List of failed and overbudget custom software projects

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This is a list of notable custom software projects which have significantly failed to achieve some or all of their objectives, either temporarily or permanently, and/or have suffered from significant cost overruns.

Contents

Note that failed projects, and projects running over budget, are not necessarily the sole fault of the employees or businesses creating the software. In some cases, problems may be due partly to problems with the purchasing organisation, including poor requirements, over-ambitious requirements, unnecessary requirements, poor contract drafting, poor contract management, poor end-user training, or poor operational management.

Permanent failures

Because software, unlike a major civil engineering construction project, is often easy and cheap to change after it has been constructed, a piece of custom software that fails to deliver on its objectives may sometimes be modified over time in such a way that it later succeeds—and/or business processes or end-user mindsets may change to accommodate the software. However, sometimes, for various reasons, neither approach succeeds (or is even tried), and this may be considered as another level of failure—a permanent failure.

StartedTerminatedSystem nameType of systemCountry or regionType of purchaserProblemsCost (expected) Outsourced or in-house?Outcome
1980s1993 TAURUS Electronic trading platform Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom (London) Stock exchange Scope creep, cost overrun. The project was never completed.£75m ?Cancelled
19821994FAA Advanced Automation System Air Traffic Control Flag of the United States.svg  United States Federal Aviation Administration Cost overruns, underestimation of ATC complexity, delays, non-incremental change. existing system. [1] $3–6b ?Scrapped
19841990 RISP Integrated computer services Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom (Wessex) Wessex Health Authority Scope creep, cost overrun. The project was never completed.£63m (£29m) ?Cancelled
19941999 INCIS Crime informationFlag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand New Zealand Police Frequently changing development staff, hardware, software and scope.approx NZD$110mOutsourced to IBM NZCancelled, then hardware partially reused
19972000BolitCustomer service, finance and administration systemFlag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Patent and Registration Office Too complicated, bad functioning, cost overrun. The project was after completion never used, the agency still today does not have a working IT system. [2] [3] [ as of? ]SEK 300m ($35m)OutsourcedScrapped
19992006CSIO PortalCommon technological platform for brokers and insurers to improve workflow efficiencyFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada Centre for Study of Insurance Operations Low user adoption, conflict between insurers, new technology, lack of funding~$15 million CAD "CSIO portal abandoned due to lack of insurer support and availability of other solutions".Outsourced to IBM "Reconfiguring CSIO".Abandoned
20002009 Customer Account Data Engine System for handling tax records and processing tax returns, replacement for the Individual Master File and othersFlag of the United States.svg  United States Internal Revenue Service Low user adoption, performance issues, scope creep, never replaced IMF and other mainframe software, some dating back to the Kennedy Administration ~US$500 millionOutsourced to IBM, Northrop Grumman and othersAbandoned, intended to be replaced by CADE 2
20022011 NHS Connecting for Health Electronic care records Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Central government Beset by delays and ballooning costs, and the software part of it was never finished. The government was also criticised for not demonstrating value for money. Although the contracts were drafted to ensure that the contractors would be forced to bear a significant portion of the cost of the project going wrong if it did go wrong, in reality this did not always happen. The NPfIT was described by Members of Parliament as one of the "worst and most expensive contracting fiascos" ever. [4] £12bn (£2.3bn)OutsourcedDiscontinued, but some parts continued
20052012 Expeditionary Combat Support System Military Enterprise Resource Planning Flag of the United States.svg  United States Air force No significant capabilities ready on time; would have cost $1.1bn more just to get to 1/4 of the original scope.$1.1bnOutsourced – including requirementsCancelled
20072012 da:Polsag Police case managementFlag of Denmark.svg  Denmark Police Did not work properly, technical problems with contractor.DKK 500m ($70m)OutsourcedCancelled
20072014 e-Borders Advanced passenger information programmeFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom UK Border Agency A series of delays.over £412m (£742m)OutsourcedCancelled
20072010Försäkringskassan SAPDental health service systemFlag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Social Insurance Agency Not fit for purpose, multiple delays, cost overrun.SEK 10bn ($1.18bn) [5] Outsourced, then insourcedCancelled [6]
20082013 Digital Media Initiative Digital production, media asset managementFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Public service broadcaster By 2013, the project was judged to be obsolete (as much cheaper commercial off the shelf alternatives by then existed) and was scrapped by BBC management. The Director-General of the BBC said it had been a huge waste of money. [7] more than £98m (£81.7m)Outsourced, then insourced, then outsourced againCancelled
20092013 The Surrey Integrated Reporting Enterprise Network (SIREN) Crime & criminal intelligence logging systemFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom (Surrey) Police Force Not fit for purpose [8] £14.8mOutsourcedScrapped
20112014Pust SiebelPolice case managementFlag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Police Poor functioning, inefficient in work environments. [9] SEK 300m ($35m) [10] OutsourcedScrapped
20122014 Cover Oregon Healthcare exchange websiteFlag of the United States.svg  United States State government Site was never able to accept online enrollments, so users were instructed to mail in paper enrollments instead.approx $200mOutsourcedCancelled, then client and supplier both sued each other
2017 [11] 2023 [12] Distributed Ledger Technology (generic name) Electronic trading platform Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia Australian Stock Exchange System was too complex and only 60% completed$AU 170m expendedOutsourcedCancelled

