Agreed. Also some clients, especially government, such as Fines Victoria in this example, still want to follow a waterfall approach and insist on it. I know the Fines Vic people would not allow frequent releases and so the releases would build up into monsters that would be deployed every 6-9 months. This approach never goes well and in this case certainly did not.
On Mon, 28 Oct 2019 at 09:20, <g...@greglow.com> wrote: > I think one of the biggest issues is that so many project managers still > think you can plan IT projects like you plan building a bridge. The > difference with a bridge is that you can specify what’s needed, and it’s > unlikely to change before you finish building the bridge. > > > > Unfortunately though, that’s also how the people funding it look at it. > They want to know what it will cost before they start. > > > > Somehow, we have to get project planning to match reality. At present, > when there are variations from the plan, that’s seen as a problem, and seen > as unexpected. But the reality is that it’s totally expected. The problem > was the idea that bridge-style planning is appropriate. > > > > Regards, > > > > Greg > > > > Dr Greg Low > > > > 1300SQLSQL (1300 775 775) office | +61 419201410 mobile│ +61 3 8676 4913 > fax > > SQL Down Under | Web: www.sqldownunder.com > <https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sqldownunder.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csspahelp%40microsoft.com%7C1f0ea4d6b97e4d897f3708d666d1e890%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636809449091516274&sdata=SLHeEGAMmWUY5YIwcC4oAPYr%2F9RIZdi4MNASsdzwX2I%3D&reserved=0> > |http://greglow.me > <https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgreglow.me%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csspahelp%40microsoft.com%7C1f0ea4d6b97e4d897f3708d666d1e890%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636809449091526278&sdata=IU8tnAITCjBxWafi3A9XpO9lF3PIwZJ8ad3t36lnxvs%3D&reserved=0> > > > > *From:* ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com <ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> *On > Behalf Of *Ken Schaefer > *Sent:* Sunday, 27 October 2019 9:38 PM > *To:* ozDotNet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> > *Subject:* RE: [OT] Fines Victoria crisis deepens > > > > Depends on how your measure success. > > > > By the typical bottom-line, most projects aren’t “successes”. However, > lots of organisations have: > > 1. Arbitrary limits on how much contingency can be included – which > then doesn’t reflect the true level of uncertainty in the project > 2. Requirements change > 3. Vendors, systems integrators etc. go bust, change direction or > what-have-you > 4. Your project competes with everyone else’s for scarce capital, so > everyone has an incentive to downplay cost, and upsell benefits > 5. Technological cost estimates can be done relatively accurately, but > large-scale projects include significant organisational change which is > much harder to estimate/cost up-front. > > > > By my guess, about 15-20% of large IT projects ($50-100m+) are successful. > Maybe 20-30% are real failures. Everything else is in a bit of a grey area > where they are failures based on initial cost/time/features criteria, but > might have been successful if business cases were allowed to be more > realistic. > > > > Regards, > > Ken > > > > *From:* ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com <ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> *On > Behalf Of *g...@greglow.com > *Sent:* Wednesday, 23 October 2019 2:25 PM > *To:* 'ozDotNet' <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> > *Subject:* RE: [OT] Fines Victoria crisis deepens > > > > Not sure about that. I endlessly hear that the success ratio for large IT > projects is around 30%, not up around 70 or 80%. > > > > It’s quite appalling really. > > > > Regards, > > > > Greg > > > > Dr Greg Low > > > > 1300SQLSQL (1300 775 775) office | +61 419201410 mobile│ +61 3 8676 4913 > fax > > SQL Down Under | Web: www.sqldownunder.com > <https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sqldownunder.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csspahelp%40microsoft.com%7C1f0ea4d6b97e4d897f3708d666d1e890%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636809449091516274&sdata=SLHeEGAMmWUY5YIwcC4oAPYr%2F9RIZdi4MNASsdzwX2I%3D&reserved=0> > |http://greglow.me > <https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgreglow.me%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csspahelp%40microsoft.com%7C1f0ea4d6b97e4d897f3708d666d1e890%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C0%7C636809449091526278&sdata=IU8tnAITCjBxWafi3A9XpO9lF3PIwZJ8ad3t36lnxvs%3D&reserved=0> > > > > *From:* ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com <ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> *On > Behalf Of *mike smith > *Sent:* Wednesday, 23 October 2019 12:45 PM > *To:* ozDotNet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> > *Subject:* Re: [OT] Fines Victoria crisis deepens > > > > Success stories don't seem to make it into MSM. pity, because you'd think > there's more successful outcomes than failures > > > > On Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 12:24 Greg Keogh <gfke...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Interesting front page article in The Age newspaper today > <https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/fines-victoria-system-collapses-leaving-massive-hole-in-state-budget-20191022-p5333d.html> > about a Victorian government IT disaster. IT disasters are routine (I'm > sure we've all caused a few!) but it's interesting that they actually name > the software as VIEW from a company called Civica. The article is a bit > vague about what's actually wrong, it just says "[it] doesn't work", "the > system was absolute chaos" and systems are not "talking to" their > computers. Does anyone have inside gossip about what really happened? > > > > There was another vast IT disaster a few years ago related to the > education system I think, where dodgy contracts were being awarded to > mates, and I think the loss ran into the hundreds of millions. That story > vanished from the news and I never found out what happened. > > > > *Greg K* > >
