You're too kind to this idea. I'm having ...

2011-08-21T16:36:40.396-05:00

You're too kind to this idea. I'm having trouble envisioning a scenario in which this would help.

First, you'd have to eliminate any vendors of product or services from the IT Project Death Panels. Perhaps some of them would altruistically avoid nixing a project because it uses a competitor, but that's not where I'd put my money.

Second, you'd have to get people who understand that government is different from the private sector. Perhaps not fatally so, but enough that IT projects have to be seen with public-sector needs in mind.

Third, what is the supposed upside of an IT Project Death Panel? To spot bloated projects to solve problems that could be solved more efficiently in other ways? Those projects exist, but I'm not sure that many of them recognizable before they start. Most projects look like good ideas at the proposal stage. It's when the project gets bogged down with implementation difficulties that the problems really emerge. Of course, that's not an absolute--someone who has already attempted to implement Security Application Foo could spot the problems coming ahead of time.

But I think this is the biggest problem with that proposal: it claims "No ... project should ever have to reach" millions of dollars in cost. I say poppycock, sir. That's the sort of thing spouted by vehement anti-taxers and open-source zealots, and it's just not true at certain organizational sized and SLA requirements. That statement alone suggests that the person proposing the IT Project Death Panel is more interested in killing projects than making them efficient.

Comments on Last In - First Out: Have all big government internet projects

You're too kind to this idea. I'm having ...