IT's biggest project failures - and what we can learn from them Eldad Moneta Reading Course on Software Development
Overview Jake Widman, IT’s biggest project failures – and what we can learn from them. Computerworld, Oct 2008. Linda Geppert, Lost radio contact leaves pilots on their own. IEEE Spectrum, Nov 2004.
IBM’s Strech Project 1956 IBM 7030 – a. k. a Strech Company’s first transistorized super computer Delivered in 1961 Half-million instructions per second. Fastest computer in the world ‘till 1964. 30 -40 times faster Price dropped from $13. 5 M to $7. 8 M
IBM’s Strech Project 1956 Only 9 were ever built Strech shaped computer development: Pipelining Memory protection Memory interleaving
IBM’s Strech Project Lesson learned “Don’t throw away the baby out with the bathwater. ”
Knight-Ridder's Viewtron service 1983 Joint venture of Knight-Ridder newspapers and AT&T. In-home information-retrieval service “Mc. Donald’s of videotex” vs up market consumer. Terminal cost 900$
Knight-Ridder's Viewtron service Bottom line 20, 000 subscribers Cost: 50$ Million
Knight-Ridder's Viewtron service Lesson learned “Sometimes you can be so far ahead of the curve that you fall right off the edge. ”
DMV project –Washington 1990 License Application Mitigation Project (LAMP) Automate the state's vehicle registration and license renewal processes 16$ Million over 5 years.
DMV project – Washington
DMV project – Washington Lesson learned “When a project is obviously doomed to failure, get out sooner rather than later. ”
Fox. Meyer ERP program 1993 4 th largest distributor of pharmaceuticals in the U. S worth $5 Billion SAP system and a warehouse automation system. 35$ Million project. unrealistically aggressive time line Implementation in 18 months Threatened warehouse employees
Fox. Meyer ERP program Conclusion Processing 10, 000 orders a night compared with 420, 000 orders with the old mainframe. 1996: Fox. Meyer filled for bankruptcy. Sold for 80$ Million.
Fox. Meyer ERP program Lesson learned “No one plans to fail, but even so, make sure your operation can survive the failure of a project. “
Apple's Copland operating system 1994 Microsoft window 95 came out System 8 – Copland: In house OS Feature Creep Project managers pushed for their products to be incorporated into System 8
Apple's Copland operating system Bottom line A single developer release in late 1996 Purchase of Ne. XT Supplied the technology that became OS X
Apple's Copland operating system Lesson learned “Project creep is a killer. Keep your project's goals focused. “
Sainsbury's warehouse automation 2003 British supermarket giant Automated fulfillment system in one of its distribution center Installed in 2003: Horrible bar-code reading errors. 2005: Company claims the system operates as intended.
Sainsbury's warehouse automation 2003 2007: Entire project is scraped IT costs: 150£ million (=265, 335, 000$)
Sainsbury's warehouse automation Lesson learned “A square peg in a round hole won't fit any better as time goes on. ”
Two current projects in danger FBI Virtual Case File Census Bureau's handheld units
FBI Virtual Case File 2000 Automating case management and forms processing Congress approved $379. 8 million for the Information Technology Upgrade Project. 2001: Projected changed to developing an entirely new system 2002: another $123. 2 million for the project.
FBI Virtual Case File 2000 April 2005, SAIC delivered 700, 000 lines of code Bug-ridden and useless FBI scrap the entire VCF project. Audit concluded: Short develop time: 22 Month Problematic rollout plans: a “flash cutover” Poorly defined system requirements Sentinel, 2012: off-the-shelf, Web-based software
Census Bureau's handheld units 2006 $600 M for 500, 000 handheld devices to automate the 2010 census. Cost has more then doubled Use is going to be reduced 2007 rehearsal: Devices froze Failed to retrieve mapping coordinates Same identification numbers
Census Bureau's handheld units Bottom line Mitre Corp: “… the risks are so large… that we recommend immediate development of contingency plans to revert to paper operations. ”
Article #2 Linda Geppert, Lost radio contact leaves pilots on their own. IEEE Spectrum, Nov 2004.
Los Angeles air control system 2004 14 September, 2004 5 pm Pacific daylight time: Air traffic controllers lost voice contact with 400 airplanes they were tracking over the southwestern United States VSCS- Voice Switching and Control System (Haris Corp. ) FAA laid the blame on human error No one rebooted the system after 30 days
Los Angeles air control system Human error? 32 2
Los Angeles air control system Background VSCU- VSCS Control Subsystem Upgrade (Installed 2003) Uses a timer as a pulse to send out periodic queries to the VSCS. 232 timer pulse ≈ 50 days
Los Angeles air control system Failures FAA continued operating the system with a known problem Only one backup system
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