The Obamacare Website

In October 2013, the Health and Human Services Secretary of the United States is tasked with making decisions about a website project, Healthcare.gov, that is a critical component in delivering the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” to the American people. The act is a cornerstone but controversial policy of the Obama administration aimed at increasing access to health care services by providing health insurance to uninsured Americans. Unfortunately, the project is over budget and late. Forced to roll out before it is ready because of political considerations, the website crashes, causing anger and frustration for users unable to sign on or get information about the program. Because the act never really had the support of Republican Party representatives, the failure of the website stokes a political storm that appears to have more to do with reopening a debate in the media about Obamacare than it does with the website launch issues. Also in the spotlight is CGI, a technology company headquartered in Canada that is responsible for the overall design, development and execution of the project.

<ul><li>To introduce the concept of process modeling.</li><li>To explain and discuss the “information technology onion,” that is, the critical interplay between hardware, the operating system, application(s), data, people, business processes and business requirements.</li><li>To consider a “Go/No-Go” decision framework.</li><li>To present McFarlan’s risk cube and the variables that must be assessed when making a decision, along with related mitigation options.</li><ul>

• Website design
• politics
• outsourcing
• success and failure
• United States