City of Vancouver – Olympic Village

Posted on August 31,December 17, by admin

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...

Veterans Affiars – USA

Posted on August 25,December 28, by admin

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...

Push and Pull

Posted on January 19,July 27, by admin

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...

Bottom Fed Failure

Posted on December 2,December 19, by admin

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...

Top Led Failure

Posted on December 1,January 2, by admin

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...

Department of Transport – UK

Posted on December 1,December 26, by admin

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 U...

Mind the Gap

Posted on November 13, by admin

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...

Qantas

Posted on November 1,December 26, by admin

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...

Firearms Registry

Posted on October 23,January 29, by admin

Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world. Canadian Federal Government - Canada Project name : Canadian Firearms program Date : Jun 2006 Project Cost :$1,000M CAD Synopsis : In what may be the worst budget overrun in history, the costs to implement a registry of firearms balloons from $2M to $860M. Original plan called for the program to cost $119M of which all but $2M would be covered by license ap...

State of Wisconsin