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The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

(steveblank.com)
288 points ridruejo | 2 comments | 11 Nov 25 14:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.468s | source
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stackskipton ◴[11 Nov 25 21:26 UTC] No.45893105[source]▶
As someone who has some familiarity with this process, just like safety regulations are written in blood, Federal Acquisition rules are written in misuse of money, sometimes criminally.

Yes, we have swung too much towards the bureaucrats but I'm not sure throwing out everything is solution to the issue.

Move fast works great when it's B2B software and failures means stock price does not go up. It's not so great when brand new jet acts up and results in crashes.

Oh yea, F-35 was built with move fast, they rolled models off the production line quickly, so Lockheed could get more money, but it looks like whole "We will fix busted models later" might have been more expensive. Time will tell.

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scuff3d ◴[12 Nov 25 04:32 UTC] No.45896396[source]▶
Given there is apparently a large emphasis on the performance of these individual "portfolio" managers, and speed of delivery is made to be such a big deal, this is definitely going to get out own people killed.
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1. w10-1 ◴[12 Nov 25 18:53 UTC] No.45904280[source]▶
> this is definitely going to get out own people killed.

But the key feature making this a horrible decision is that the people responsible for getting our people killed will not be discoverable, and they will never face the consequences. Heck: they might not even know, because they're doing good by their standards.

That's exactly how you make a broken but persistent and entrenched system: incentives without consequences for exported costs.

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2. scuff3d ◴[12 Nov 25 20:42 UTC] No.45906345[source]▶
There's also going to be a large lag. A lot of the protections are baked in and won't just disappear overnight, but as the system degrades it will get worse and worse. Decisions made today might not cause immediately visible damage for a decade, and by then the people responsible will be gone, even if you could find them.

If people think Boeing has been a shit show over the last 10 years, they ain't seen nothing yet.