Large government IT projects have high failure rates because they bring in consultants who by design are quick in and out and take the money. A better approach would be to hire a cadre of permanent full timers who will own and maintain this from start to finish. Architecture and design need to be in house. Then you can outsource small teams to build modules when appropriate.

Governments unwillingness to hire great software people, and pay the required salaries is why we get into these pickles.

Edit: from the government’s perspective this was a $290 million boondoggle.

To a consulting firm, this was a $290 million revenue stream pulled out of an $86 million dollar contract. A great success by any measure.