Your article reflects part of the reason IT projects fail (Escape the cull). There is too much focus on the IT part being critical to a project's success.

No projects are pure IT projects, they are business projects; IT is only one component. Effective benefits management is the key to project success. Involvement of the business, from strategy through to post-implementation review, is critical.

Projects that succeed do so because they also effectively manage the critical organisational and socio-technical components.

Until organisations wake up to the importance of these aspects, no matter how many Prince2 project managers are rolled off the production line, IT projects will continue to have a high failure rate.

Rob Sucher

The losses expected as a result of delays to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Future Firecrest programme are a reminder of the problems that can arise in the early stages of technology deployment (Upgrade   delays add to FCO costs).

Whether you are managing your own IT project or outsourcing a team of IT specialists, a thorough examination of how technology can serve your business is essential to recognising potential stumbling blocks.

However, no matter how well prepared you are, technology control comes from so many sources that surprises are still possibile. While delays might be unavoidable, being aware and prepared for their occurrence can minimise their effects.

The FCO has acted commendably in response to the additional security requirements that have caused the delays, and is wise to demand advance warnings of any further hold-ups, but it is not out of the woods yet. Continued vigilance is crucial to stop the programme from slipping further.

Richard Barker

I note from your article that many people are worried about the security of the National Identity Register if it is implemented (No change to identity card scheme, says government).

However, there are many other government databases that would be at least as valuable to criminals, one of which has already had its fair share of IT incompetence, so why should we believe its security is any good?

The National Firearms Database has taken nearly 10 years to introduce and has been implemented with the competence and professionalism that we have come to expect from government IT projects.
I recently had to renew my firearms certificate and it took four months, as opposed to the four weeks that it took prior to the introduction of the new database.

My local police firearms licensing department laid the blame squarely at the door of the National Firearms Database.

How can we have any confidence in the security of its data as, based on the HMRC debacle, goodness know who else has access?

There are at least 700,000 legal firearms of one sort or another in the UK. All of these are or will be on the National Firearms Database, complete with the names and addresses of their registered keepers. It is hard to imagine what would happen if that data fell into the hands of criminals.

Name withheld on request

Seriously. Hands up who still thinks an ID card linked to a national identity database is a good idea and their personal information will be safe (ICO warns of more breaches).

What, no one? Gosh.

Antony Hawkins

I was recently asked by a local village shop to help because they were having a problem with their computer, and they know I have "something to do with computers".

The problem turned out to be a software package which had decided not to launch, but was not giving much away in the error message. Eventually we found a phone number for a support desk for the package, and the first question the technician asked was which version of Internet Explorer was on the PC. On replying IE7, he asked me to remove it.

Ah, the IE7 incompatibility problem, I said. Yes, he replied, we have not upgraded our software yet Ð we normally just disable Windows Automatic Updates. The shopkeeper, on hearing me mention Windows Updates, said he had applied the updates that morning, because he knew that was good practice. The technician did some more maintenance via a remote session, and disabled Windows Automatic Updates.
So, for the right reasons, the shopkeeper was still inconvenienced. But the internet has another unknown number of insecure PCs  because of deliberate bad practice.

Al Lawrence

There was a clue to the lack of Galileo's viability when the commercial partners pulled out (Galileo is an EU vanity project say MPs).

If you are using a line such as "we can't trust the US" (Galileo magnifico, Letters blog, letters.computing.co.uk), why stop at Galileo? We had better scrap Trident and build nukes from scratch, start a separate internet, and ground all Boeings.

The billions would be much better spent saving lives and educating children.

Robert Stevens

Government departments have made the investment in enabling technologies such as Oracle or SAP to support the delivery of shared services, but it will take time for each department to stabilise after their software implementation (Public sector shares admin). The lack of business change skills and investment has restricted the ability of most to realise business benefits but this is starting to happen.

