Labour Planned Pricey IT Projects to 'Sound Sexy'
Ian Watmore, former IT chief for Tony Blair has said Labour ordered pricey IT projects because they wanted their policies to sound sexy.
Ian Watmore this week criticised the previous government's shortcomings in the IT department, claiming that defective technology was not to blame for failures. Rather, according to the BBC, Watmore believes that it was poor project management that led to "some of the high-profile IT 'fiascos.'" Mr. Watmore said that IT was often ordered as an after thought, or worse: "There were people thinking they needed to have a piece of technology to make their policy sound sexy," the Beeb cites him as saying to the Commons public administration committee.
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin commented that Wamore comes "from exactly the large corporate culture which has bedevilled IT procurement in government," and asked if Watmore was part of the problem or part of the cultural change the minister is looking for. Watmore responded: "I am certainly not part of the problem and I would contest that the corporate industry of this country has caused the problems."
Watmore's comments come at the same time as the publication of a Cabinet strategy document admitting that there have been mistakes made with regards to spending and planning in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
"Government sourcing of ICT has often failed to deliver economies of scale and the most cost-effective use of taxpayers' money, reads paragraph 21 of the document. "The Government will therefore aim to become a single and effective ICT customer which will leverage its considerable buying power to drive down the operating cost of its ICT."
The Cabinet added that the government will step away from big, pricey projects and instead try to stick to projects under £100 million.
"Where possible, the Government will move away from large and expensive ICT projects, with a presumption that no project will be greater than £100 million," reads paragraph 24. "Moving to smaller and more manageable projects will improve project delivery timelines and reduce the risk of project failure. Increasing ICT professional capability to deliver successful business change"
Check out the full story on the BBC, or read the full strategy document here.
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most IT jobs require a deep understanding of computers and for example most people i know teens,adults and even teachers barely know how to use a computer properly let alone do anything usefull
most IT jobs require a deep understanding of computers and for example most people i know teens,adults and even teachers barely know how to use a computer properly let alone do anything usefull
I expect the same could be said for most politicians...
A Tory colleague of mine once said "Politicians only ever become politicians to get their name in the history books".
I think he's got a bit of a point there. I wonder how many politicians come from a strong background in IT? Or have used IT extensively in their education or pre-political careers?
My bet is none. The IT industry is extremely lucrative. Those who are good with computers tend to worry less about the bigger picture, whether that's politics or society, and rather focus more on progress, technological advancements and economics. It's the classic battle between the Arts and the Sciences. Now for some evidence :
David Cameron : Philosophy and Politics (Arts)
Nick Clegg : Social Anthropology (Arts)
William Hague : Philosophy and Politics (Arts)
Tony Blair : Jurisprudence (Arts/Law)
Gordon Brown : PhD in History (Arts)
George Osborne : Modern History (Arts)
Ed Miliband : Philosophy and Politics (Arts)
David Miliband : Philosophy and Politics (Arts)
Okay...so you get the picture. Most of the Arts subjects are inherently "low tech". In History, for example, it's only in America that interesting uses of mathematics and statistics is being used to describe the past. The relative misunderstanding of mathematics, and by extension IT, in the UK means that such "forward" thinking is either frowned up or ignored.
That's why IT projects planned by our politicians will usually fail. They do not have a sufficiently broad understanding IT to guarantee success.
Government + IT project never bodes well. The problem is partly due to the commissioning - it is the same problem you see with large civil engineering contracts and vanity projects like the 2012 games. The politicians and civil servants don't really understand what is needed and don't really know what they want. Meanwhile sales reps negotiating the contracts know that people they are dealing with aren't proficient so their only challenge is beating out the competition. They promise the earth knowing the contract will go to the best sales pitch - not necessarily the most honest one. They know full-well that they can get away with it because the politicians would rather avoid scandal and bad headlines yet inevitable these projects come in grossly over-budget and are often late and badly implemented.
The problem is not limited to governments, ever noticed how bad "enterprise" software is? - A pig to use, unreliable and invariably difficult to maintain. Doesn't matter whether it is databases, CAD, statistical modelling packages or the NHS's PACS radiology service. Because the people who commission the development don't know what they really need, they end up getting sold a lemon time and again.