Your Tax Dollars at Work

This almost seems like an exaggeration. Almost.

T. C. is a contractor working for the government on a systems monitoring product. As part of a migration, he needed to move his system and get a new IP address for it. To get things going, he had to follow the standard procedure.

Day 1
First, T. C. had to download the change request template, assess, and write up the change so the board can approve the request to move the computer. Then he went through a pre-submission review with his boss, making revisions as they went.

After the pre-submission review came the actual submission. T. C. met with the board members to discuss the change, and to get it granted or denied.

Day 2-8
Success! Approval for the change was granted. Now T. C. was crusing on easy street! Except that now he had to assemble a group of stakeholders, then schedule a meeting that everyone could make it to. They'd discuss everything needed for the move.

Day 9-22
Several stakeholder meetings were held before a decision was reached. Finally, a task list was assembled. The server would be moved, it'd get a new IP address, and a handful of firewall ports would be opened. Getting everyone in the stakeholder group in one room at the same time was always a challenge, so it took two weeks.

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