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Introduction
In United Kingdom many complex information technology (IT) projects have failed. There are some basic reasons for this failure. According to Training Press Releases report “With 75 per cent of IT projects failing, late or over budget [1], UK companies are spending an estimated £5.81 billion per year [2] on technology that does not meet its needs.” (Press Release: Poor User Adoption Increasing UK IT Project Failures. 2007).
This report also says that United Kingdom paid out $ 77 billion for their IT projects in 2006. It is a huge amount. 70 % of the government projects are failing but in private sector the position is comparatively good. It shows that UK spends or wastes a large amount of money for their IT projects. The major reason for the failure of IT project is insufficient planning, lack of communication, lack of coordination, and unsatisfactory functioning of management.
In addition to these reasons there are some other reasons also. Cost and lack of proper time management is also leading to the failure of the IT projects. Some companies cannot complete the project within the time due to the lack of time management. Sometimes the projects cannot meet the requirements of the client. In many companies they have not enough literacy in the technology. It is due to the lack of professionals in the company. For the success of any project, proper training should be given to the staff. The key factor for the success of a project is people.
Some important reasons for the IT projects failure in United Kingdom are
From the above illustrated diagram it is clear that for the failure of an IT Project there are many reasons. Here consider the failure of UK Transportation IT project as the case study.
British Computer Society Report
British Computer Society is a UK based society. Members in this society are either IT professionals or Institutions for Chartered Engineering. So the information or report generated from them is accurate and authentic. It works mainly for the profit of the IT professionals. According to Basil Butler, Chairman of Royal Academy of Engineering and British Computer Society “The UK public sector alone has spent an estimated £12.4bn on software in the past year, and the overall UK spend on IT is projected to be a monumental £22.6bn.” (Jaques 2004).
But among these, eighty four percentages of IT projects have failed and around ten billions of pounds are lost due to this failure. Almost all phases of the software development failed or led to failure. Initial stages like identification of the project itself are a failure in most of the IT projects in UK. They do not give a correct definition for the project. The major reason for this type of fault is the deficiency of practice and the inability to learn lessons from the past.
System architects play a critical role in the project development. They convert the requirements from the customer to the technical terms. Lack of skilled system architects is a reason for the failure of IT projects in UK. British Computer Society report suggests finding skilled and efficient system architects for their IT projects. It also suggests giving proper support for the existing system architects. Different methods like waterfall method, linear method, prototype method, spiral method etc can be followed for doing a software project. As per British Computer Society’s report most of the United Kingdom companies follow waterfall method.
In waterfall method first the requirement analysis is done, then designing, after designing implementation, then verification of the software is done and after verification maintenance is done. All processes are done sequentially.
That is, one phase follows the other. For example, designing is started only after the completion of the requirement analysis. The British Computer Society report indicates that in every four IT projects one is discarded after the feasibility study. Among the remaining three projects, only one is successfully completed. Remaining two are completed but not within time and budget. The following diagram illustrates the working progress and completion of UK IT projects.
Based on this diagram, after feasibility study among 214 projects no one is cancelled. But in the requirement analysis phase 3 projects are cancelled. Requirement analysis is the primary stage of the project development. In requirement analysis phase, study about the requirements of the client. Various techniques used for this requirement analysis are personal interviews, site visiting and questionnaire. Based on their requirement the software is developed.
Lack of knowledge in requirement analysis is a major reason for the unsatisfactory client. Many of the IT professionals in UK did not know how to do requirement analysis properly. So they can’t identify the basic needs of the customer. Major reason for the failure of requirement analysis is the lack of communication skill. The person who does the requirement analysis is a computer professional. But the end-user may not be a computer professional. So the end-user expresses his requirements in his own way. The requirement analyzer should have the ability to gather the correct requirements from the client. For that, he needs communication skill.
If the fault has occurred in the initial stage itself, it will affect the entire work. Lack of professionals in every phases of the IT project will influence the success of the IT Projects. After the requirement analysis, designing is done. Out of the remaining 211 projects, 28 projects are cancelled in designing phase. In designing phase of a project include code designing and database designing. If the project is a website then link designing is also included in this phase. For the designing of the project, the project team should conduct a detailed system study. Customer wants a user-attractive and easy-for-use design.
