Dire project management has played a significant part in the
probation service's troubled IT strategy, government officials told
Parliament's Public Accounts Committee earlier this week.
John Gieve, permanent under-secretary of state at the Home Office
said, "We have had to learn some fairly painful lessons in IT
management over the past 10 years." The Home Office had
under-invested in project management, he added.
Gieve also said that inadequate use was made of the Government's
Prince2 project management process when implementing the National
Probation Service Information Systems Strategy (NPSISS).
Earlier this year a damning report from the National Audit Office
said seven different programme directors worked on the NPSISS
programme between 1993 and 2000, of whom only two had significant
experience of managing major IT projects.
Officials told the committee that some programme directors were
unable to cope with the task of developing probation service
IT.
Richard Crade, e-business director of the probation service's
technology partner Integris, a division of long-term supplier Bull,
acknowledged that his firm's relationship with the Home Office had
been hit by the personnel changes. He said Integris had suffered as
a result of the controversy over the Crams case management system.
"The implementation of Crams was extremely difficult and we are
tainted by the failure of that."
Crams has already been described by auditors as difficult to use
and incapable of keeping pace with changing business needs. It had
also proved unpopular with probation officers' union NAPO. A new
contract to replace it is expected in 2003 or 2004.
The Home Office recently announced a two-and a-half year deal with
Integris to cover support and maintenance of the probation
service's IT infrastructure, desktops and the Crams case management
system.