The healthcare.gov website received lots of backlash over its failure with performance and scalability. While there are mistakes and errors on it, Drupal would have been a great choice to handle this challenge. Drupal's open source software style means there is a community of developers working for free to fix any bugs on Drupal and improve it.  While the term open source can seem scary in terms of security and who has access to the site, it just means there is a larger pool of talent to draw from on a project.

1. Problem solving- Drupal's open source software is perfect to solve large problems because there is a huge community of developers constantly working to improve Drupal.  This community is free with Drupal, and everyone is willing and ready to come together to fix a problem.

2. Product development- The large community working on Drupal means that any bug or issue with the software will be seen by many people and fixed quickly.  Having more people work on a problem with the talent that this community possesses will improve the chances of success.

3. Performance- The site may have been able to work on its own in one form, but it may not have handled connected to other sites that individual states would use which was a vital mistake that could mean serious consequences if someone was trying to purchase healthcare on a deadline and couldn't get where they needed in a timely manner.  Drupal handles performance well if administered correctly; it can process vast amounts of data that users need during their visit as well as integration with lots of other APIs that are involved in this system.

4. Scalability- The original site was tested by a few people and it worked then, but little thought seemed to be given as to how the site would respond to millions of hits which was the intended size of the audience.  Being able to think and understand the reality of this product's application is something most businesses have to think about or they lose valuable sales if use case isn't considered. 

5. Beta Testing- This stage of the process is when a large community of knowledgeable developers would make that task seemingly easy.  Having this pool of talent all looking and working on the problem would have insured that everything would be tested effectively to minimize errors later.

In short, if they had started with Drupal, the time to product could have been significantly reduced.  Drupal's open source software would have meant a large team of talent working for free to make a better project that will last.

Photo by Glyn Lowe