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A familiar problem in the public sector
"A multi-million-pound computer system intended to revolutionise Dorset County Council is still not working, according to staff. At a time when the authority is facing a financial crisis and has to save almost £50million, concerns remain about the new £16 million IT system that was introduced to save the council time and money" (Dorset Echo).
In my experience, tried and tested off-the-shelf systems work best- and save millions.
Update, 24 May, 2013: also true of this major BBC digital project
BBC video
BBC Trust 2011 report on the Digital Media Initiative (pdf)
DMI="Don't Mention It"
The Economist
Listen to Alex Budziev on BBC Radio 4 Today programme (IPlayer), Saturday 25 May at 1 hour 17 minutes and 30 seconds mark-
"Alex Budzier from Oxford University's Said Business School, who has carried out the largest academic study of IT projects, talks about why the BBC's Digital Media Initiative could have gone so wrong. The project was scrapped yesterday".
About Alex Budziev, who is is conducting research on how to improve ICT Megaproject performance by improving decision-making of project sponsors under the supervision of Bent Flyvbjerg, the centre director.
Universal Credit system, £40 million write-off
Glenda Jackson is asking questions now.
She asks about the write-offs.
Mike Driver talks about things being impaired.
Jackson says she does not know what that means.
Driver says the DWP has spent £40.1m on code that it will not be using. That has been written off.
Q: How can that happen?
Driver says, when you create a computer system, you have to re-work code. It is normal to have to re-work 30% or 40% of the code.
Jackson says that if 40% of the code is being written off, whoever commissioned this is an idiot.
Duncan Smith says this is how IT projects are managed. Some bits of code do not work as anticipated. They have to get written off.
6.30pm GMT
Labour's Teresa Pearce goes next.
Q: You are writing off £40m. And you are writing down £90m. So doesn't that take the total write off cost to £130m?
Driver says he does not accept that. Because, over the five years that the £90m is being written down, the DWP will be getting use from it.
6.32pm GMT
Q: Will there be a further write off?
No, says Driver.
6.34pm GMT
Q: Have you issued a ministerial direction to the department?
No, says Duncan Smith. Not on this, or on anything else.
(A ministerial direction is a rare Whitehall device, a written order telling civil servants to proceed with a project when they have warned against it.)
6.36pm GMT
Q: What's the difference between "waterfall" IT and "agile" IT.
Shiplee says a "waterfall" project is one where you start with a clear idea of what outcome you want. An "agile" one is one where you learn as you are going along.
Q: And what is this?
Shiplee says the implementation is "agile".
6.37pm GMT
Q: Has the new timetable been subject to a business review?
Shiplee says it is being submitted to the Treasury soon.
Driver says it is before Christmas, or shortly afterwards.
6.43pm GMT
Q: Why has this IT project been different from other DWP ones?
Duncan Smith says at the early stages of the project, this was meant to be an "agile" process.
But, as it got going, Duncan Smith thought it looked like a hybrid - part "agile", part "waterfall".
Lord Freud says other programmes had been narrow, delivering one change.
This project involves delivering different benefits that interact.
6.46pm GMT
Q: Is there a clawback if the software does not do what it is meant to do?
Shiplee says that in this market, firms will not do the work if they are expected to take all the risk.
6.51pm GMT
Nigel Mills goes next.
Q: Are you working with the right IT suppliers?
Shiplee says they are working with suppliers they have worked with before.
It would have been hard to get smaller suppliers, he says.
6.52pm GMT
Duncan Smith says he is not getting rid of any transitional protection for people going on to UC.
6.53pm GMT
Q: What are the cost implications for the implementation taking longer than expected?
Driver says this will be covered in the business case being put to the Treasury.
And that's it. The hearing is over.
NHS Patient Records Systems, £10 billion
"An abandoned NHS patient record system has so far cost the taxpayer nearly £10bn, with the final bill for what would have been the world's largest civilian computer system likely to be several hundreds of millions of pounds higher, according a highly critical report from parliament's public spending watchdog".
Border Agency
Foreign Office Prism System
RBS
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