A couple of weeks ago I wrote a brief post about an idea, discussed by blogger and IT consultant Bruce Webster, that he calls the “Thermocline of Truth”. Mr. Webster describes it:
In many large or even medium-sized IT projects, there exists a thermocline of truth, a line drawn across the organizational chart that represents a barrier to accurate information regarding the project’s progress. Those below this level tend to know how well the project is actually going; those above it tend to have a more optimistic (if unrealistic) view.
In an interview published today at CNN, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius (who has, puzzlingly, yet to undergo ritual hypovehiculation) wants us to understand (!) that President Obama, than whom “nobody’s madder” about the most catastrophic U.S. Government launch since late January of 1986, indeed remained well above the thermocline — even as the software failed critical tests shortly before liftoff.
The Secretary also made clear that no one could be more frustrated than she, with the possible exception of Mr. Obama — who is, as we already know, “madder” than anyone else (or, at the very least, just as mad as the maddest of the rest of us, if we understand him to have chosen his words with customary precision).
Where, precisely, Ms. Sibelius herself had floated in the water-column’s temperature-gradient in the weeks leading up to the launch is not made clear. Congress would like to ask her about it, and wanted her to stop by on Thursday, but she was busy with more important matters. Next week, perhaps.