Documents exchanged between the Democratic National Committee and the developer of the app that caused disarray during the Iowa caucuses last week details the involvement that national party officials had over the app’s development.
The results of the Iowa caucuses have yet to be made official more than a week later after a slew of issues related to the app. In the days following the Iowa caucus, DNC chair Tom Perez has blamed the Iowa Democratic Party and the app developer, Shadow Inc., for the snafu.
According to a Yahoo News report Thursday, a copy of the contract between Shadow and the Iowa Democratic Party — obtained by an unaffiliated Democratic operative in Iowa — signed Oct. 14 shows that the company agreed to work with the DNC.
“Consultant agrees to work with the DNC Services Corporation / Democratic National Committee (‘DNC’) on an on-going basis as Consultant develops the software,” the contract reads, according to Yahoo News.
The contract also details Shadow Inc.’s agreement to grant the DNC access to its software for testing purposes, saying that the app developer will “provide DNC continual access to review the Consultant’s system configurations, security and system logs, system designs, data flow designs, security controls (preventative and detective), and operational plans for how the Consultant will use and run the Software for informational dissemination, pre-registration, tabulation, and reporting throughout the caucus process.”
Read Yahoo News’ report here.
Of course the DNC would have been involved. Is it a surprise to anyone that the group paying for the damn thing…whether it works or not…is involved at some stage of design and development?! The failure of this app is most likely a failure in the development/testing cycle…if 40 years working in IT taught me anything at all. Sheesh…
And? So?
Um, so what? C’mon, TPM, stop with the Sanders-esque conspiracy-theory-sounding headlines. You’re better than that . . . aren’t you?
Just. Go. Away.
And DNC, I expect some basic competence and common sense from you. This is not monday morning quarterbacking; any software professional would have told you your schedule’s chance of success was about the same as threading a needle on the first try while riding a galloping horse blindfolded.
Yes, that’s hardly surprising.
Like you (and every other sentient being), I’m more interested in how (or if) the app was tested.