Big IT flameouts are quite frequent. Can they be prevented?
Here are two projects that should have been stopped along the way. Perhaps, stopped before they started?
- One was an attempt to replace the aging FAA air traffic control system, stopped after $4.5 billion had been spent, of which only $75 million was salvageable for local airports. The project was then restarted, and the current estimate of costs has grown to $51 billion (from an initial estimate of $12 billion).
- The other was a project to modernize the IRS system to process tax returns. Started in 1985 and running for 10 years, the project was stopped. More funding was then obtained, and another effort began in 1998 to process simple tax returns – for a cost of $8 billion.
Big IT flameouts are quite frequent. Can they be prevented?