Webster is Principal and Founder at at Bruce F. Webster & Associates, as well as an Adjunct Professor for the BYU Computer Science Department. He works with organizations to help them with troubled or failed information technology (IT) projects. He has also worked in several dozen legal cases as a consultant and as a testifying expert, both in the United States and Japan. He can be reached at 303.502.4141 or at bwebster@bfwa.com.
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: political Let’s try to keep our perspective while standing knee-deep in the hoopla. As anyone truly experienced in a specific technology or methodology (”the TOM”) will tell you, that TOM is not going to end world hunger or bring about peace in our […]
The opening of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport has not been without problems, to say the least. And one of the specific problems appears to be the automated baggage handling system: …the computer-operated baggage system has crashed and luggage is now being sorted manually before being loaded on to planes. Twelve return flights to […]
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: political It’s easy to get excited about a particular technology or methodology (the “TOM”). More often than not, they represent a real advance in software engineering, solving — or at least easing — problems that you face on a regular basis. And we […]
[From Pitfalls of Modern Software Engineering by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming)] CATEGORIES: conceptual, managerial Make no mistake: modern software development techniques and methodologies, combined with powerful user-interface classes and software development tools, can greatly speed application development. However, they also allow application prototypes to be put together and demonstrated very quickly. This is great for […]
[UPDATED 04/01/08: Here’s some additional commentary on the case.] This news just came over the wire: BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Waste Management Inc said it spent more than $100 million on a computer system that was supposed to help it save money, but instead turned out to be a “complete failure.” Waste Management spokeswoman Lynn […]
Classic patterns in disputed IT project: Hertz v. Accenture
Just ran across this article at the always-irreverent-but-usually-spot-on Register, an IT news site out of England. The standard patterns of a troubled IT project are so evident in this one report that I may well use it as a case study for my CS 428 (“Real-world software engineering”) class this fall. Here are some of […]
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 […]
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 […]
![The Meltdown/Spectre CPU bugs: a dramatic global case of the “Unintended Consequences” pattern [UPDATED 4/4/18]](http://bfwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/intel-cpu-150x150.jpg "The Meltdown/Spectre CPU bugs: a dramatic global case of the “Unintended Consequences” pattern [UPDATED 4/4/18]")
Back in 2000, PricewaterhouseCooper published my research white paper, “Patterns in IT Litigation: Systems Failure (1976-2000)” (PDF). This paper reflected research I and my staff had done over several months on roughly 120 two- or three-party lawsuits involving information technology. I found that almost all of these lawsuits fell into one or two of six […]