It is hard to see how the Department for Work and Pensions or HM Revenue and Customs can develop shared service platforms for other departments without some involvement from the private sector. I suspect they will have to create new agencies to avoid being held back by the inertia of their own organisations.

The NHS shared service has not been fully adopted by hospital trusts and again this will limit the scope for savings and commercial opportunity for private companies. However, departments have started the journey and there is no going back.

John Turner

I thought Lisa Kelly's article was excellent but it gave me a sense of deja vu (Super users replace programmers).

Many years ago I witnessed the rapid spread of user-developed spreadsheets. Some of these were developed by capable super users who were able to make Excel stand on its head and dance.

Unfortunately, the spreadsheets were passed on to less-super users who, over time, made small changes. Needless to say, they did not understand some of the logic, which of course was not documented, and introduced some interesting bugs.

This would not have been an issue, had the output from these spreadsheets not been given to the firm's clients. To compound the problem, some of these spreadsheets had become business-critical applications and the super users who originally developed them had long since left.

The solution was to allow super users to develop anything they like to make their jobs easier or more effective - but to restrict how it was used in one important way.

If output were to be given to a client or used for client-related work, it should be treated as any other software application development and subjected to the normal testing. With these caveats in place good user-developed software could be produced.

However, most busy professionals baulk at the imposition of these rules and the amount of time it would take to comply with them.

The solution would seem to be treating their development as a prototype and then, if it is to become a business application, turning it over to a development team to produce a robust, quality-assured version.

This approach allows super users to develop quick and cheap tools for their own use, while protecting the firm from potentially disastrous tinkering.

John Carroll

In the hunt for solutions to the skills crisis, end user-driven development (EUDD) is something that the UK IT industry needs to get behind (Super users replace programmers).

While many IT seniors will quote the failure of 4GLs, it should be recognised that specialised EUDD tools are rife, and many users not even aware they are using EUDD. A good example is Excel, another is Web 2.0 sites such as Bebo. EUDD is here, make the most of it now.

Dharmesh Mistry

Andrew Parker makes some good points (Outsourcing must not be a battle), but what a study cannot uncover is that innovation is something that occurs over time, not at the moment of signing the deal.

Assuming the contract is sensible, the client is still responsible for creating an environment that not only encourages innovation, but also measures it as part of the overall engagement scorecard.

I have worked with more than 20 outsourcing client engagements to develop the governance processes, and have found that clients sometimes create conditions which make service provider innovation impossible.

Clients often retain the very people who should go to the service provider to ensure innovation, so denying the service provider the most knowledgeable people, as well as creating immediate micromanagement and discord in the relationship.

Andrew Parker says owners of outsourcing relationships should make sure their colleagues appreciate the service provider innovating to hold down costs. He should try to walk in the shoes of a real owner of an outsourcing deal - often the most thankless and politically-charged role in an organisation.

Customers only care about themselves, not the service provider.  Relationship owners should focus on making sure that service levels really meet the needs of the consumers of the service. This is an area where I have frequently seen service levels revised, sometimes too late to correct consumer perceptions, which are hard to change once set.

Finally, clients frequently take far too long to raise issues that are impediments to the services and to innovation, partly through lack of experience but perhaps partly because they are afraid to damage their 'partnership'.

Allowing issues to fester is very damaging to a services relationship. For clients seeking innovation, intelligent management and sensitivity to the fact that the service provider's people are human beings are prerequisites to achieving a relationship in which innovation is possible.

Cynthia Batty

It seems ludicrous that more measures were not taken to prevent data being lost in transit between government buildings (HMRC fiasco places data protection under the spotlight).

There are many ways to keep a record of where items are in the distribution chain.

Companies and individuals have a number of options when shipping highly sensitive material. From recorded delivery with Royal Mail to specialist courier services, paying extra for track-and-trace capabilities is often only considered in hindsight when things go wrong.

Had the government spent a few more pounds, 25 million people would not be worrying about identity fraud, and Alistair Darling could have avoided another controversy caused by failed procedures.

