What Developers Can Learn From Healthcare.gov

Remember, even a failure can serve as an example of what not to do

The first highly visible component of the Affordable Health Care Act launched this week, in the form of the healthcare.gov site. Theoretically, it allows citizens, who live in any of the states that have chosen not to implement their own portal, to get quotes and sign up for coverage.

I say theoretically because I’ve been trying to get a quote out of it since it launched on Tuesday, and I’m still trying. Every time I think I’ve gotten past the last glitch, a new one shows up further down the line. While it’s easy to write it off as yet another example of how the government (under any administration) seems to be incapable of delivering large software projects, there are some specific lessons that developers can take away.

1)Load testing is your friend. If there’s a positive message that we can glean from the collapse of the portal, it is that there are a LOT of people interested in getting healthcare via the government. Unfortunately, that has led to what is effectively a DDoS attack. It has become abundantly clear that the site was never stress-tested under anything like the type of load it is encountering. The solution so far has been to put people into a queue, something that would get a site like Amazon laughed out of the marketplace. “I’m sorry, we’re a little busy right now, try shopping later?!!”