He didn't actually replicate an $86M project. The Victoria police signed a contract with Motorola for $17.3M in October of 2018 with Motorola part of which includes their ANPR system. It is a 5 year contract that will place cameras in 220 cars. The cameras will also record high quality video and audio. Among other things the contract includes 5 years of managed services regarding the operating of the ANPR and video/audio management system. A proper revised title for the article would be "I replicated an unknown fraction of a $17.3M project in 57 lines of code"

Q&A. Compliance, e.g. correctly storing the data, while allowing audited access. Ongoing, around the clock support. Etc

Not that it doesn't make sense to look into government overspending in IT, it happens all the time. But this angle of approaching it is ineffective at best.

OK, this story gets posted on HN every now and then, and this question always appears there. Like, really always. People always recommend reading "The Mythical Man-Month", also this link is always posted somewhere in the comments: https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/

my time this time!

Sales process, lawyers, taxes, equipment, support, and better correctness presumably.

In someone else’s bank account who is laughing at your inability to sell

Identify the problem, masquerade a randomly generated solution as being part of your perceptive abilities

KA-CHING! Thats a sound effect for getting rich from someone else paying you with other people’s money

Product Life Cycle (PLC)