No one likes to see money go to waste, especially when taxpayers are footing the bill for the state’s multimillion-dollar IT (information technology) infrastructure projects.
Whenever a failed project, such as the state’s financial system modernization, comes to light, it may be tempting to call a halt to all of the state’s transformational IT investments, even though we know they are sorely needed and ultimately will benefit all of us.
The questions that haunt us are why these failures keep recurring and how we can approach these projects differently. The answers may not be what everyone wants to hear, but the fact is large government IT infrastructure projects, which are intended to transform the way the government does business, are inherently complicated and risky