Well, folks, the news is not good, at least for CBMS, but maybe it could be.  Someday.  Maybe.

Ann Imse's story in today's Rocky Mountain News, "Data systems get some glue", discusses the additional responsibilities that Mike Locatis assumes today givng him, by law, oversight of the State of Colorado's 1200 IS personnel and $265 million IS budget.  It includes, of course, fixing the Colorado Benefits Management Systems (CBMS), among several others.  CBMS, as I'm sure you know by now, has been limping along since it's premature conversion on September 1, 2004. 

In response to a query from Ann, Jon Conley, Mike's Deputy, said that "CBMS is fully operational and all major bugs have been worked out".  Ed Kahn, the attorney who has done yeoman work on behalf of the aid recipients supposed to be helped by CBMS, "said it would be "outrageous" to consider CBMS fixed." 

Ann quoted me in the story too.  "Don McCubbrey ......... uses the CBMS mess as a case study of how not to replace a computer system. He said he is "surprised and disappointed" that it still has not been fixed, 16 months into the new governor's term.

"What would the president of Coors have done if EDS (the computer manufacturer) had installed a manufacturing control system and the beer production line shut down?" McCubbrey said. "He would have called the president of EDS and said, 'Hop in your jet and be in my office. You're going to fix this, fast.'

"That should have been done long ago, the professor said. "Ritter has to reset Mike's priorities. Let's get this behind us."

When we discuss the CBMS case in the classroom, my students are astonished that a system so important to the welfare of so many citizens could be dysfunctional for so long.  I don't understand it either.  Read the story.  While you're at it, read Ann's accompanying story: "Glitches take toll on real people".