IEEE Spectrum has a theme issue centered on enterprise custom software. failure - the kind that bankrupt companies and cost governments and whole industries tens of billions of dollars a year. Companies and governments undertake these customized IT ventures to make themselves run more efficiently and more effectively. Some of these projects are huge and extremely complex. It's now common to see multibillion-dollar efforts that take years or even decades to complete. And when that software is good, it can transform entire organizations, as companies like Wal-Mart and Dell Computer have shown.But when it's bad, it's horrid. Nobody really knows how much is wasted. In the United States, a conservative estimate is US $60 billion to $75 billion dollars every year.Future software failures are everywhere in the making. The FBI's replacement for the Virtual Case File system is on deck. The push to automate and digitize medical records looks like another breeding ground for fatal bugs. The cases discussed include the hall of shame and Sainsbury's half - a-billion doallr failed IT investment.
Catgory :Software Failures
|