Argument: Software design is important, data design is not

[cbullard@hiwaay.net]

I've recently read a description of the Affordable Care Act system  
debacle that claims not enough attention was paid to data-driving the  
system of systems.  To which I asked, "You mean it was object-oriented  
to death?" to which the reply was "Pretty much."

Not being familiar with the architecture chosen or the problems with  
the multitude of backend systems or how much authority the contractors  
had to enforce ICDs over the multiple systems, it seems to me that  
unless they were data-driving it, they were more than likely doomed to  
fail.

I grant the story of that particular debacle likely has many more  
twists and turns, but a decade or so after the promise that the web  
offered "frictionless commerce" was made, when we see a debacle of  
this scope, it's certainly worth knowing why it happened.   If the  
claim made as stated above is true, then the argument presented in the  
Subject line is kaboshed by a compelling existence proof.

len