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Montana Legislature HB 197 is IMO a misguided approach to a management issue. It would require surveillance software to record all keystrokes and mouse movements on govt contract work. #mtleg #mtpol leg.mt.gov/bills/2019/bil…
I will agree there has been abuse in state contracts of waste and horrible work but this is not the solution. Who will go back and review all of this? Will it reduce contractors willing to participate? @DanielZolnikov can you provide examples of helpful use in other states?
I am willing to work with #mtleg legislators on a better approach to tackling waste and bad project work if that is indeed the issue. This would be an excellent citizen task force item since we have great tech people here in the state to provide ideas. cc @MontanaHighTech
A different approach would be to change procurement process to require an agency to secure a third-party solutions architecture firm to participate in the project management or review code commits / timesheets during the project. Would cost more again though
If the issue is overages on fixed cost contracts then 1) the contractor needs to absorb the overage (no tracking needed) 2) if time overages then penalties need to be written into contracts or 3) don't pay until you get phased project deliverables that are acceptable
I think too often we let IT contractors off the hook or allow them to go over for poor reasons. If they can't estimate properly and the agency has not vetted or planned properly then that is a management problem. Not a case for a tracking tool to slow all projects down
