Jason Huggins: Fixing HealthCare.gov, One Test at a Time

[Renew Deal]

In late 2013, Selenium creator and Sauce Labs co-founder Jason Huggins joined President Obama’s “tech surge” team to help fix HealthCare.gov. In D.C. during the height of the crisis in November and December 2013, Jason had a behind-the-scenes view into a unique period in American history when a website’s quality (or lack thereof) had the attention of the nation, the press, the President, and Congress.

In this talk, Jason shares some of his stories from the HealthCare.gov turnaround and the “HealthCare 2.0″ effort in mid-2014. Jason talked about the newly created U.S. Digital Services and how it was created out of the original HealthCare.gov crisis. He also covered the U.S. Digital Services Playbook and what the role of automated testing and deployment will be in future U.S. Government projects.

Lastly, Jason talked about opportunities for how Silicon Valley can help government build effective digital services in the future.

Video: Behind the scenes of the rescue of HealthCare.gov

The launch of the HealthCare.gov website was, er, suboptimal. Or, in less euphemistic terms, it was a horrendous train wreck. In response, President Obama created a "tech surge" team, stocked full of private-sector talent who were given the unenviable task of fixing that train wreck. Selenium creator and Sauce Labs co-founder Jason Huggins was on the team, and in the video below, he gives an inside look at how he and his cohorts were able to get the site on track.

It's a long talk -- 90-plus minutes -- but if you want more than the "we buckled down and got the work done" platitudes that most post-salvage articles offered, here you go. Huggins isn't shy about digging into the geeky details, and as you might image, he has stories galore about what it was like to work in such a high-pressure environment. You think your boss is bad? Imagine having the media, the Congress, and the freakin' President of the United States breathing down your neck!

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2914581/government/video-behind-the-scenes-of-the-rescue-of-healthcare-gov.html

[rickford66]

1. Great talk

I happen to be doing some testing on a project for the military and this talk is very informative. I hate all the paperwork that's required up front. Lot's of it will never be read. I helped develop and and implement an automated testing system back in the early 1990's so I know how helpful it can be if done correctly. I'm back at work out of retirement so don't have many more years to work but good luck to you younger guys.