I’m alerted to this lovely piece of logic from Richard Murphy.
Commenting upon the tax credits computer system screw ups.
Yes it’s an HMRC cock up, but let’s be clear, the system was written by the private sector. Most people who comment will ignore that.
??!!?
4 responses so far ↓
1 knirirr // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:12 am
I wonder if he thinks it would be any better if the state nationalised programming rather than contracting out?
It is unfortunate that there’s still a fair amount of bad programming going on, as this site shows.
2 Serf // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:42 am
That is priceless.
Can you imagine BP (British Programming) with unionise civil servants still using punch card systems and striking at the drop of a hat.
3 The Great Simpleton // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:44 am
He’s right, of course, but he forgets the state wrote the requirement, selected the vendor, wrote the contract, supervised progress and finally accepted the product. No doubt paying full or even higher price for the end product.
I’m also willing to bet that the state constantlly changed the scope and requirement during the whole project.
4 BlacquesJacquesShellacqes // Jul 29, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Simpleton, you are right. I once wrote software for the Canadian government - with specifications provided, and repeatedly altered, by Kafka.
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