Opinion

Why do IT projects fail?

I am sure if you ask that question to ten people you will get 10 different answers, or at the very least a wide variety of reasons. The product chosen to deliver the solution was a poor match, the product was implemented incorrectly, the PM sucked, the Vendor gave no support, insufficient training material/resources, poor interoperability, the list goes on and on.

One issue I have observed from time to time on my travels is quite different from the above listed examples. In fact, (and this is my personal observation and opinion) the real issue can be hidden under the reasons listed above.

I have been musing this a little while and decided to write this post/rant/opinion post, feel free to post your thoughts and opinions in the comments.

OK so here it is, one thing I have observed for a good while now is how much noise there is about how -you- should be in the cloud (Public) and if you are not you’re already dead.

I call Bull****!

Public, Hybrid and Private clouds are solutions not final destinations, regardless of whether you are a customer, partner, or any other third thing you should be purely focused on what is best for you or (if you provide IT services) your customer. It is plainly obvious to me that in -all- of the customers I have visited there has been no appetite or reason to mass adopt any single one solution/option as it simply would not fit how they do business and function day to day. There will of course be exceptions to this rule but they are indeed exceptions not the norm.

I think this is the first time I have written a “rant” post (for a while at least) so if you don’t want to hear me whine run away now!

In the past 12 months I think I have met more folk with Architect in their job title than I truly believe is valid. Now I will be clear this is not a slight on the individuals all of them have been exceptional (at least the ones I have had the pleasure to work with).