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IT Project Failures

Michael Krigsman
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Ten great software glitches for 2010

By | December 28, 2010, 6:57pm PST

Summary: Top ten failure lists are a dime a dozen. This one is exceptional because the guy who compiled it wrote the book on this subject.

Top ten failure lists are a dime a dozen and enough to drive a person crazy. This one is exceptional because the guy who compiled it, Jeff Papows, literally wrote the book on this subject.

Jeff’s book is called GLITCH, and it documents some of the great software failures of our time; he even quotes yours truly in the book. Jeff is CEO of Weblayers and an authority on the impact of technology glitches on society. He and I share the belief that IT governance plays a crucial role in alleviating this problem.

This is Jeff’s top ten list of software glitches for 2010:

  • Toys R Us Double Charges Black Friday Shoppers
  • New Hampshire Man Charged 23 Quadrillion Dollars for a pack of smokes
  • McAfee Software Glitch Proves Costly
  • Apple to issue software fix for lingering iPad Wi-Fi problems
  • Weapon Software Glitch Hits Close to Home
  • Toyota Slapped With $32.4 Million Fine for Mishandling Recalls
  • Verizon Wireless to refund $50 million over software glitch
  • Faulty software costs NY $114M
  • Chase Web crash locks out 16.5 million online customers
  • Airborne Laser Test Failure Blamed on Software Error

    • What do you think about this list — does it include the best failures?

    Image from iStockphoto

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    Topics

    Software, Software Glitch, Tools & Techniques, Management, Michael Krigsman

    Michael Krigsman is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures.

    Disclosure

    Michael Krigsman

    Michael Krigsman writes and speaks about technology in a manner that most observers consider to be fair and balanced. Michael believes that writing about IT failures, which often have complex causes, creates a unique obligation to be reasonable and accurate in both reporting and analysis.

    Michael maintains active personal and professional relationships with enterprise technology buyers, vendors, analyst firms (or individual analysts), consultants, and system integrators. As CEO of Asuret, Michael sells and delivers paid services to members of these same groups.

    Vendors regularly reimburse Michael's out-of-pocket travel expenses to attend industry conferences and events. Conference organizers frequently waive entry fees when Michael attends industry events. Michael often speaks at industry conferences and events.

    He is a member of the Enterprise Irregulars, a loose association of consultants, investors, industry representatives, analysts, and users of enterprise software.

    For daily updates on Michael's activities, follow him on Twitter.

    Biography

    Michael Krigsman

    Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a consulting company dedicated to reducing technology implementation failures. Asuret's suite of software tools improve the success rate of enterprise software deployments by quantifying and measuring governance issues that cause most project failures. Michael led the research effort underlying Asuret's model of collective intelligence and its practical application to reducing IT failures in consulting environments. He is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures and is frequently quoted in the press on IT project and related CIO issues. He is considered an enterprise software industry "influencer" and provides advice to technology buyers, vendors, and services firms.

    Previously, Michael served as CEO of Cambridge Publications, which develops tools and processes for software implementations and related business practice automation projects. Michael has been involved with hundreds of software development projects, for companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 organizations. Michael graduated with an M.B.A. from Boston University and a B.A. from Bard College. He is a Board member of the America's Cup Hall of Fame and the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, RI.

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    RE: Ten great software glitches for 2010
    AdanaLy Updated - 1st Sep
    gNow, if the daughter had her contacts stored in her Mac's Address Book or on the MobileMe cloud, there's just no need for her to reenter those manually and I strongly doubt that the Genius employee would have suggested it. Thankfully the iPhone/iTunes sync features give this extra level of redundancy, but you have those sync features turned on, and you have plug your phone into your computer once in a while.
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    0 Votes
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    USD700 6 years for a public transport ticketing system
    Richard Flude 28th Dec 2010
    That doesn't work. Clowns. Nice use of MS tech boys;-)

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    i read it was Linux based because apple stuff
    Ron Bergundy Updated - 29th Dec 2010
    just couldn't handle it, but i'll have to find that article. to be 100% honset all of the issues today have been bad cards or instruction pamplets so at least the linux part is working!!
    0 Votes
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    All good then;-)
    Richard Flude 29th Dec 2010
    The readers are windows embedded based, the backend windows server.

    Time to touch-on or off often several seconds. 75,000 of the 800,000+ cards issued aren't used because of the problems. Many of the mobile units (trams and buses) simply don't work. Ticket inspectors unable to check if passes validated.

    Hundreds of cards issued with blank names, others with incorrect balances.

    Yep sounds like pamphlets issues to me;-) I wonder why they're auditing the project to see if it should be scrapped (and government IT failure).
    0 Votes
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    RE: Ten great software glitches for 2010
    james347 Updated - 5th Jan 2011
    Only one glitch: Microsoft.
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    RE: Ten great software glitches for 2010
    AdanaLy Updated - 1st Sep
    gNow, if the daughter had her contacts stored in her Mac's Address Book or on the MobileMe cloud, there's just no need for her to reenter those manually and I strongly doubt that the Genius employee would have suggested it. Thankfully the iPhone/iTunes sync features give this extra level of redundancy, but you have those sync features turned on, and you have plug your phone into your computer once in a while.
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