In Stockholm there's currently an IT battle underway

Post by globular-toast » Sat, Mar 27, 2021, 9:36 AM UTC

jordanbeiber wrote: post #71

johngalt wrote: post #7

It's amazing how often giant IT projects like these go off the rails. Exploding costs and garbage implementations. If you start the sentence with: "A 5+ year government IT project that cost over 100 million-" I already know how the story ends. How do we improve this common scenario? What are the root causes? The common themes are: 1. Lack of technical project competence at the decision maker level. 2. Scope creep. Wh…

Projects are necessary for things that are built to last and not change much during their lifetime: - a bridge - airplanes - most houses - etc Hardware comes to mind - it’s all hardware on the list, basically. Software (outside certain realms ofc) like this? I’ve been, like many others here, doing this software thing for 20+ years now. Big and small, I’ve basically never seen anything spawned from a project-driven or…

Post by progre » Sat, Mar 27, 2021, 9:39 AM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #118

progre wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, when our libraries procured new state wide library software (each city had it's own before) they went with Koha (open source). This means that they are not really paying for development, only installation integrations and support. This opened up the bidding to much smaller players and was much cheaper over all.

Where was that? I am thrilled to hear it and eager to learn what factors made that possible.

Post by _0ffh » Sat, Mar 27, 2021, 9:44 AM UTC

magicalhippo wrote: post #90

908B64B197 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4. The requirements are often flat out wrong. The Phoenix payroll system comes to mind, the Canadian government tried to shift the blame to IBM, but have their hands tied since IBM delivered exactly what was in the contract. It's just that what the government decided to put in the contract has little to do with how they really do payroll.

I was hired as a coder on a fun project like that. It wasn't a big project, I was the sole coder. What had been sold in was basically a Drupal install with some customization. I made sure they wrote a decent specification before I accepted the job. I delivered on time and we had the first test with the client. Everything went very well, and the client seemed happy. On the client side, the project was then moved from…

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 27, 2021, 9:54 AM UTC

hpkuarg wrote: post #28

I wonder how Swedes maintain their reputation of having a well-run, corruption-free public sector?

Post by zhte415 » Sat, Mar 27, 2021, 9:56 AM UTC

johngalt wrote: post #7

It's amazing how often giant IT projects like these go off the rails. Exploding costs and garbage implementations. If you start the sentence with: "A 5+ year government IT project that cost over 100 million-" I already know how the story ends. How do we improve this common scenario? What are the root causes? The common themes are: 1. Lack of technical project competence at the decision maker level. 2. Scope creep. Wh…