Bhamilton18 Week 11

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Definitions

  1. Uptime rate: "time during which a piece of equipment (such as a computer) is functioning or able to function."
  2. Infrastructure: "the underlying foundation or basic framework (as of a system or organization)."
  3. AWS: "Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow."
  4. Cloud Computing: "Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of compute power, database storage, applications, and other IT resources through a cloud services platform via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing."
  5. Domain-name routing: It begins with a Domain Name System which "is a directory used by SMTP to convert a name to a list of servers that can receive connections for that name and to find the IP address of a specific server."
  6. Akamai: "is the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, making the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers."
  7. Sequential design strategy: "are iterative algorithms that use data acquired from previous iterations to guide future sample selection."
  8. Gantt chart: "A general production planning tool for scienti- fically managed factories."
  9. Agile-strategy: "is proposed in response to the circumstances as a solution and is perceived as a vital characteristic that manufacturing companies need to have in order to maintain their competitive advantages in the new order of world business"
  10. Tech Surge: "The Obama administration says this surge is made up of engineers from inside and outside government" that are employed to "clean up the code of the error-plagued HealthCare.gov site."

The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America Outline

Main Message

  1. It is important to be adaptable when creating a project, as plans and goals change throughout the process.
  2. Keeping an open mind, with many difference perspectives allows the project to run more smoothly and effectively.

Introduction

  1. HealthCare.gov was a website implemented during the Obama Administration to enforce the Affordable Care Act.
  2. The website has a "start-up" atmosphere, but was being maintained by government officials who didn't understand start-ups.
  3. The website needed a larger makeover, and therefore teams were brought in to fix the site.

The Problem

  1. The US government attempted to create a HealthCare.gov website in order for citizens to find and sign up for health care.
  2. HealthCare.gov became one of the worst websites for users.
    • 91% uptime rate
    • Six successful sign ups on the first day
      • Despite thousands attempting
    • $250 million to build
    • $70 million maintain

The Need

  1. Technical Workers who could quickly to fix, maintain and reduce costs of the Healthcare.gov website
    • This created a Tech Surge which was a group of Silicon Valley developers who needed to "save" the website.
  2. Althoguh the Tech Surge received the most spotlight, it was a group called Marketplace Lite that dealt with the nitty-gritty of HealthCare.gov.
    • Marketplace Lite was a a group of designers and developers that worked round the clock to create a working, successful health care tool.

The Process

  1. Marketplace Lite was a small group of start up coders whose work started at the Doubletree Hotel in Baltimore.
  2. The MPL (Marketplace Lite) was set up for days in the dining rooms, floors and lobby of the hotel.
  3. The days consisted of 10hours a day 7 days a week for months.
  4. The MPL wanted to create a more efficient way to store and manage the data that came with the HealthCare.gov website.
    • This prompted the MPL workers to reach out to cheaper storage options, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
      • AWS allows for users to rent storage or computational power more cheaply than running/storing on the users own.
        • By utilizing off site super computers, AWS can increase runtime, decrease cost and scale the computational power to the demand of the consumer.
      • The AWS platform was not accepted by the government for many months, therefore as a place holder Akami was used.
        • AWS was approved nearly six months later in the process.
  5. By 2014, the members in the MPL team and Tech Surge projects contact's were running out. While the Tech Surge group was disbanding many members in the MPL team stayed on the project and even quit their "day-jobs."
    • One person left Google, one left SkillShare
    • New members were hired with start up experience to help the project continue smoothly.
  6. Once the Tech Surge had completed, MPL moved from the DoubleTree lobby to the CMS offices.
    • However, this just meant when employees would leave their desks for meetings or breaks, MPL members would "borrow" their desks for a short period of time.
  7. Once the summer began, MPL looked for a stable office space, which led them to rent a house in suburban Maryland.
    • The house was made up of a few beds and lots of cheap furniture.
    • The house was purely a cheap space to eat, sleep and work.
  8. One important piece of tech that dramatically increased the MPL work efficiency was the implementation of HipChat
    • HipChat is a group chatroom, much like Slack, that allows quick messages and attachments to be sent and reviewed more efficiently than email.
  9. Preceding the implementation of HipChat the government began forcing deadlines and work environment regulations.
    • This included creating a detailed 3-month plan for the coders to follow, despite accepting the "agile" way for working.
      • As defined above, the "agile" way of working is more effective, especially for programers, developers and designers as it allows flexibility with project deadlines and adjustment for errors.
    • The government wanted to control every aspect of the website despite not understanding how it or the programmer plan worked.
  10. With time, the government learned that the programmers "knew what they were doing" and followed the launch plan of App 2.0
    • App 2.0 is the MPL insurance application that allowed users to sign up and in more quickly than the original application.
      • Users could finish in 9 minutes versus the original 20 minutes
      • Users only had to go through 16 pages instead of 76 pages
      • A record 85% of users were able to finish the registration versus the previous 55%.
      • Login request times reduced to 30 milliseconds instead of 2-10 seconds
  11. The MPL team decided to release App 2.0 in stages:
    • 0% to users
    • 10% to users
    • 20% to users
    • All the way to 100%
    • These stages meant the develop and bug fixes could be more manageable rather than other loading the team members and the servers.
  12. In the end, MPL made a terrific website that saved time, energy and money for the government.
  13. Although the team has disbanded, they have since created a new corporation called Nava, to help the government for future "start-up opportunities."

