Having worked with a lot of contracted firms that do custom software development and platform customization, let’s not put them too high on a pedestal. What money you save on FTE programmers needs to be funneled right back into management talent to make sure they deliver a quality product (high utility, supportable by next contractor, quality docs, etc). Good management talent is hard to find and not something any government is known for. Consequently, next contractor probably has mondo ramp-up time deciphering what hacked pos the last guys put in with their c-team developers (cuz margins).