A recent article in Information Week examined how buyers of IT feel about their suppliers of IT. It was a mixed review with highs and lows, with buyers disappointed in suppliers who left them with unfulfilled promises and who used irresponsible practices. Salesmen who promised much and delivered less. Products that turned out to be less than a perfect match to the buyer’s requirements.
But not all the problems lie with the suppliers. As the article points out “When things don’t go well, tech buyers also deserve a chunk of the blame. They do a poor job communicating requirements. They fail to bring the right people to sales presentations and don’t ask the right questions. They don’t always allocate sufficient resources to deploy and operate products…”.
The absence of good requirements as a cause of IT failure (not merely disappointment) was underlined in 1995 by the Standish Group Report. They found that nearly a third of projects were cancelled before completion, and just over 50% of the projects cost almost double the original estimates.
Poor and changing requirements accounted for over a third of project failures. Add in requirements-related issues of unrealistic expectations or timescales and a lack of objectives, and together these are the primary causes of more than half of the IT failures described in the report.
Clearly the lessons from the Standish report still stand today – if you want to buy IT that delivers what you want, you first of all have to be very clear about what you want. (You also need to find good suppliers who are honest about what they can deliver, but at least you will have made a start!).
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