Significance

  1. Changed HealthCare.gov for the better by making it cost effective, efficient and easy to use.
  2. Emphasizes the importance of small, but effective group work.
  3. Developers and designers need to present from the begin to ensure the knowledge of the features versus needs is explicit.
  4. Displays how new perspectives and work environment styles can make a project go smoother.

Main Process Points

  1. HipChat was extremely helpful to send attachments and exchange communication quickly and effectively.
  2. AWS/Akamai were cost effective programs that were able to store data off site and allow the runtime to increase in efficiency.
  3. App 2.0, or the insurance application, was an easy way to break up the project into manageable pieces.
    • App 2.0 allowed for the user sign in/registering to go quickly and actually work!

Applications to our Project

  1. As I mentioned in my class journal last week, communication is going to be a big part of how the project will go smoothly.
    • Utilizing apps like Slack or even messenger with my coding parter Zach will allow us to work independently, but also collaborate quickly when needed.
  2. Adapting the agile strategy our group will be able to set realistic goals and adjust for road blocks.
  3. In working with all the members of the group from the beginning, it will allow project updates and features to be discussed from the beginning.
    • In talking with Katie, I will be able to voice any issues, successes or delays with her so she isn't surprised as a Project Manager is a deliverable isn't going according to plan.

Presentation

Zach and Blair's Powerpoint

Acknowledgments

  1. I worked with my group project coding partner Zachary Van Ysseldyk on our presentation as well as formatting outlines similarly. We met in person as well as through Google slides to collaborate on the presentation.
  2. I worked with other fellow group members: Katie Wright and Emma Tyrnauer to consult on our team project page and formatting.
  3. While I worked with the people noted above, this individual journal entry was completed by me and not copied from another source.

Term References

  1. About Akamai.Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/
  2. Crombecq, K., Tommasi, L. D., Gorissen, D., & Dhaene, T. (2009). A novel sequential design strategy for global surrogate modeling. Proceedings of the 2009 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC). doi:10.1109/wsc.2009.5429687
  3. The Domain Name System (DNS) and SMTP mail routing. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSKTMJ_9.0.1/admin/plan_thedomainnamesystemdnsandsmtpmailrouting_c.html
  4. H. Sharifi, Z. Zhang, (2001) "Agile manufacturing in practice ‐ Application of a methodology", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 21 Issue: 5/6, pp.772-794, https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570110390462
  5. Hu, E. (2013, October 21). The HealthCare.gov 'Tech Surge' Is Racing Against The Clock. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2013/10/22/239220962/the-healthcare-gov-tech-surge-is-racing-against-the-clock
  6. Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1999). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Incorporated.
  7. What is AWS? - Amazon Web Services. Retrieved November 11, 2017, from https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-aws/
  8. Wilson, James M. (2003). "Gantt charts: A centenary appreciation" (PDF). European Journal of Operational Research. 149 (2): 430–437. doi:10.1016/S0377-2217(02)00769-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2013.

References

  1. LMU BioDB 2017. (2017). Week 10. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from https://xmlpipedb.cs.lmu.edu/biodb/fall2017/index.php/Week_11
  2. Meyer, R. (2015, July 09). The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America. Retrieved November 7, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-secret-startup-saved-healthcare-gov-the-worst-website-in-america/397784/


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