Misunderstood buzzwords are scattered about blaming the epic failure of the Obamacare Healthcare.gov website on technology issues. The political talking heads should look to simple reasons such as ignoring basic website development concepts and not following best practices.
A Mashable editorial published on Sunday " Healthcare.gov Fails Website Development 101 " details the technology failures of the Obamacare website. Lance Ulanoff, editor in chief of Mashable, comments that "Healthcare.gov is one of the worst high-profile website launches I have ever seen."
Issues that lead to the failures included not enough time to fully test the website, last minute changes in how the site would work, and underestimating the heavy traffic the changes would generate and the need for capacity and scale. One specific example of a last minute change that lead to many problems was a decision requiring consumers to register for an account before they could browse for insurance products.
The points addressed in the Mashable article were similar to the ones mentioned on our previous article, "Understanding the epic failure of Obamacare website." Simply stated, ignoring established best practices of website development caused Obamacare Healthcare.gov epic failure.
What are best practices?
Whether it is Website Development 101, or implementing any new technology, you will often learn about the concept of "best practices" when beginning a technology project.
Best practices are used by systems engineers, designers, developers, and various other technology professionals as a guide and starting point. Best practices are methods and techniques for implementing processes and procedures that have been proven effective through the experiences of others.
Technology specialists may have some say in how things are done, but rarely have the ultimate say in what gets implemented and when. Technology decisions are often made by non technical managers, and are often influenced by committees with non technology agendas.
Whether it is building a website, or implementing a new technology, you will often find a best practices guide on how to proceed. Sadly, the decision makers, from small business managers to politicians and presidents often ignore best practices.
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