We all know that it takes more skill (and experience and domain knowledge), and more time up-front, to create software that is easier/cheaper to change later in response to changed requirements.
If you got the cheapest possible software up-front that (barely, technically) met the original requirements, you did it by hiring the least skilled people that could barely pull off exactly what would get the contract paid, and asking them to rush and hurry and pile up technical debt.
So.
In this case, the software perhaps shouldn't have even been considered fulfilling the contract in the first place, that's how crappy it was. The crappier the software, the more expensive changes to it are, we all know that.
> One department whistleblower said the number of problems with the ACIS system was unprecedented in their professional experience. “I have never in my life run across an application like this,” they said. “It’s just been one big cluster.”
If you got the cheapest possible software up-front that (barely, technically) met the original requirements, you did it by hiring the least skilled people that could barely pull off exactly what would get the contract paid, and asking them to rush and hurry and pile up technical debt.
So.
In this case, the software perhaps shouldn't have even been considered fulfilling the contract in the first place, that's how crappy it was. The crappier the software, the more expensive changes to it are, we all know that.
> One department whistleblower said the number of problems with the ACIS system was unprecedented in their professional experience. “I have never in my life run across an application like this,” they said. “It’s just been one big cluster.”