This October marks the 5-year anniversary of the launch of HealthCare.gov – the insurance marketplace search platform that was conceived as part of the needs to support requirements of the Affordable Care Act. That launch, somewhat infamously, stalled in spectacular fashion at the starting line. The project was plagued with problems and high costs, and serves as a source for many useful lessons in web project management. Aaron and Michael review some of these lessons and what you should take away from it for your next project.

Kicking things off this week, we talk a bit about recent conference experiences and why taking time out once a year or so to go out and find an event in your field can be a useful opportunity to learn and network with others.

Followup Resources

• 4 Key Lessons to be Learned from HealthCare.gov
• 5 lessons learned from HealthCare.gov
• 6 Software Development Lessons From Healthcare.gov’s Failed Launch
• Archive.org site snapshot of HealthCare.gov at launch
• CGI Federal: Here’s Why Healthcare.gov is So Screwed Up
• HealthCare.gov’s Account Setup: 10 Broken Usability Guidelines a Nielsen Norman Group case study
• How much did HealthCare.gov cost?
• Project Management Lessons from the HealthCare.gov Launch
• Stabilizing and Improving HealthCare.gov, part of the USDS’s 2016 report to Congress
• ‘Stress tests’ show Healthcare.gov was overloaded
• US Web Design System pattern library