Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
Air Canada
Date : Aug 2009 Cost :$67M
Synopsis :
Following more than 3 years of development effort, Air Canada suspends its efforts to implement a next-generation air reservation and departure control system. Citing capital cost issues the airline announces a $67M write down related to the development. Originally planned to start deployment in 2007, the implementation...
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Failed Project
Foundation for Student life (Oslo) – Laundry system
Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
The foundation for student life (Oslo) – Norway
Date : May 2009 Cost :$14M + some dirty laundry
Synopsis :
As part of a move to SAP the Oslo based Foundation for Student Life elected to tie the laundry facilities in the student village into their accounting systems. Integrating the laundry machines into the accounting systems meant that students had to pay fo...
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City of Vancouver – Olympic Village
Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
City of Vancouver – Canada
Date : Jan 2009 Cost :$250M cost overrun
Synopsis :
While we don't often touch on construction projects in this database, a construction project is still a form of technology project. The following example nicely illustrates what happens when financial risks are ignored.
Having won the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in 20...
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Veterans Affiars – USA
Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
Veterans Affairs - USA
Project : Replacement Scheduling Application (RSA)
Date : Aug 2009 Cost :$41M
Synopsis :
After seven years of development the Veterans Affairs (VA) Replacement Scheduling Application (RSA) is scrapped. As a component of the larger HealtheVet system, the Replacement Scheduling Application was to allow veterans to request and view medical...
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Push and Pull
Although I’m not a great fan of taking concepts from the manufacturing sector and bending them so they can be applied to the IT sector, the idea of “push” versus “pull” processes is one that is worth considering. The concept of push versus pull comes from the field of lean manufacturing and is used to identify who in a chain of manufacturing processes is requesting work to be done. In the factory environment work is broken down into discrete processes which are linked together in a chain. Raw ma...
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Bottom Fed Failure
The following entry is part of the Pattern Library. The Pattern Library records the common patterns of behaviours and events that have the potential to lead to project failure.
Pattern name : Bottom Fed Failure
In brief :
Substandard work at the implementation level results in poor quality deliverables that lead to project failure
Description :
A product is only as good as its implementation and bottom fed failure occurs when the quality of the deliverables being created is allowed t...
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Top Led Failure
The following entry is part of the Pattern Library. The Pattern Library records the common patterns of behaviours and events that have the potential to lead to project failure.
Pattern name : Top Led Failure
In brief :
Strategic blunders by Senior Executives at the start of the project put the project on a course to disaster. Because the flawed decisions were made at the most senior of levels, the problems is never corrected resulting in a project pursuing a path that will eventually led n...
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Department of Transport – UK
Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
Department for Transport - UK
Project name : Shared Services
Date : May 2008 Cost :$160M
Synopsis :
Program to improve efficiency in the UK's Department of Transport ends up costing more than it saves. By sharing hardware and software services across the department the project was intended to save the organization $114M. A May 2008 study the the UK National ...
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Mind the Gap
The translation of an organizational need into a technical solution is a technology project’s core. That translation requires detailed knowledge of the organization’s operation environment (and their desired future state) to be married up with the technical skills from which the solution will be created. The size of the gap between those two pools of knowledge is a common source of troubled projects.
One project I recently observed had allowed a six step gap to form between the intended users...
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Qantas
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
Qantas - Australian airline
Project name : Jetsmart
Date : Feb 2008 Cost :$40M
Synopsis :
"Jetsmart" engineering parts management system is renamed "Dumbjet" by aircraft engineers because the system is so difficult to use. Failure to engage the engineers who would be the eventual users of the system into the requirements and design processes resulted in a system t...
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