>>>Actually, it's quite typical for a government contract that was split between GUI and back-end and the two contractors never talked about what the other was expecting.
>
>Right, but you have to use contractors rather than federal employees because the private sector is so much more efficient.. ;-)
>
>Meanwhile elsewhere some wags observe that Republicans are incensed that something apart from government had to be shut down. ;-)

Had the same issue (read fight) when I worked for the State of Texas. Contractors are 'cheaper', even though the State is paying 10x more money for each, because "we don't have to give them benefits". And almost every project that used outside contractors (working outside our offices) went over budget, over time, and generally had to be redone by state employees (if we were allowed to). The projects that used contractors working inside our offices generally worked out MUCH better.