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Estimation

Neverending Story pattern: School District ERP system late, over-budget

November 14, 2018
Neverending Story pattern: School District ERP system late, over-budget

A story a few days ago caught my eye, not because it was unusual, but because it follows so familiar a pattern. Here are a few excerpts from the article: MANATEE — Late nights, hefty contracts and humming computers are a norm in the district’s School Support Center, where employees are working to fix a […]

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Minnesota DMV software project: Faulty Towers/Neverending Story patterns

March 29, 2018
Minnesota DMV software project: Faulty Towers/Neverending Story patterns

In my 2000 white paper, “Patterns in IT Litigation: System Failure (1976-2000)” [PDF], which I researched and wrote while at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I describe six broad fact patterns to classify the types of software system implementation failure. One of those patterns I named “Faulty Towers”: The client buys the system from [or has the system developed […]

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The flip site of government IT failures: the contractors

October 7, 2013 0 Comments
The flip site of government IT failures: the contractors

My friend and colleague Robert La Ferla pointed me to this Boston Globe article detailing problems with certain of Deloitte’s large-scale IT projects for governments (emphasis mine): In its brochures, Deloitte Consulting proclaims a record of “smooth implementations” of complex technology projects. But in courts, school systems, and government agencies in several states, the roll-out of […]

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Why government IT projects are so prone to failure or overruns

September 30, 2013 2 Comments
Why government IT projects are so prone to failure or overruns

Joseph Marks over at Government Executive Magazine has an excellent article on the propensity of government IT projects to having significant cost/schedule overruns or to fail altogether. One of the key issues is the frequent lack of authority, power, and accountability precisely because of all the rules, regulations, and procedures in place for acquiring IT […]

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Entrenchment of bad technology: the London Metropolitan Police Department

September 2, 2013 0 Comments
Entrenchment of bad technology: the London Metropolitan Police Department

Vernor Vinge, in several of his science fiction novels (such as A Fire upon the Deep), posits the existence of  “zones of thought” within the inner portion of our galaxy that place inherent limits on intelligence and technology — the further you get from the galaxy’s center, the greater intelligence and technology is possible. The […]

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