Re: CoD
The biggest issue is that most 'junior' management civil servants don't seem to know what they are doing when it comes to this. I work on one of these projects and since the scope was originally set (5 years ago or thereabouts) there has since been over 670 change requests to the scope ranging from simple minor changes to the way a page looks to massive architectural changes like how authentication should work. When this happens resource already allocated to one task has to be moved to cover it adding further delays. No business can be expected to work for free so I disagree with your statement that the lowest bidder always wins and then sneakily inflates the price. This probably does happen sometimes but when it comes to government contracts - not always. I have seen firsthand the incompetence of civil servants. Some of the demands they make are ridiculous and I could point a finger (not going to) at one individual who more than anyone else is responsible for a lot of the delays.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
