[cleaver]

I had a small company that did software consulting work for one of the provinces. Around 10+ years ago governments started requesting "off the shelf" solutions instead of custom-developed software. This led to a situation where they didn't own the code, were tied to vendor upgrade schedules, and had to pay a premium for customizations. This had the result of spiralling costs.

Each time there's a scandal, they tighten the rules so that ultimately only large companies with teams dedicated to writing proposals can compete.

To be fair:

- we worked on smaller projects of a scope where one person could maintain a mental model of the system

- nothing so mission critical as payroll

I expect the pendulum to swing back toward more internal development and greater ownership and autonomy. So far, not much has changed.