From the Sacramento Bee's State Worker blog:
Here’s Alex Castro’s first bit of sobering wisdom for state
departments considering a big technology makeover: “Just because
something is a good idea doesn’t mean you can do it.” That sounds
like odd advice from the CEO of Sacramento-based M Corp, which consults
with public and private entities deploying IT systems...
Last week, The Bee reported a
project to unify payroll processing for the UC system’s 10 campuses,
five hospitals and administration headquarters has burned through $50
million more than its original $170 million budget. The benefits of the
program aren’t clear, and it’s two years behind its planned 2013
completion date with no end in sight. Why do state IT debacles
happen over and over? Castro says it starts with government’s antipathy
for brutal self-assessment. Without it, an organization hides its
weaknesses and can’t figure out processes to fix them before they jump into making multimillion-dollar technology decisions...
“So they run into brick walls: bad leadership, bad tech people, lack
of vision, overestimation of (in-house) skill sets,” he said, and then
think that ramming through a new IT system will force needed change
“like the software will fix everything.” As recent debacles have
proved time and again, however, that just makes a bad situation worse.
Employee morale takes a beating. Work gets harder instead of easier. If
the tech screw-up goes public, the Legislature hauls in a few hapless
department officials for a sound wrist-slapping. Bureaucracy,
whether public or private, doesn’t work like a 12-step program. “I’m
Jane, and I’m a weak leader” won’t get a sympathetic “Hi, Jane,” at the
next IT managers’ meeting about a gazillion-dollar IT project. Appearing
competent trumps all. "Honest self-assessment,” Castro said, “is hard.”
Full story at http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article13595924.html
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