Government Executive had an interesting article on the Census Bureau handheld project problem. In an interview with Government Executive, agency director Steven Murdock said that there was a "combination of events" that contributed to the problems, and he spread the blame among the Census Bureau as well as the contractors.
Director Murdock also said in the interview that he didn't want to dwell on past problems, which I can fully understand. Right now, the agency has to make certain that the 2010 census can be properly conducted, so all efforts need to be focused forward.
However, this also is the best time to really do a comprehensive post mortem on why the handheld project went south, especially focusing on the decision making process that took place along the way and how it addressed (or didn't) the various technical, contractual, political, managerial, etc. sources of risk.
Right now memories are the most clear, emotions are still raw, and the paper trail still likely exists. By this time next year, revisionist history will have set in, people will be circumspect, and critical memos, reports, etc. will be finding their way into the shredders if they aren't doing so now.
If the Census Bureau - or the Office of Management and Budget - really wants to understand why big government IT projects fail and how to begin to avoid the inevitable next one, it needs to do some investigative case analysis on real projects to look for both systematic and systemic sources of risk.
The Army has a Center of Army Lessons Learned to thoroughly and objectively look at what goes right and what goes wrong across Army operations and publishes that information as widely as possible - it is high time the government has something similar for IT projects.
COMMENTS
What I find so fascinating is that I've never experienced or heard of a program failing because of technology. They always fail because of people. It's usually a combination of politics and arrogance. Census may have made mistakes and they should be working to correct them to minimize mistakes in the future. But I don't think any of what went wrong could be characterized as criminal. In addition they have lots of company within the Federal space. In fairness to the government I think many agencies are working very hard to better manage their acquisitions. However, it's very clear that some agencies have crossed the line and the actions that some of the officers have taken are criminal. The officers of those agencies should be tried in a criminal court. It was declared at Nuremburg that being a good soldier doesn't absolve one from criminal prosecution. That lesson apparently needs to be reinforced so that career government employees understand that when the political et al constraints make an acquisition undoable, they feel empowered if not obligated to push back. As long as politics is the primary driver, we'll continue to see a blatant disregard of the careful well thought out spending of taxpayer dollars and the willingness to spend them on public relations tools impersonating an acquisition that is supposed to improve national security or terrorism for example. It’s so hard for me to understand how the leadership of this country could be so willing to waste the hundreds of billions of dollars that they do, knowing that the money could be well spent on other things (education, SS, infrastructure, Medicare/Medicaid, environment, alternative energy, …) just to try to convince the public that they’re on the job and have been keeping their eye on the ball.
Anonymous 08/22/08 02:41 pm ET
Lack of accountability and the ability to push these types of incompetent behaviors aside is costing taxpayers a fortune. Trial and Error is not the way to go about running any business. Obviously, the right questions weren't asked by the right people before implementing this failed project.
Chuck Sarkis 08/22/08 06:39 am ET
Director Murdock "doesn't want to dwell on past problems" and says that the efforts of the Census Bureau need to be "focused forward". Maybe so, but Murdock and everyone else who are responsible for the "handheld project" should have some substantial "time on the beach" without pay so they can ponder their failures. If any of the Census Bureau's "working folks" failed so badly in their responsibilities, they would rightly be severely disciplined.
John Frecker 08/20/08 09:08 am ET
Agree. When agencies drop the ball on the 'front end' of programs by failing to get requirements right and giving short shrift to planning and risk management, failure is all too predictable. The GAO's new cost guide, which just completed a one-year exposure draft period, will help managers apply best practices (such as a good Work Breakdown Structure, Risk Management and Earned Value Management) to estimate and manage their programs.
Wayne Abba 08/20/08 07:41 am ET