Lawmakers hear national expert on reducing risk in major state IT projects

Waldo Jackwith, government delivery manager at US Digital Response, told the Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure committee on April 17 that states can sharply reduce the risk of large custom software failures by changing procurement and oversight practices.

Jackwith opened his presentation with a detailed account of Rhode Island’s unified benefits system — originally contracted to Deloitte as UHIP and later renamed Rhode Island Bridges — and described how the project’s rollout, cost growth and later cyberattack illustrated systemic problems in how government buys and oversees major IT work. "This was a big initiative for Rhode Island... It was a unmitigated debacle," Jackwith said, summarizing the deployment and its impacts on residents who rely on benefits.

Why it matters: Jackwith told legislators that failing IT projects do more than waste money — they can prevent agencies from carrying out the policies the legislature has approved. "If the technology fails, the legislation fails, the policy fails, the agency fails," he said. He urged lawmakers to treat technology as a controlled,…