List of failed and overbudget custom software projects
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This is a list of notable custom software projects which have significantly failed to achieve some or all of their objectives, either temporarily or permanently, and/or have suffered from significant cost overruns.
Note that failed projects, and projects running over budget, are not necessarily the sole fault of the employees or businesses creating the software. In some cases, problems may be due partly to problems with the purchasing organisation, including poor requirements, over-ambitious requirements, unnecessary requirements, poor contract drafting, poor contract management, poor end-user training, or poor operational management.
Permanent failures
Because software, unlike a major civil engineering construction project, is often easy and cheap to change after it has been constructed, a piece of custom software that fails to deliver on its objectives may sometimes be modified over time in such a way that it later succeeds—and/or business processes or end-user mindsets may change to accommodate the software. However, sometimes, for various reasons, neither approach succeeds (or is even tried), and this may be considered as another level of failure—a permanent failure.
| class="sortable wikitable" style="width: auto" |
| Started
! Terminated ! System name ! Type of system ! Country or region ! Type of purchaser ! class="unsortable"|Problems ! class="unsortable"|Cost (expected) ! Outsourced or in-house? ! class="unsortable"|Outcome |
|---|
| 1980s
| 1993 | TAURUS | {{flagcountry|UK}} (London) | Scope creep, cost overrun. The project was never completed. | £75m | ? | Cancelled |
| 1982
| 1994 | FAA Advanced Automation System | {{flagcountry|USA}} | Federal Aviation Administration | Cost overruns, underestimation of ATC complexity, delays, non-incremental change. existing system.{{cite conference|url=https://necsi.edu/when-systems-engineering-fails|title=When Systems Engineering Fails — Toward Complex Systems Engineering|last=Bar-Yam|first=Yaneer|author-link=Yaneer Bar-Yam|date=2003|publisher=IEE|pages=2021–2028|location=Washington, DC, USA|conference=Systems, Man and Cybernetics|doi=10.1109/ICSMC.2003.1244709}} | $3–6b | ? | Scrapped |
| 1984
| 1990 | RISP | Integrated computer services | {{flagcountry|UK}} (Wessex) | Scope creep, cost overrun. The project was never completed. | £63m (£29m) | ? | Cancelled |
| 1994
| 1999 | INCIS | Crime information | {{flagcountry|NZ}} | Frequently changing development staff, hardware, software and scope. | approx NZD$110m | Outsourced to IBM NZ | Cancelled, then hardware partially reused |
| 1997
| 2000 | Bolit | Customer service, finance and administration system | {{flagcountry|SWE}} | Patent and Registration Office | Too complicated, bad functioning, cost overrun. The project was after completion never used, the agency still today does not have a working IT system. {{cite journal|url=https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/1000908fe9c84583875b830334b97379/patent--och-registreringsverkets-organisation/?text=true|title=Regeringens proposition 2003/04:34|publisher=Regeringskansliet|accessdate=10 November 2023|date=6 November 2003}}{{cite web|url=http://cio.idg.se/2.1782/1.326833/darfor-floppade-projektentre-svenska-it-fiaskon-under-lupp|title=Därför floppade projekten: Tre svenska it-fiaskon under lupp|publisher=IDG|accessdate=26 February 2016|date=11 June 2010}}{{As of?|date=November 2023}} | SEK 300m ($35m) | Outsourced | Scrapped |
| 1999
| 2006 | CSIO Portal | Common technological platform for brokers and insurers to improve workflow efficiency | {{flagcountry|Canada}} | Centre for Study of Insurance Operations | Low user adoption, conflict between insurers, new technology, lack of funding | ~$15 million CAD{{cite web|url=https://insurance-journal.ca/article/csio-portal-abandoned-due-to-lack-of-insurer-support-and-availability-of-other-solutions/|title=CSIO portal abandoned due to lack of insurer support and availability of other solutions}} | Outsourced to IBM{{cite web|url=https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/features/reconfiguring-csio/|title=Reconfiguring CSIO}} | Abandoned |
| 2000
| 2009 | Customer Account Data Engine | System for handling tax records and processing tax returns, replacement for the Individual Master File and others | {{flagcountry|United States}} | Low user adoption, performance issues, scope creep, never replaced IMF and other mainframe software, some dating back to the Kennedy Administration | ~US$500 million | Outsourced to IBM, Northrop Grumman and others | Abandoned, intended to be replaced by CADE 2 |
| 2002
| 2011 | {{flagcountry|UK}} | Beset by delays and ballooning costs, and the software part of it was never finished. The government was also criticised for not demonstrating value for money. Although the contracts were drafted to ensure that the contractors would be forced to bear a significant portion of the cost of the project going wrong if it did go wrong, in reality this did not always happen. The NPfIT was described by Members of Parliament as one of the "worst and most expensive contracting fiascos" ever.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24130684|title=NHS IT system one of 'worst fiascos ever', say MPs|work=BBC News|accessdate=29 September 2013|date=18 September 2013}} | £12bn (£2.3bn) | Outsourced | Discontinued, but some parts continued |
| 2005
| 2012 | Expeditionary Combat Support System | Military Enterprise Resource Planning | {{flagcountry|US}} | No significant capabilities ready on time; would have cost $1.1bn more just to get to 1/4 of the original scope. | $1.1bn | Outsourced – including requirements | Cancelled |
| 2007
| 2012 | Police case management | {{flagcountry|DEN}} | Police | Did not work properly, technical problems with contractor. | DKK 500m ($70m) | Outsourced | Cancelled |
| 2007
| 2014 | Advanced passenger information programme | {{flagcountry|UK}} | A series of delays. | over £412m (£742m) | Outsourced | Cancelled |
| 2007
| 2010 | Försäkringskassan SAP | Dental health service system | {{flagcountry|SWE}} | Not fit for purpose, multiple delays, cost overrun. | Outsourced, then insourced |
