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Individuals and politics cripple IT
projects
It never ceases to amaze me how many people believe that the
campaign to improve IT projects in the public sector means making
the public sector into the private sector.
I agree with the letter written by Chris Britton (Letters, 13 July)
that better funding and using modern, agile approaches to IT
implementation are required. But I disagree with the comments by
Rene Cheront (Letters, 20 July), who interprets the solution to be
outsourcing public sector IT departments, on the basis that they
operate practices from the dark ages in organisations that have no
commercial impetus to improve - this opinion is so misinformed it
is ludicrous.
The British Computer Society report, The Challenges of Complex IT
Projects, notes that the findings of a joint Oxford
University/Computer Weekly survey "found little difference in the
performance of the public and private sector" on IT projects. In
addition, the management summary of the report finds that, "A
striking proportion of project difficulties stem from people in
both customer and supplier organisations failing to implement known
best practice."
Anyone who has used Prince2 and DSDM/Conference Room Pilot
effectively will know that the payback can be fantastic. I have and
I work for a public sector IT department. In any organisation it is
possible to have a great success using these techniques on one
project only to find that the people on the next project turn their
back on them.
It is individuals, politics and power that either cripple or enable
projects. So the issue is not about private or public sector, it is
about professionalism, following good practice, enabling
transparency and having appropriate accountability. Any means to
ensure that these become intrinsic elements of all IT projects has
got to be good, even if it means legislation.
Lee Norris
Senior project manager, Bristol
Private sector IT could learn from public
sector
I work in the IT department of a local authority and have
previously worked in IT in the private sector. I can assure Rene
Cheront (Letters, 20 July) that life in the public sector, and in
particular IT, is no joy-ride. I now work longer hours and under a
great deal more stress than I ever did in the private sector.
Far from being shielded from the "economic reality" of the private
sector, outsourcing of poorly performing departments is as
prevalent in the public sector as it is in the private sector. We
also regularly benchmark against our private sector competitors and
other local authority IT services to ensure that the service we
provide remains cost-effective and efficient.
Our IT department strives to embrace new technologies and works
tirelessly to improve our methods in order to enhance the service
we provide. We are far from being disorganised, unmotivated and
unaccountable, as Cheront suggests. Public sector organisations are
wide open to public accountability, whereas private sector firms
can sweep undesirable issues under the carpet.
It is also worth noting that a lot of the failed public sector IT
projects Cheront mentions are undertaken by private contractors,
who ultimately (unlike the public sector) have a "profit at any
cost" ethos that overrides and clouds the ultimate aim of the
project - to deliver quality services to the public.
I acknowledge that the public sector is far from perfect, but there
are many areas where private sector IT could learn from the public
sector.
Kenny Lang, IT analyst
Managers must change mindset in public
IT
Rene Cheront (Letters, 20 July) hides some basic truths in a lot of
nonsense.
Lack of market forces/profit motives are not the problem in
themselves. Indeed, past experience of the introduction of these
features into UK public sector industries has frequently proved
disastrous.
Rather it is the mindset that sometimes inhabits the public sector
environment that is to blame for slack IT performance and it is a
matter of management, not economic ideology to resolve this.
There is no reason why IT projects cannot be run along tight lines
as in the private sector. It is up to management to instil this
spirit in the workforce, and perhaps this is where the driving
force is lacking.
Having worked with outsourced systems in the past, I know the
difficulties involved in obtaining modifications in an acceptable
timely and economic framework. Consequently, the public sector
still has frequently to employ software engineers to build ad-hoc
add-on solutions to enhance outsourced systems.
Tony Dyer, Research and clinical trials database manager,
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital