All Aboard!

 

“This is not a horror story, nor is it a glowing success. It's the story of a project that could have been better and more successful had we had management buy-in and involvement of all parties from the start,” according to Gloria Roller.

Gloria's company, Sophisticated Information Technology (SIT), had been selected to provide the network and associated systems for implementation of an MIS for a state government organization in charge of mass transit in a major Northeast city. SIT was brought in as a subcontractor to IT Monolith after the contract had been awarded and signed, when IT Monolith was searching for an MIS solution. 

According to Gloria, two state groups were involved in the project—the engineering (planning) organization and the operations organization. The engineering organization was primarily staffed with academics and other "ivory tower" types who were strong in the technical aspects of the project and not much else. 

When project planning first started, the engineering organization did not really involve the operations organization. Why not? Simple, really. The engineers thought they knew best.

“But there was more to it than know-it-all engineers,” Gloria adds. “The operations people were at fault, too. They were too busy fighting their …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.