Clive Fearn

I don't think HMRC management has yet embraced how to protect data (HMRC fiasco places data protection under the spotlight).

The letter of apology that HMRC sent to eight million parents of  17 million children contains excess data such as parents' national insurance numbers and children's benefit numbers.

So now there are eight million letters that can be used for identity theft.

Couldn't the letters have been sent out without these bureaucratic reference numbers? We don't need this information to know who our children are.

Keith Appleyard

Jose Manuel Barroso is correct on the need for a single market to ensure the EU remains a significant economic player (Telecom watchdogs to gain more powers).

European telecoms reform of this magnitude is long overdue, particularly if EU-based businesses are to continue to compete in a globalised market. Greater harmonisation and regulatory consistency across Europe is essential, particularly in countries where national regulators have not yet implemented directives in a complete or effective way.

It is about time that the European Commission (EC) and national regulators started paying the same attention to the business telecoms market as they do to the consumer market.

Business communications are very different from residential communications. For example, many business users require multiple cross-border sites to be connected simultaneously, while local access bottlenecks often make it difficult to provide these services in an efficient way. The EC and national regulators must be prepared to regulate to improve competition in this segment.

Regulation does not just mean greater scrutiny; it can help generate competition and choice for consumers.

The EC's move is welcome recognition of the importance of pan-European business communications in driving workplace productivity and underpinning the smooth running of the European economy.

Robin Saphra

I can understand why few businesses owners want to deal with someone they haven't met, but a successful business should combine face-to-face dealings with other methods of communication (Business deals still need face to face).

Sales teams should use all of the methods available to them, including meetings, telephone calls, emails and even newer technologies such as video calling, to develop well-rounded communications with their clients.

Winning business is the first step, maintaining the relationship is the hard part. This cannot rely solely on face-to-face meetings, particularly when the people involved are in different cities or even countries.

Steve Hull

As demand for more agile IT systems increases, integration skills will become ever more sought after (Fitting the skills together).

However, while the need for professionals skilled in business intelligence and service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects is great, companies must be wary of neglecting their core systems.

Many of those equipped to deal with such systems are approaching retirement. If firms cannot find staff who are proficient with such hardware, and as a consequence are unable to access or keep up these systems, the results for UK businesses could be disastrous.

Although professionals with advanced integration skills are crucial to modern IT projects, the need to maintain core systems should not be underestimated.

Both businesses and government must take the initiative to provide workers with both of these skill sets, to ensure that the UK remains competitive in the global economy.

Arunn Ramadoss

Gartner's Ken McGee and other analysts have concluded that the looming threat of recession may force some CIOs to cut their IT budgets for 2008 (CIOs must prepare for economic uncertainty).

But considering the correlation between innovation, growth initiatives and the technology that fosters them, this option could prove unfeasible for many organisations.

The conundrum is how to grow the business and the corresponding infrastructure in the face of stagnant or declining IT budgets.

Eliminating outdated or underused IT assets may  offer immediate cost relief, but how do businesses support growth?

Obviously, the ideal is to be able to do more with existing resources, and this  is where application virtualisation is tipped as the next big thing for IT infrastructure in 2008.

By providing the tools to create a flexible, on-demand infrastructure that intelligently provisions processing power as and when required across the entire organisation, application virtualisation enables CIOs to do more with less.

Return on investment is quick and easily supported, and as markets tighten and competition grows, this is one of the few technologies that can improve customer service levels and internal service level agreements.

Rather than inducing mass eliminations, the predicted IT budget squeeze could be an opportunity for the savvy CIO to capitalise on up-and-coming technologies, and harness resources rather than cut them.

Alun Baker

I started as a web developer but now spend all my time digging out information for managers, and creating web-based tools to allow them to do it themselves in the future (How to unearth buried treasures).

So what's my job title now?

Robcw, submitted on the web