{domain:"www.qualitydigest.com",server:"169.47.211.87"} Skip to main content

User account menu
Main navigation
  • Topics
    • Customer Care
    • FDA Compliance
    • Healthcare
    • Innovation
    • Lean
    • Management
    • Metrology
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
    • Six Sigma
    • Standards
    • Statistics
    • Supply Chain
    • Sustainability
    • Training
  • Videos/Webinars
    • All videos
    • Product Demos
    • Webinars
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Submit B2B Press Release
    • Write for us
  • Metrology Hub
  • Training
  • Subscribe
  • Log in
Mobile Menu
  • Home
  • Topics
    • 3D Metrology-CMSC
    • Customer Care
    • FDA Compliance
    • Healthcare
    • Innovation
    • Lean
    • Management
    • Metrology
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
    • Six Sigma
    • Standards
    • Statistics
    • Supply Chain
    • Sustainability
    • Training
  • Login / Subscribe
  • More...
    • All Features
    • All News
    • All Videos
    • Contact
    • Training

The Information Technology Conundrum

New methods and thinking for failing IT projects

Tripp Babbitt
Wed, 11/02/2011 - 13:31
  • Comment
  • RSS

Social Sharing block

  • Print
  • Add new comment
Body

Information technology is failing us. Service organizations the world over have been left to sift through the carnage of IT projects that have failed. Undeterred, they seem to quickly embrace the next IT project before the last is given a proper burial.

ADVERTISEMENT

The research and evidence on failed IT projects is undeniable. A study by the Saïid Business School on 1,500 IT projects worth $245 billion found that the larger the project, the larger the cost overrun—IT projects that turn into money pits are called “black swan” projects. The book, Dangerous Enthusiasms, by Robin Gauld and Shaun Goldfinch (Otago University Press, 2006), notes that 20 to 30 percent of IT projects are abandoned completely, and 30 to 60 percent of them don’t work properly or have cost overruns.

 …

Want to continue?
Log in or create a FREE account.
Enter your username or email address
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
By logging in you agree to receive communication from Quality Digest. Privacy Policy.
Create a FREE account
Forgot My Password

Comments

Submitted by knowwareman on Thu, 11/03/2011 - 12:16

First the Process, then Technology

Tripp is right. Having developed software for mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers for the last four decades, the most common problem is trying to automate a broken process full of rework loops and workarounds.

First, simplify and streamline the process using Lean; then automate the process. Otherwise you are "hard coding" mistakes, errors and inefficiencies into the software which is much harder to change than a manual process.

Too many companies try to rewrite existing systems rather than fix the 4% of the software that's buggy or enhancement prone. As Frederick Brooks pointed out in The Mythical Man Month, 4% of IBM's 360 code had 64% of the defects. The same is true of all systems that have been around awhile. 4% of the code is buggy; fix it. 4% of the code requires most of the enhancements; fix it by moving flexible things into data tables.

To find the 4% causing most of the mistakes and errors, use the Dirty 30" process for Six Sigma software

  • Reply

Submitted by Tripp Babbitt on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 10:25

First the System, then the technology

knowwareman-

In a system, processes are only one component

I tried not to mention the word lean or systems thinking in this article as it has become divisive.  Deming didn't call it TQM and Ohno didn't call it lean.

Process improvement falls short of doing what needs to be done.  Changing the design and management of work is more than process.  It means our thinking has to change too.  I when I say thinking, I mean management thinking.  The industrialized, economy of scale, functional separation of work, etc. thinking of yesteryear is holding us back.  Every assumption that we have about design and management has to be challenged before technology is put in place.  Otherwise, we are only doing the wrong thing, righter.

 

  • Reply

Add new comment

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
Please login to comment.
      

© 2025 Quality Digest. Copyright on content held by Quality Digest or by individual authors. Contact Quality Digest for reprint information.
“Quality Digest" is a trademark owned by Quality Circle Institute Inc.

footer
  • Home
  • Print QD: 1995-2008
  • Print QD: 2008-2009
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy
  • Write for us
footer second menu
  • Subscribe to Quality Digest
  • About Us
  • Contact Us