Failure in such a system design also leads to the cancellation of the IT projects. The next phase is coding. In UK, among the remaining 183 projects, 15 projects were cancelled in the coding phase. For coding, company needs employees who have sufficient knowledge in the selected computer language. Lack of such people also leads to the cancellation of the projects. Next and last phase is implementation. As per the report, from the remaining 163 projects one is cancelled in the implementation stage. For implementing software, person should have good knowledge in both hardware and software. Deficiency of such people is also a reason for the failure of IT projects.
The report says that out of 214 projects 23.8 percentage projects are cancelled due to lack of professionals and lack of communication skill and the inefficient time schedule. For the proper completion of any project there should be a time schedule for all the phases. There are many reasons for the failure of the IT projects. They are high cost, misuse of the cash, unexpected disaster and the inability of disaster management, deficiency of trained employees etc. Many IT projects failed due to the budget over-run and the limited time schedule. Based on the British Computer Society Report very few IT projects in United Kingdom were successfully completed. Others were cancelled or ignored due to various reasons.
Managing complex information technology IT projects 2004
Projects are the way organizations recreate themselves and can therefore be described as the entrepreneurial and structural function of an organization. Information Technology represents attempts to use IT as a part of the alignment process between adapting organization strategy and a rapidly changing reality.
Many IT projects are ill-structured because of bad management and sometimes difficulty to understand set of dynamics and organizational politics which are difficult and also interconnected with conflict, partial information. In 2004, lot of IT projects failed in UK because of no proper planning and no proper execution. The main problem of project failure is the people who do the project are not responsible and they are not meeting the project deadline in proper manner.
“The UK public sector alone has spent an estimated £12.4bn [on IT] in the last year, and the overall UK spend on IT is projected to be £22.6bn,” said Basil Butler, chairman of the working group that produced the report. “We looked at a range of studies which have shown that only about 16% of IT projects can be considered truly successful.” (Report Exposes Failure of IT Project Management. 2004). IT project failure is mainly due to overrunning the budget by 30% or more.
Overrunning of the IT schedule by 30% or more fails to demonstrate the planned or intended benefits. Overrunning budget means the project cost exceeds the budgeted cost. Overrunning the IT schedule by 30% or more means, the project people are not meeting deadlines and they are taking more time to complete project. Demonstrate planned or intended benefits means, before we are doing project we are giving the expectation to the customer or vendor that we are going to give the benefits and finally we are not going to give. Here the problem comes. Another reason for failure is poor project planning, a weak business case, lack of top management involvement and support.
Due to poor project planning, always the problem arises that before starting the project the Project Manager does not have proper idea about schedule of analysis, coding, execution. For the successful project completion, full support of top management is needed. Lack of full support of top management is another reason of project failure. For handling complex information technology projects, the project management needs proper idea to organize project management function. The project management has to make strategies of overcoming barriers in different stages of project. From start to end of the project all team members of the project should be on-time for the completion of the project.
Project management offers strategies for overcoming barriers to success. It includes helping senior executives to achieve continued improvement and development of their organizations’ project management capabilities. The project manager has to go to the different stages of project such as analysis, design, coding and testing. In the analysis stage he has to gather all the information relating to project such as time schedule, requirements of the project etc. The project manager has to analyze the schedule for design, coding and testing of project’s time schedule. He has to decide as to how many members are required in a project and the tasks that he can assign to a particular person.
In the designing stage of the project, the project manager has to assign the efficient web designer to complete it. In the coding stage the project manager can assign the task to project team leader to divide the coding part to different programmers. Each programmer can complete the coding which is assigned to him according to his module. After coding stage of the project, in testing stage, the project leader can assign the task to one or two testers for the better functioning. If in testing stage any error is seen, he can transfer to the corresponding programmer for re-coding.
A complexity project involves different stakeholders with different expectations. Information Technology projects take place within all three domains such as business domain, systems and process domain and people domain. For the success of these projects it requires strong alignment of the three domains and their cultures and a high level of trust and coordination between all stakeholders involved. Here, mainly the domains involved are Business Domain, Systems and Processes Domain and People Domain. Business domain means executive culture such as business intelligence, goals and strategies.
Systems and Process domain means Technical culture and People domain means Operational culture of individuals and teams. In complexity project involves high cost, high budget and sometimes unexpected things also happen. Now, financial crisis comes. Like that unexpected financial crisis comes and it is very difficult to continue the project and sometimes the project may become lagged. When the project becomes complex, there will be lot of members involved in the project. The lazy and not devoted persons are not in a position to meet deadline. If there is no proper communication between the team members of the project it will not lead to the success of the project. All these factors lead to failure of project.
