We congratulate the Department for Constitutional
Affairs on its openness. But, for all the department's sincere
assurances (see page 18), the Libra project to introduce a unified
case management system in about 380 magistrates courts is
worryingly ambitious.
The focus is on technology, rather than changing the business
processes in courts, many of which have their own way of working.
The new system tries to accommodate quite a few of these
differences, which may make the software so complicated that no
amount of hardware within reason will solve its performance
problems.
The best things about the Libra project are the undoubted
competence of the project team and the longing among users for new
case management systems. But is the department attempting the
impossible? Will its fourth attempt since 1989 to introduce
national case management systems end as disastrously as the
others?
This underlines why Computer Weekly's Shaking Up Government IT
campaign is so important to the future of large-scale public sector
computer projects. The campaign calls for ministers and
departmental heads to report to Parliament on the progress or
otherwise of major projects, including deviations from plans,
budgets and contracts.
This would give MPs the depth and breadth of information to ask the
most searching questions about projects such as Libra. They would
be able to ask the questions that ministers would rather not know
the answers to.
Many ministers stay in one job only a short time. They want
well-publicised successes before they leave. As with the
introduction of systems in support of tax credits, they agree to
deadlines and targets which prove impossible to meet.
And some want to hear only good news. If things go seriously awry,
this is put down to teething troubles; minutes of project meetings
carry forcefully positive messages; and the project becomes a
speeding carnival lorry full of cheering enthusiasts. Its faulty
brakes will slow the vehicle but not stop it.
The scrutiny we are campaigning for would give the lorry a
fully-functioning set of brakes. Taking the time for a thorough,
independent review could turn potential disaster into success, as
happened with the long-delayed scheme for new air traffic control
systems at Swanwick in Hampshire.
But meanwhile the Libra team must toil without the benefit of
real-time Parliamentary scrutiny. If it succeeds in delivering a
unified case management system throughout all courts in England and
Wales by April 2006, we will be delighted - and amazed.
Lessons from false starts of courts system>>