the olympian

Letters to the editor

Officials must be willing to pull plug on projects

Having read The Olympian's article on the Department of Correction's OMNI project, I doubt if the project will meet its latest cost and schedule expectations. State government and Microsoft have apparently more in common than their monopoly, namely project cost and schedule overruns. What a surprise! Information Services Board has always maintained that the project agencies are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of information technology projects. ISB must however take responsibility for allowing continuation of failing projects.

As the article pointed out, successful completion of information technology projects necessitates a stable structural environment. There are at least a dozen factors that influence the structural integrity of an IT project. Legislative changes, however, are a fact of life. The Legislature must respond to social, economic and political changes. The project agency and more importantly the ISB must exercise more diligence in bringing closure to IT projects when changes to the structural integrity of projects threaten successful completion. While working as an oversight agent for the Department of Information Services back in early 1990s, I set the stage for closure of the COSMOS project at DSHS. Sliding a failing project's schedule and/or pumping more funds into it should seldom be the first option.

New projects can always be initiated. The larger the project, the more difficult it is to manage change. At one time, ISB encouraged the agencies to take on shorter and less costly (under $1.5 million) projects. This policy has apparently gone by the wayside.

Javad Naini, Olympia