No 1 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

RRV: why IT-projects fail. Intosai

Motto: More time for discussion

Starting with some comments on our survey of the 231 government IT-projects

Then presenting the questions we found interesting

No 2 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

231 projects

It seems agencies have too many projects on hand. Even relatively small agencies have 3-4 projects to manage simultaneously

…and it will get even worse beforen e-Goverment takes off

No 3 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Implementation

P(success) < 0.5 Recovery from serious problems is very

uncertain. 56% of the projects had their schedules and budgets revised once.

36 % of them relapsed into problems It takes 6-7 months for problems to be

clearly detectable

No 4 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Why?

Projects are too big and take too long – 2 yrs. Common wisdom says 6 months is right, but not much happens ….

Projects more demanding now… Lead Paper tells it all and very well So does the OECD/PUMA brief So does Standish Group…

No 5 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Standish Group: Private and Government projects

FailuresOK

Crasched

No 6 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

OECD: To get IT right

- establish appropriate governance structures;   - think small;   - use known technologies;   - identify and manage risk;  - ensure compliance with best practices for project

management;   - hold business managers accountable;   - recruit and retain talent; 

No 7 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

OECD: To get IT right

 -prudently manage knowledge;   - establish environments of trust with private

vendors; and   - involve end-users. 

Motto:governments must identify risk, determine which risks they are willing to take, and manage the relevant risk

No 8 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Projects = Investments

Business need and change has often been not a very clear objective: We need a system…

The investment processes are often ill-designed and rely on Ad-hoc action

= many projects should never have been initiated

No 9 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Get it right before you start… The fast trigger – slow bullet syndrome

Many/most agencies still don´t have a really supportive IT-strategy

Practically none have an integrated development strategy, putting IT in it´s right perspectivem

No 10 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

What is behind?

Management

Management

Management

No 11 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

KTH, Project Management Institute (Prof Selin)

36 %

20 %

15 %

10 %

19 %

81 % management!

1 Leadership, project org 2 Objectives

3 Planning, follow-up

4 Resources

5 Misc.: climate, technology, vendor, environment and environmental factors

No 12 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Do managers learn?

Probably, but slowly Projects become more difficult, faster? How do they learn? Processes for learning in place? Should SAI contribute and how?

No 13 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Invest wisely… (J.D Rockefeller)

Projects: The process of implementing the investment

One view: don´t worry too much about implementation, look at least as much at decisions and processes behind the projects

How should SAI audit them? What about ITIM (GAO)?

Does it need ”supportive” legislation like Clinger – Cohen to work?

No 14 23-04-10 The Swedish National Audit Office

Do SAIs invest wisely?

With few exceptions IT-audit resources in the SAI are very scarce indeed.

How should we use them? Foci? What intelligence activities and other

measures does it take to put the SAI in a position to invest wisely in audit projects?