Information Technology project failure in the United Kingdom at Transport sector
Currently United Kingdom’s IT project in the Department for Transportation (DfT) sector is facing huge loss. “The DfT initially estimated the program would save £57 million ($85m) over ten years. Current forecasts show that program will result in a net loss £81 million ($121m).” (Krigsman 2008).
It is an IBM project. The technology used for implementing this project is SAP. There are three major reasons for the failure. First one is inappropriate planning. Due to the inappropriate planning project team faces a delay in the developments of the projects. Second one is increased cost. Third reason is inefficient service. All these problems arise due to mismanagement. For the success of an IT project, it should have a good management.
Here the department of planning and management do not show any responsibility in the project development. Both the top level management and the bottom level management have same responsibility in the failure of the IT project in the Department of Transportation at United Kingdom. For the success of a project each department must follow a right and tight time schedule. Also they must share their services in the optimum level and should have correct knowledge about all the risks, and slippages. They show overconfidence in their project. They never think about the failure of the project.
Because of this, the company did not have any contingency plan. It was their first mistake. So when the risks and difficulties arise they struggle to stay. When the project started they realized that they were really mistaken. But they did not try to change their time schedule. It was their second mistake. Lack of support from the top management will ruin the strength of the subordinates. Here also the same thing happened. So they can’t achieve the targeted goals within the scheduled time and budget. It is the third mistake. Here already mentioned about the importance of requirement analysis.
Proper requirement analysis is the base of a successful project. Here department failed to do the requirements analysis in a proper manner. It is the fourth fault. In this, project department did not provide skilled and experienced staff for the project. It was their next fault. People do not trust the system because it did not give the desired result to them. It is another reason for the failure of the IT project of the Department of Transportation at UK. (Krigsman 2008).
In the introduction and the preceding part discussed about the major reasons for the failure of IT projects in United Kingdom. Many of those reasons are reflected here for the failure of the Transportation IT project. Planning and management is very important for the successful completion of an IT project. But here in the Transportation IT project the department fails in their planning and management. So they lose their base.
From the above given chart 8.1 percentage of IT projects in UK are failed due to the lack of planning and 6.2 percentage failure occurs due to the lack of IT management. 9.3 percentage of projects are failed due to the lack of executive support. In the transportation IT project the management were never ready for hearing bad news. So the project team members are forced to do their duties with or without satisfaction. It badly affects the project. 9.9 percentage of UK projects are failed due to unrealistic expectations. In the Transportation IT project the project team never think a chance for any type of risk in their project.
So they do not take any contingency plan. 4.3 percentage of IT projects are failed due to Technology Illiteracy. Here the department be deficient in experienced staff. 12.4 percentage of projects are failed due to lack of user involvement. That also happened here. Because the users are displeased, the project did not deliver within its deadline and it overrun the budget. Due to their poor service the department does not conduct their requirement analysis properly. So they can’t met the complete requirements of the user. From the chart 13.1 percentage of IT projects in UK are failed due to the Incomplete Requirements. It is another reason for the failure of the Transportation IT project. (Krigsman 2008).
Conclusion
From the above mentioned details it is crystal clear that in United Kingdom their almost all the complex information technology (IT) projects are a failure. Their very important IT projects like project for National Health Service, financial sector like banks and transport sector are failure to a large extent. For all the failures there are valid reasons. The reasons for this failure are reported by British Computer Society. Lack of communication skill affects internally and externally. Overrunning budget and lack of proper time schedule are other reasons for the failure of the IT projects. Lack of training given to the users is also a reason. For the success of a project, people’s participation and cooperation are very important.
Bibliography
Failure Causes: Statistics. IT Cortex. Web.
JAQUES, Robert. (2004). UK Wasting Billions on IT Projects. Business Green. Web.
KRIGSMAN, Michael. (2008). UK Transportation Department IT Failure: Stupendous Incompetence. ZDNet. Web.
KRIGSMAN, Michael. (2008). UK Transportation Department IT Failure: Stupendous Incompetence: Network World Reports the Bank’s Response. ZDNet. Web.
MCMANUS, John., and HARPER, Trevor Wood. (2008). A Study in Project Failure. BCS: Project Management. Web.
Press Release: Poor User Adoption Increasing UK IT Project Failures. (2007). Training Press Releases. Web.
Report Exposes Failure of IT Project Management. (2004). ComputerWeekly. Web.
KRIGSMAN, Michael. (2008). UK Transportation Department IT Failure: Stupendous incompetecne. ZD Net. Web.
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