That article certainly points to the risks of adding on applications to a legacy system. And if you never change the legacy system the kind of consequences described are inevitable. The design and culture of VistA was to always be changing the "legacy" (after all, the minute a project is finished and the product deployed, it becomes "legacy"). That kind of change takes constant effort ... which means resources for things that don't always appear on the surface to have any immediate benefit. Shut down that culture and process and VistA ends up looking just like the problem Comair had ... so it shouldn't really come as any surprise how new management now feels about VistA ... the earlier decisions were self-fulfilling.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joseph Dal Molin Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 2:54 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech Upgrade Here is a timely article from CIO magazine on the risk and consquences of neglecting a mission critical system while waiting for something better...... http://www.cio.com/archive/050105/comair.html "Bound To Fail" The crash of a critical legacy system at Comair is a classic risk management mistake that cost the airline $20 million and badly damaged its reputation. J. Cameron Schlehuber wrote: > That VistA needs to continue to undergo change should be a given. Prior to > a dozen years ago applications and services were retooled every few years or > less. That was deemed to be too "costly" for things like lab, scheduling, > etc. CPRS continued to be retooled to some extent (but "Order Entry/Results > Reporting" has been stuck on "version 3" since December 1997). Halt > retooling for most parts and they'll certainly be "old". Is there new stuff > in VistA? Yes, but that doesn't change the things that are indeed old. > Much retooling could be done to considerably reduce maintenance costs and in > fact test the Service Oriented Architecture (M supports it well in fact) in > a more gradual manner that would engender far less risk than turning our > collective backs on VistA entirely. > > But "based on proprietary technology"? That's a howler. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joseph > Dal Molin > Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 1:50 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech > Upgrade > > "VistA is a solid system, but it's old, too expensive to maintain and > based on proprietary technology, McFarland said. HealtheVet, he said, > will be built on commercially available systems and therefore be able to > interact with other platforms in the VA's inventory." > > This quote cannot be accurate....it might be if it was Dubya that was > being quoted....the inaccuracies are breathtaking. Perhaps I'm getting > too old to maintain and my reasoning is starting to fail....and > everything I have read about VistA for the last 10 years is wrong..... > > J. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>Taken from the National VA News Summary. >>http://vaww.newslink.va.gov/summary/2005/05-05-05.pdf >>TBO=Tampa Bay Online) >> >>TBO News, 5/4/05 >>VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech Upgrade >>By RICHARD LARDNER > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by: NEC IT Guy Games. > Get your fingers limbered up and give it your best shot. 4 great events, 4 > opportunities to win big! Highest score wins.NEC IT Guy Games. Play to > win an NEC 61 plasma display. Visit http://www.necitguy.com/?r > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > . > ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: NEC IT Guy Games. Get your fingers limbered up and give it your best shot. 4 great events, 4 opportunities to win big! Highest score wins.NEC IT Guy Games. Play to win an NEC 61 plasma display. Visit http://www.necitguy.com/?r=20 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: NEC IT Guy Games. Get your fingers limbered up and give it your best shot. 4 great events, 4 opportunities to win big! Highest score wins.NEC IT Guy Games. Play to win an NEC 61 plasma display. Visit http://www.necitguy.com/?r _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
