State Of Oregon vs Oracle: A Reminder To Software Practicioners That You Can’t Outsource Solution Design, Validation Or Accountability

I just finished reading the State of Oregon’s complaint against Oracle in it’s entirety.  I encourage every one of you to read it as well.  In the meantime, I’ll paraphrase:

“We the State of Oregon were not staffed properly to design an insurance exchange.  In 2011 we allocated $240 million toward a vendor who convinced us they could design and deliver it.  When they showed up 2-3 years later with the solution, it did not work and all that money was wasted.  We provided 450 requirements to their presales team on which basis they promised that their combination of products would cover 95% of our needs without modification.  We found out things were going poorly 2+ years into the project and we collectively cut scope.  Then it failed anyway.  We found out through that failure that the promises the sales guys made weren’t true and that Oracle had a bunch of…