---cut from larger article linked below---
The health exchange project lost significant momentum and time when Lawson, Oregon Health Authority's new IT director, changed the project's approach, according to a consultant's report.
Crucial to the success of Lawson's plan was for the state and its consultants to diligently oversee Oracle's work while doing much of the programming itself. But the OHA technology team had no experience dealing with Oracle systems, and lacked software developers and managers with expertise, as consultants like Wakely warned.
In fact, three quarters of the necessary personnel for the exchange project still hadn't been hired four months after the Oracle contract was signed
The exchange team "has little experience and few, if any, technical resources to validate the work-in-progress by Oracle," stated a Nov. 2011 report from the quality consultant, Maximus. "The hiring of new personnel with sufficient expertise will be critical."
Lawson said she hired consultants to provide the expertise the exchange team lacked.
Whatever the reason, from the very start the Oracle team seemed to have broad leeway to run the project as it saw fit, according to several people who worked on the project in 2012.
"The state was sitting on their hands. It was management by consensus. I think that probably was why Oracle pretty much took over and said we're just going to move along," said Larry Ridgley, a senior business analyst who worked on the project through March 2012. "The (state's) project managers I spoke with felt completely overwhelmed. I don't think they knew how to manage a project of that scope."
An August 2012 Maximus report found the exchange project was disorganized, lacked basic management and budget controls to ensure contractor performance, and was poisoned by distrust and suspicion between executives at Cover Oregon and their counterparts at the Oregon Health Authority. The project essentially had two masters.
The report recommended a more unified management and better management controls. By October, the "window was closing" where these changes would have much effect on the success of the project, according to Maximus.
After lawmakers blasted the exchange for its lack of management controls in 2012 legislative hearings, OHA and Cover Oregon did make changes, but not quickly or decisively enough, interviews and documents show.
Lawson says the real problem was the tight timeline, as well as several federal rules that were changed or issued at the last minute. "You could have had the best management controls in the world and had a hard time managing through this," she said. She said narrow contract work orders helped keep Oracle on task. "We didn't just run wild with the money."
In October 2012, a consultant hired for a crucial part of the project quit after just eight days. Karthikeya Kala was alarmed by the fact that Oracle was essentially writing its own project specifications and poorly at that, he said. "It was obvious the project wasn't going to succeed," he said.
In his farewell letter he informed state managers the project wasn't following industry standards, resulting in a "chaotic" situation.
Adding to the problems was persistent infighting starting in 2012. Cover Oregon leaders believed OHA was preventing them from building a nimble, e-commerce site. Eventually, they went to Gov. John Kitzhaber to secure independence, exchange emails show.
In November 2012, Lawson accused Cover Oregon staff of "blindsiding" her in legislative hearings. The following month, Lawson urged King, Cover Oregon's director, to help "contain the emotion" of his subordinates after a "rough meeting. He responded that the real problem was the "competence" of her staff.
Bureaucratic backbiting continued into this October when Lawson accused Cover Oregon of instructing Oracle contractors not to talk to OHA. "The Oracle team at the highest levels believes they have been instructed by Rocky (King) not to talk to us," Lawson said in Oct. 7 email to her boss, Bruce Goldberg. "Since launch, the (Cover Oregon) side of the project has become a black hole."
While King feuded with Lawson, he also struggled to put an optimistic spin on the situation, repeatedly telling the public the site would be ready on Oct. 1. Privately, he worried that Oracle wouldn't deliver.
"We are in serious trouble," he told his leadership team in a Sept. 17 email. "This whole IT side has gotten away from us."
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