Once again today there is another story about the failure of public sector innovation. This time it is the national offender management information system which was set up to provide 'end-to-end offender management'. This aimed to share information between prisons and the probation service, replacing separate stand-alone systems. At its inception in 2004, the estimated lifetime cost of the system was estimated to be £234M. By 2008 the expected total cost had more than doubled.
The National Audit Office review, published today, highlights the following failures in this project
1. Senior service management did not monitor the project sufficiently.
2. There was no clear governance structure in place. Roles and responsibilities were blurred.
3. Poor programme management - the lack of an overall project plan; poor change control and inadequate financial control
4. The need to perceive major projects as IT-enabled business change rather than technical IT projects. The 42 probation services all had individual ways of working. Trying to accommodate these led to requirements drift. Processes should have been standardised and simplified.
5. Poor supplier management. This is an outsourced development, but it was not tendered for. The development progressed on a time and materials basis, racking up the costs as requirements grew.
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