Silicon Valley Inspires Potomac Puzzlement
October 26, 2016
I read “Washington’s Version of Silicon Valley Startup Founders.” The story, which is probably tinged with some Silicon Valley envy for the wizards in Washington, DC, describes the 18F government entrepreneur, consulting, and start up project. The report is not findable on the Office of the Inspector General’s Web site. I did some poking around and as of October 25, 2016, there report was available at this link. (If this puppy leaves the public dog park, contact the OIG. Those folks are ready to answer their phones and respond to email.)
I noted this passage in the SFGate article:
[The] “18F” program to create its own version of a high-tech startup for government digital projects has foundered since its launch in 2014, losing nearly $32 million as its staff spent most of its time on unbillable work…
The issues identified in the SFGate write up include:
- Lousy revenue estimates. “Senior 18F managers overestimated the amount of money their projects would recoup”
- Adding staff. “Increased hiring using special rules every three months since April 2014” and “18F hired a full-time head of state and local government practice at an annual salary of $152,780, even though at the time, 18F was not authorized to work directly for state and local governments.”
- Missed billability targets. “Less than half the program’s staff time on projects for which it could bill other federal agencies.”
18F seems to be allied with the GSA, a fine outfit. One clue about the organization’s management appears in this passage from the SFGate write up:
The 10-month investigation by the GSA’s inspector general found that 52 percent of 18F’s work was unbillable and included an internal project to change its logo by altering its font, alignment and background color. In all, 727 staff hours, or $140,104, were spent on developing the brand, including that logo change.
Yep, logos are easy and fun. Lots of meetings. The billable work stuff for consulting work is tougher. In the news release about the report, I highlighted this passage:
18F had projected annual revenue of $84.18 million for fiscal year 2016; however, through the third quarter 18F only generated $27.82 million in revenue, leaving 18F one quarter to generate $56.37 million in revenue to meet its projections.
There was an online component too revealed in the SFGate article. I noted this statement:
The report said 18F spent about 20 hours or $4,148 on two customized “bots” for Slack, an online messaging application. One of the automated programs would monitor users’ messages for the words “guys,” ”guyz” and “dudes,” which could have been perceived as being not inclusive for women. It prompted users to consider replacing those words with 21 options that included buds, compatriots, fellow humans, posse, team, mateys, persons of any kind, organic carbon-based life-forms living on the third planet from the sun, comrades and cats.
Yo, dudes. Love the search engine for US OIG reports.
Stephen E Arnold, October 26, 2016
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