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Enhanced Management Framework
ARCHIVED - An Enhanced Framework for the Management of Information Technology Projects
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6. Business Case
The findings of the Standish Group International Inc. were presented at the beginning of this report. If these findings were to apply to the sample of 25 government information technology projects estimated to cost two billion dollars that were reviewed by the Treasury Board Secretariat, as many as seven will be cancelled and project overruns will exceed one billion dollars. Given that, in total, there are about 80 large information technology projects in government then, based on the Standish prediction, the potential for loss could be over three billion dollars.
Although the government's record so far does not support the prediction of loss of this magnitude, it is clear that significant funds are at risk. Even if the enhanced framework only succeeds in saving a fraction of the funds at risk, the potential return on its investment is hundreds of millions of dollars! The expectation, of course is that, while nothing can totally eliminate risk from large, complex undertakings, this enhanced framework will significantly reduce project overruns, ensure project cancellations are rare and, when they do occur, they do so much sooner in the project life-cycle when less money has been spent on them.
Footnotes
- Procurement Reform and the Success of IT/SI Projects, Audit and Evaluation Branch, Public Works and Government Services Canada, January 1995. [Return]
- Charting the Seas of Information Technology, Chaos, The Standish Group International, Inc., 1994.[Return]
- As determined, for example, by the Capability Maturity Model, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.[Return]
- Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213. [Return]
- Procurement Reform and the Success of IT/SI Projects, Audit and Evaluation Branch, Public Works and Government Services Canada, January 1995.[Return]
- Applied Software Engineering Centre, Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal, 1801 McGill College Avenue, Suite 800, Montréal, Québec H3A 2N4[Return]
- Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanis 15213 [Return]
