London Ambulance Service Computer Aided Dispatch System Lessons Learnt Report
London Ambulance Service
Computer Aided Dispatch System
Lessons Learnt Report
Submission Date: 13/03/12
Word Count: 2690
Contents
Introduction 2 Project Management (Planning \ Scheduling) 3 Project Manager responibilities 3 Statement of Work 3 Problem areas 3 Time Management 4 Milestones 4 Stages of Project Planning 5 Project Procurement / Contract management 6 Procurement process 6 Procurement process in LAS case study 8 Lessons learnt Procurement process 9 Organisational Structures/Culture 9 Effective Human Resource Management 10 Training 11 Quality 12 Why did it fail ? 13 Conclusion 14 Bibliography 15
Introduction
Failure of IT projects has plagued the IT industry since the introduction of automated systems into organisations. While failures in software are perhaps one of the more quickly excused reasons, the problem often lies at the project management level.
A study by the Standish Group (2011) on 400 organizations, found a decrease in IT project success rates during the past two years. The study indicated that the top five reasons for project failure are: * Requirements: Unclear, lack of agreement, lack of priority, contradictory, ambiguous, imprecise. * Resources: Lack of resources, resource conflicts, turnover of key resources, poor planning. * Schedules: Too tight, unrealistic, and overly optimistic. * Planning: Based on insufficient data, missing items, insufficient details, poor estimates. * Risks: Unidentified or assumed, not managed.
London Ambulance Service’s 1992 computer aided dispatch (CAD) software system failure demonstrated the damaging effect that a small error in software can have on a large scale project l. However, a closer investigation of events surrounding the system failure indicates that there was more to the failure than an error in software. The aim of this report is to highlight the errors encountered in this project.
Project Management (Planning \ Scheduling)
Project Manager responibilities
Computer Aided Dispatch System
Lessons Learnt Report
Submission Date: 13/03/12
Word Count: 2690
Contents
Introduction 2 Project Management (Planning \ Scheduling) 3 Project Manager responibilities 3 Statement of Work 3 Problem areas 3 Time Management 4 Milestones 4 Stages of Project Planning 5 Project Procurement / Contract management 6 Procurement process 6 Procurement process in LAS case study 8 Lessons learnt Procurement process 9 Organisational Structures/Culture 9 Effective Human Resource Management 10 Training 11 Quality 12 Why did it fail ? 13 Conclusion 14 Bibliography 15
Introduction
Failure of IT projects has plagued the IT industry since the introduction of automated systems into organisations. While failures in software are perhaps one of the more quickly excused reasons, the problem often lies at the project management level.
A study by the Standish Group (2011) on 400 organizations, found a decrease in IT project success rates during the past two years. The study indicated that the top five reasons for project failure are: * Requirements: Unclear, lack of agreement, lack of priority, contradictory, ambiguous, imprecise. * Resources: Lack of resources, resource conflicts, turnover of key resources, poor planning. * Schedules: Too tight, unrealistic, and overly optimistic. * Planning: Based on insufficient data, missing items, insufficient details, poor estimates. * Risks: Unidentified or assumed, not managed.
London Ambulance Service’s 1992 computer aided dispatch (CAD) software system failure demonstrated the damaging effect that a small error in software can have on a large scale project l. However, a closer investigation of events surrounding the system failure indicates that there was more to the failure than an error in software. The aim of this report is to highlight the errors encountered in this project.
Project Management (Planning \ Scheduling)
Project Manager responibilities
Bibliography: Peters (2009) Insight: Technology Failure Rates. Available at: http://be-in-unison.com/2011/02/25/insight-project-successfailure-rates/ (Accessed 10th March 2012) Parsaie, J Long, P. (2009) London Ambulance Failure: Software Glitch Cripples Ambulance Service. Available at: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/tag/london-ambulance-failure/ (Accessed: 3rd March 2012) D Ranjit K. Roy. 2010. A Primer on the Taguchi Method 2nd ed, SME National Archives – Guidance for Proof Of Concept pilot; http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/pilot-guidance.html; accessed 10/03/12 Harold Kerzner (2003) Project Management – A systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling Wiley & Sons Inc. Harold Kerzner (2010) Project Management Best Practices – 2nd edition Wiley Jack R GIBSON, G., WANG, Y., CHO, C. and PAPPAS, M. (2006), “What Is Pre project Planning, Anyway? Journal of Management in Engineering, 22, 35–42. Edwards, Judith A.. AMA Handbook of Project Management, 2006, p196-205, 10p Computer Economics Report, Nov2008, Vol