RNZ this morning has people complaining that “the IT sector hasn’t been approached about contact tracing”.

You know, because when you need critical government systems up and supporting millions of users within days, what better thing to do than a rapid IT project.

Caution: I have no inside knowledge here

There are good reasons to stick to well understood manual approaches in a time of crisis.
- failure modes known
- don’t lose delivery staff to design meetings
Govt IT projects almost universally slow, over budget and ineffective at first

As for apps. The way people are talking about contact tracing apps feels reminiscent of people who sincerely want to help doing what they understand. And in cases a problem in search of a solution.

The best tech here is likely to be an imported solution that has been tested and proven at scale in the real world overseas.

The best solution is likely to be whatever is used most broadly.

A *bad* tech solution for contact tracing is fifty different *good* tech solutions that don’t integrate, with usage fragmented across society.