded in a very public way.

     

The article was published on the American Thinker web site today, and we are posting the details here so you can read it, and if you wish, comment.  Here’s an excerpt:

We're watching government at its most harmful and ineffectual. This is not rocket science -- no risky new technology is required; no laws of physics have to be invented or repealed. While the technology itself may present some challenges, problems like this more often than not stem from poor leadership, discipline, and accountability.

We were privileged to spend our careers on a team responsible for the Aegis Combat System, a complex, mission critical system. Like the ACA, or as the President is fond of calling it -- ObamaCare, Aegis has life and death consequences, which is why there was such attention to strict design, development, and testing policies. We are resolute believers in these immutable principles for successful system development, and we are saddened and appalled by the government's incompetence in undertaking total restructuring of the American healthcare system.

Along with their related credits and the link to the full article: 

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/why_obamacare_is_off_the_rails.html#ixzz2nIzbP92G
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