| 2008
| 2013 | Digital production, media asset management | {{flagcountry|UK}} | By 2013, the project was judged to be obsolete (as much cheaper commercial off the shelf alternatives by then existed) and was scrapped by BBC management. The Director-General of the BBC said it had been a huge waste of money.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22651126|title=BBC abandons £100m digital project|accessdate=16 October 2013|date=24 May 2013|work=BBC News}} | more than £98m (£81.7m) | Outsourced, then insourced, then outsourced again |Cancelled |
| 2009
| 2013 | [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27911416 The Surrey Integrated Reporting Enterprise Network (SIREN)] | Crime & criminal intelligence logging system | {{flagcountry|UK}} (Surrey) | Not fit for purpose{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27911416|title=Siren police IT project's £15m failure a 'debacle'|date=19 June 2014|accessdate=14 November 2014|publisher=BBC News}} | £14.8m | Outsourced | Scrapped |
| 2011
| 2014 | Pust Siebel | Police case management | {{flagcountry|SWE}} | Police | Poor functioning, inefficient in work environments.{{cite news|url=https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/polisens-kritiserade-it-system-avvecklas/|title=Polisen lägger ner Pust|date=20 February 2014|access-date=25 February 2016|work=DN}} | Outsourced | Scrapped |
| 2012
| 2014 | Healthcare exchange website | {{flagcountry|US}} | Site was never able to accept online enrollments, so users were instructed to mail in paper enrollments instead. | approx $200m | Outsourced | Cancelled, then client and supplier both sued each other |
| 2017{{cite web |url=https://www.asx.com.au/documents/asx-news/ASX-Selects-DLT-to-Replace-CHESS-Media-Release-7December2017.pdf |access-date=14 February 2024 |date=7 December 2017 |title=ASX Media Release}}
| Distributed Ledger Technology (generic name) | {{flagcountry|AUS}} | System was too complex and only 60% completed | $AU 170m expended | Outsourced | Cancelled |
Temporary issues and budget overruns
| class="wikitable" |
| Started
!System name !Type of system !Country or region !Type of purchaser !Problems !Cost (expected) !Outsourced or in-house? |
|---|
| 1992
|Computer-aided dispatch for emergency ambulances |{{flagcountry|UK}} (London) |Ambulance delays and other problems were caused by the introduction of the system. More than 30 people may have died as a result, making it the largest computer-related disaster until the downing of Boeing 737 MAX planes in 2019. The Chief of the London Ambulance Service resigned as a result of the problems and the adverse publicity. |£1.5m |Outsourced |
| 2002
|Smart Systems for Health / eHealth Ontario |Provincial government |eHealth Ontario is a group of projects that replaced a previous failed project, Smart Systems for Health, which "spent $650 million but failed to produce anything of lasting value." However, in 2009 the CEO of the eHealth Ontario agency resigned, followed by the government minister responsible for overseeing the agency, after a scandal over excessive payments to consultants. In the next audit in 2016, the Auditor General of Ontario noted that 14 years after Smart Systems for Health was started, not all of the eHealth projects were complete, and it was impossible to even determine if they were overbudget because the government had never originally put a budget on them.{{cite web|url=http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/news/16_newsreleases/2016news_3.03.pdf|title=eHealth Still Unfinished After 14 Years and $8 Billion: Auditor General|author=Bonnie Lysyk|date=November 30, 2016}} |Can$8bn (unknown) |In-house, but with heavy use of consultants |
| 2013
|{{flagcountry|US}} |By some estimates, only 1% of people managed to successfully enroll with the site in its first week of operation.{{cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-16/open-source-everything-the-moral-of-the-healthcare-dot-gov-debacle|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20131016000000/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-16/open-source-everything-the-moral-of-the-healthcare-dot-gov-debacle|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 16, 2013|title=The Obamacare Website Didn't Have to Fail. How to Do Better Next Time|accessdate=16 October 2013|date=16 October 2013|author=Paul Ford|work=Bloomberg Businessweek}} [https://faisalkazmi.com/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-16/open-source-everything-the-moral-of-the-healthcare-dot-gov-debacle Alt URL] On October 20, 2013, President Barack Obama remarked, "There's no sugar coating: the website has been too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process and I think it's fair to say that nobody's more frustrated by that than I am." |$1.5bn ($93.7m) |Outsourced |
| 2013
|Queensland Health Payroll System |Payroll system |{{flagcountry|AUS}} |The Queensland Health Payroll System was launched in 2010 in what could be considered one of the most spectacularly over budget projects in Australian history, coming in at over 200 times the original budget. In spite of promises that the new system would be fully automated, the new system required a considerable amount of manual operation.{{cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/technology/worst-failure-of-public-administration-in-this-nation-payroll-system-20130807-hv1cw.html|title=Worst failure of public administration in this nation: payroll system|accessdate=24 July 2018|date=7 August 2018|author=Tony Moore|work=Sydney Morning Herald}} |$AUD 1.2bn ($6m) |Outsourced |
Projects with ongoing problems
Until the significant problems with these projects are resolved, or the projects cancelled, it is not yet possible to classify them into one of the above categories.
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/risks The Risks Digest]
- {{cite web |url= https://faisalkazmi.com/r |title=Risk Factor - IEEE Spectrum |first= |last= |work=IEEE |year=2015 |access-date=June 16, 2015}}
- [http://www.iiitech.com/advisor/SAP-Project-Implementation-Best-Practices.php Best Practices and Measures for Success of your ERP IT Software Projects]
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