Temporary issues and budget overruns

StartedSystem nameType of systemCountry or regionType of purchaserProblemsCost (expected)Outsourced or in-house?
1992 LASCAD Computer-aided dispatch for emergency ambulances Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom (London) Central government Ambulance delays and other problems were caused by the introduction of the system. More than 30 people may have died as a result, making it the largest computer-related disaster until the downing of Boeing 737 MAX planes in 2019. The Chief of the London Ambulance Service resigned as a result of the problems and the adverse publicity.£1.5mOutsourced
2002Smart Systems for Health / eHealth Ontario Electronic health record Ontario, Canada Provincial governmenteHealth Ontario is a group of projects that replaced a previous failed project, Smart Systems for Health, which "spent $650 million but failed to produce anything of lasting value." However, in 2009 the CEO of the eHealth Ontario agency resigned, followed by the government minister responsible for overseeing the agency, after a scandal over excessive payments to consultants. In the next audit in 2016, the Auditor General of Ontario noted that 14 years after Smart Systems for Health was started, not all of the eHealth projects were complete, and it was impossible to even determine if they were overbudget because the government had never originally put a budget on them. [13] Can$8bn (unknown)In-house, but with heavy use of consultants
2013 HealthCare.gov Healthcare exchange website [14] Flag of the United States.svg  United States Federal government By some estimates, only 1% of people managed to successfully enroll with the site in its first week of operation. [14] On October 20, 2013, President Barack Obama remarked, "There's no sugar coating: the website has been too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process and I think it's fair to say that nobody's more frustrated by that than I am."$1.5bn ($93.7m)Outsourced
2013 Queensland Health Payroll System Payroll systemFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia State government The Queensland Health Payroll System was launched in 2010 in what could be considered one of the most spectacularly over budget projects in Australian history, coming in at over 200 times the original budget. In spite of promises that the new system would be fully automated, the new system required a considerable amount of manual operation. [15] $AUD 1.2bn ($6m)Outsourced

Projects with ongoing problems

Until the significant problems with these projects are resolved, or the projects cancelled, it is not yet possible to classify them into one of the above categories.

StartedSystem nameType of systemCountry or regionType of purchaserProblemsCost (expected)Outsourced or in-house?
2013Canada.caGovernment website portalFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada Central governmentOriginal plan was to consolidate 1,500 Canadian government websites into a single portal on a single platform. In over three years, only 10,000 webpages of a total 17 million have successfully been migrated. [16] [17] $9.4 million + $28 million (ongoing)Outsourced platform and proprietary software
2007PRIOLogistic and financial systemFlag of Sweden.svg  Sweden Armed Forces Parts of the system was put into use in 2009, with reports of big usability issues following. [18] In 2012 troubles with supply of spare parts was reported, causing multiple Gripen fighter jets to be put out of service. The air force was operating at a 70% capacity, another area was reported to operate at a 3% capacity with half of the staff not able to work at all. It would take up to a year to restore capacity. [19] [20] At this point the cost to scrap the project and develop a new one was estimated to be SEK 11bn ($1.3bn). Not seen as an alternative, the development continued and the original budget of SEK 2.4bn was increased to 4bn. [21] In 2015 the project was still on its way to be fully implemented.SEK 4bn ($470m) [22] (ongoing)Technical aspects outsourced
2013 Universal Credit Welfare payments system consolidationFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Central government The schedule has slipped, with the final delivery date now expected to be 2021, although the system is gradually being introduced. In 2013, only one of four planned pilot sites went live on the originally scheduled date, and the pilot was restricted to extremely simple cases.£12.8bn (estimated) (£2.2bn) [23] Outsourced [24]
2010 Standard Business Reporting (Australian Taxation Office) Electronic Reporting to Government Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia Statutory authority 6 years after program started in 2010, approximately $800m to $1bn has been spent in total. A significant portion of this spend was composed of contracting fees to IBM [25] and Fujitsu. [26] As of early 2016, business take up of electronic reporting was 2-3%. Program has also suffered from significant scope creep [27] and confused objectives. [28] It is likely that choice of XBRL as the reporting format is the main driver behind low take-up (due to its obscurity and high implementation cost [29] [30] [31] relative to other technical standards).~$1bn to date (ongoing)Technical aspects outsourced

