[djKianoosh]

I'm curious how you're breaking down the work and if you only take full time devs or are bringing in hourly contractors for different pieces. Do you think you'd have better luck finding good devs if you broke it down like that?

[brandonb]

So far, it's been on a rotation -- folks go on leave from their jobs for 1-3 months, move out to DC/Baltimore area, and work as hard as possible while they're here. :)

It's such a high-intensity project that I think the we'll want to keep it to full-time for the time being. Otherwise, it's hard to even keep up, let alone make progress.

(As a technical point, though, even though everybody is working on this for well over 40 hrs/week, we're technically hourly subcontractors. That's just how the government works.)

[coldcode]

What technology knowledge are required?

[brandonb]

No particular knowledge is required, but all of our new code uses technologies like Backbone, Node, Capistrano, and MySQL.

We also make API calls into the existing system, which is written in Java, so it helps to be able to grasp a complex Java codebase with way too many layers and enterprise systems. :)

But mostly, we're just looking for great software engineers who want to make a difference, not any particular set of acronyms.

[blendo]

Is it the existing system the "bad" kind of Java (J2EE 1.4/EJB 1/xml hell/Abstract Factory madness) or the nicer and more modern RESTy/Dependency Injected/JEE6 (or Spring) variant?

And I recall that one of the trickier requirements is correctly sending and acking enrollment info (EDI?) to and from the many (dozens?) of insurance companies involved. Is that piece looking ok?