Peter O’Connell

London

Chief Executive Officer, Cogenture

As your report says, according to The Standish Group “Chaos” Report as many as 74 per cent of software projects are over-budget, late or cancelled. These shortfalls are caused by a range of factors including poor enterprise-level management, inappropriate setting of project milestones, a lack of user involvement at the planning stage and the need for clearer project objectives. Industrial strength software development needs an industrial strength approach just as with many other engineering disciplines.

The inexorable rise of new IT skills sets in countries such as India and China has created an irresistible trend for a degree of overseas technology outsourcing to occur. Usually delivered at a lower cost, these ‘import’ solutions have in many cases been effective in bridging short-term skills gaps that exist in our home markets. However, the longer-term issue for the West is more worrying. Our IT management base is starting to suffer from under investment and our expertise at the developer level is waning. This cannot fail to have a lasting impact upon our wider business efficiency.

Under investment in corporate technology expertise for the last five years has driven a generation of senior managers out of IT and IT strategy into other professions. The result of this is that Europe and America have both witnessed a skills gap at the IT manager level – and at the same time, the industry has reduced its training of new entrants in their twenties and thirties. Outsourcing to India is all very well but an estimated 52.7% of projects are costing 189% of their original estimates, so it seems clear that we should concentrate a little more on our home skills development and keep a tighter rein on its future growth.