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.
[Adapted from Patterns in IT Litigation: Systems Failure (1976-2000)] Summary: The vendor makes claims for the functionality and/or performance benefits of the system. The client buys the system and has it installed. The client then believes that the system does not have the claimed benefits (performance, reliability and/or functionality). In some cases, the client ends […]
[Adapted from Patterns in IT Litigation: Systems Failure (1976-2000)] Summary: The client buys the system from the vendor. The client then claims that the system is defective, i.e., it has errors during operation, crashes, and so on. The vendor makes attempts to repair it, allegedly with limited and unsatisfactory success. In some cases, the client […]
[Adapted from Patterns in IT Litigation: Systems Failure (1976-2000)] Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana, Life of Reason Few professions appear to embody the quote above as the history of development projects using information technology: computer hardware, software, data, […]
Several years ago, while working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I reviewed documents and information that we had gathered regarding roughly 120 “IT systems failure” lawsuits, that is, lawsuits regarding a dispute over a two- or three-party IT systems development project. The fact pattern surrounding each case tended to fall into one or two of six major patterns: […]
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 […]