Hey I am not picking on just the government.  Large and small
companies lose lots of dollars due to failed projects as well - I've
worked in the private sector and give you some examples that I watched
from afar.  Unfortunately we only hear about government failures.  And
in this specific case that I posted the congressman who wrote the bill
criticized the agencies for not following through - just because one
writes legislation telling organizations a project has to be done
doesn't necessarily mean it is possible to accomplish.

The main reason for my comments is because when I read articles about
these project failures the focus is typically on the big, bad
contractors.  I always question where is the government's
responsibility in these projects?  A perfect example is one in Larry's
backyard - "Chiang cancels big software contract."
http://bit.ly/11XmkNw.  Anyone who has been involved in an SAP
implementation knows it is an extremely complex project with lots of
moving parts.  The government better have its A-Team managing a
project such as this.  The inference from the article indicates SAP
was mostly at fault.  Yet in the same article there is a mention of
other technology projects that the state has had to cancel.

I still have the scars from a project from many years ago that was
eventually cancelled.  The cancellation cost the citizens of a certain
state over $47 million.  I won't go into the gory details - lots of
innocent people were affected including a couple who participate on
this list.  When I look back on the project there were warning signs
at the beginning.  Unfortunately both sides refused to deal with them.
 Only when serious problems became known were issues being addressed -
by that time it was to late.  The contractor was probably over its
head taking on the project.  But the agency had as much culpability in
the failure.

Much goes back to basic project management - determining whether what
you want is doable, developing a realistic plan and following it,
ensuring you have the resources do complete the project, managing
scope, etc.  In our world we also have to whether the technology has
the capability to meet our requirements and whether the
organization/culture is ready for it among other challenges of course.

To Fred's comment below - yes I have seen consulting firms promise in
bringing their best and then throwing in the 22 year olds into the
fire.  So where is the project manager and his/her team on this?  If
the contract didn't have a clause giving the PM and his team
(typically through a Contracting Officer/Contracting Officer
Representative) an opportunity to question staffing I am not sure I
would want to manage it.

Bruce White, CRM, PMP
Virginia Beach, VA
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/bblanco


On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Frederic Grevin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I agree with Larry's comments.
>
> Let me add one more, from personal experience:  the Big Time Consulting Firm that sends in the "A Team" to sell their services, and then sends in 22 year-olds right out of school to actually do the work.

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