Comment by abigail95
2 days ago
The system may or may not be complex but the data is has to store and transform is not. Because it handles drivers licenses. A function that has been done on pen and paper and filing cabinets.
Study the data, study the operations, reduce complexity.
Since you imply you know more about UK budgets than I do - how much is the DVLA budgeted for IT operations like this and how much more would you give them to expect this problem solved?
I can argue real numbers but vibes about bone dry budgets I cannot.
Are you suggesting that a process once done using pen and paper can't possibly be complicated?
I have no insight into the DVLA, but the idea that no paper process could ever be complicated is really funny. The UK enjoyed/loathed centuries of bureaucracy before computers were invented. At one point getting a divorce required an Act of Parliament specifically naming the unhappy couple! Being restricted to pen and paper hardly inhibited the human ability to create complex systems.
> The system may or may not be complex but the data is has to store and transform is not. Because it handles drivers licenses. A function that has been done on pen and paper and filing cabinets.
It handles more than just driving licenses... The DVLA do more than just driving licenses.
> Since you imply you know more about UK budgets than I do - how much is the DVLA budgeted for IT operations like this and how much more would you give them to expect this problem solved?
It's not budgeted anything for this as far as I know. I believe it's handled by Government Digital Services which handles lots of the digital services for various departments. The budget for all of GDS is about 90 million most of which isn't for .gov.uk. A rewrite of that size I would expect to cost about 50-60 million in total but take several years.
Any business which took 50-60m to rewrite something that simple wouldn't exist.
I know of a large international retailer everyone here has heard of that had at least 3 aborted attempts to rewrite their 70's VAX-based warehouse management software stack (an internal attempt, an Indian outsource attempt and an SAP attempt) they spent that much at least with zero to show for it. They had all the issues with "too many sales in one day causing batches to not finish" and "but this warehouse wants to open 24/7..." and still couldn't get it rewritten
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That simple? You probably couldn't even list all the things the DVLA is responsible for. I also doubt you could list all the laws and policies relating to driver licenses.
And you would be shocked at how expensive big rewrites actually are.
What? Like Fujitsu? Still going strong bidding on gov contracts and providing garbage.