The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America - The Atlantic

A timely reality check/case study on how robust Web sites are built

"Here is the tl;dr version of their story: Marketplace Lite, or “MPL” as they came to be known, devoted months to rewriting Healthcare.gov functions in full, working as a startup within the government and replacing contractor-made apps with ones costing one-fiftieth of the price. And when, nearly a year after the initial launch of Healthcare.gov, the website’s second open-enrollment proved much healthier than its first, it was the MPL team who celebrated.

The MPL team had three great technical accomplishments over its 16-month-long life. First, it served as a crack team which understood the infrastructure of the site and could resolve small issues as they arose. Second, it built an insurance application, called App2, which signed up new users in less than half the time of the original app. Finally, it replaced the website’s crashy login system with a functional (and much less expensive) one of its own design.


It did most of this while living together in an unremarkable McMansion in suburban Maryland."

The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America - The Atlantic