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References

  1. ↑ Bar-Yam, Yaneer (2003). When Systems Engineering Fails — Toward Complex Systems Engineering. Systems, Man and Cybernetics. Washington, DC, USA: IEE. pp. 2021–2028. doi:10.1109/ICSMC.2003.1244709.
  2. ↑ "Regeringens proposition 2003/04:34". Regeringskansliet. 6 November 2003. Retrieved 10 November 2023.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ↑ "Därför floppade projekten: Tre svenska it-fiaskon under lupp". IDG. 11 June 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "NHS IT system one of 'worst fiascos ever', say MPs". BBC News. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Tio miljarder för SAP på Försäkringskassan". Computer Sweden. 12 September 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "SAP-stopp på Försäkringskassan". Computer Sweden. 29 January 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "BBC abandons £100m digital project". BBC News. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "Siren police IT project's £15m failure a 'debacle'". BBC News. 19 June 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  9. ↑ "Polisen lägger ner Pust". DN. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  10. ↑ "Intern rapport dömer ut Polisens it-system". Computer Sweden. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  11. ↑ "ASX Media Release" (PDF). 7 December 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  12. ↑ "ASX turns to Tata, passing over Nasdaq, to rescue CHESS". 19 November 2023.
  13. ↑ Bonnie Lysyk (November 30, 2016). "eHealth Still Unfinished After 14 Years and $8 Billion: Auditor General" (PDF).
  14. 1 2 Paul Ford (16 October 2013). "The Obamacare Website Didn't Have to Fail. How to Do Better Next Time". Bloomberg Businessweek . Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013. Alt URL
  15. ↑ Tony Moore (7 August 2018). "Worst failure of public administration in this nation: payroll system". Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  16. ↑ "Federal government's Canada.ca project 'off the rails'". SR. 13 December 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  17. ↑ "Canada's Headed For A HealthCare.gov Disaster Of Its Own". SR. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  18. ↑ "Hård kritik från Statskontoret". SvD. 12 July 2009. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  19. ↑ "Datorstrul förlamar försvaret". SR. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  20. ↑ "Många Jas-plan kan fortfarande inte lyfta". Norrbottens-Kuriren. 12 June 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  21. ↑ "Försvarets SAP-strul toppen av ett isberg". Computer Sweden. 2 November 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  22. ↑ "Granskning av Försvarsmaktens införande av ett integrerat resurs- och ekonomiledningssystem (PRIO)" (PDF). Statskontoret. June 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2023.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  23. ↑ Mark Ballard (3 June 2013). "Universal Credit will cost taxpayers £12.8bn". Computer Weekly . Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  24. ↑ "Freedom of Information request response" (PDF). 18 October 2012.
  25. ↑ "AusTender: Advanced Search - Contract Notices". Tenders.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  26. ↑ "AusTender: Advanced Search - Contract Notices". Tenders.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  27. ↑ "Standard Business Reporting | XBRL as the SBR standard for financial and SuperStream transactions". Sbr.gov.au. 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  28. ↑ "Appendix A: Policy decisions taken since the 2015‑16 - Revenue Measures". Budget.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  29. ↑ "International Financial Reporting Standards" (PDF). Ifrs.org. March 2013. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  30. ↑ "Costly Data Go Untapped - CFO Journal. - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  31. ↑ "Telling it like it is: standard business reporting | UQ Business School". Business.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
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