For me this picture is a perfect illustration of what happens at most I.T. companies when a large project gets underway.
When too many people are involved in any project, chances are it will fail miserably ending up finishing late (if at all), over budget and not fulfilling the specification initially laid down before any money exchanged hands.
Let’s take one example in particular, the mammoth mess that has been made of the NHS National Programme for IT. This project has suffered from delays and in the meantime the key companies involved are being investigated by the likes of the FSA and Accountancy Investigation Discipline Board (AIDB). What is it exactly that is causing all of these problems? Well I can only guess but for me it seems once again this is another classic example of too many cooks spoiling the broth, and in the meantime public money is disappearing in to thin air.
What we’re talking about here is a database for patient records. Nothing more, nothing less. All it does is store patient records allowing doctors, consultants and patients to view them online. We’re not asking for software that will launch members of the public in to space, it’s just a database driven application.
This wasn’t supposed to end up as a rant, and granted maybe I’m just jealous that we haven’t secured a multi million pound contract with a public sector government department, however I would bet half of the amount already spent by the NHS that we would do a better job implementing their new systems.
