[Agathos]

Most coders just happen to like coding. Selling IT services to a government might involve a little coding, but it's mostly about mastering the procurement process. Where do you even start with that?

I seem to recall we had a similar discussion in the wake of the disastrous healthcare.gov rollout. For example, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7855295

[dagw]

Yea, I work quite a bit with government contracts, and to be honest it's a lot of fun and it offers some very interesting projects and R&D opportunities. But I work for mid sized consulting group that has at least two layers of insulation between me and the customer. My boss is an absolute hero for dealing with the stuff he deals with to make sure I just get to code. There is no way in hell I'd try to get involved in that world if I had to deal directly with the whole procurement process myself.

Also I try to only take smaller projects (up to $100000 or so) since they tend to be handled by much more sane people all around.

[fractallyte]

I was heartened to discover this UK government-sponsored gem, a free online course explaining procurement (for beginners): http://www1.learndirect-business.com/business-courses/winnin...

There may be some pointers here applicable to the US scene. Nevertheless, it's good to see management finally realizing the cost benefits of smaller-scale operators.

[eldelshell]

In Medellin, Colombia, they have this fair about government transparency where the local governments shows to all participants all the different projects, how much was paid, who participated and specially relevant for your comment, they teach people and companies how to participate in the whole process.