Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 217Commonly identified problems to be addressedwith Government projects 517- Civil servants ability and aptitude to use IT- More resources to support change programmes- Further technological improvements to updateexisting systems- More reliable assessments of costs andbenefits (‘Generally, departments lack baselinedata against which to monitor and measureimprovements in efficiency made possibly byIT)- Partnerships with other organisations areneeded to deliver integrated IT services- the risk of IT-enabled change adverselyaffecting existing services requires carefulmanagement- the risk of IT-enabled change adverselyaffecting existing services requires carefulmanagementCommon causes of failure in IT-enabled projects 5181. Lack of clear link between the project and theorganisation's key strategic priorities includingagreed measures of success.2. Lack of clear senior management andMinisterial ownership and leadership.3. Lack of effective engagement withstakeholders.4. Lack of skills and proven approach to projectmanagement and risk management.5. Lack of understanding of and contact with thesupply industry at senior levels in theorganisation.6. Evaluation of proposals driven by initial pricerather than long-term value for money(especially securing delivery of businessbenefits).7. Too little attention to breaking developmentand implementation into manageable steps.8. Inadequate resources and skills to deliver thetotal delivery portfolio.Table 8 – Common problems and causes of failure in Government IT projectsPrevious failures in the air traffic control systems, ambulance dispatching services,criminal records databases, benefits payment systems and other financial systems, andeven the national fingerprint information system have already proven to be hazardous.In November 2004 the national automated fingerprint identification system (Nafis)crashed, shutting down access to and from all police forces. This system is operated byNorthrop Grumman and holds 4 million records. It went off-line on the 24 th Novemberand some forces were not reconnected until a week later. 519 When the Governmentproposes that ID cards are central to Government systems, a failure could have asubstantial and wide ranging impact. According to a Home Office Minister,517 ‘Better Public Services through e-government’, NAO, April 2002.518 ‘Improving IT procurement’, NAO, November 2004.519 ‘Fingerprint system crash fuels doubts over ID card scheme’, Nigel Morris, the Guardian, December 3, 2004.