Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Objectives
Sources
Finkelstein A. Report of the Inquiry into the London Ambulance Service
(February 1993), International Workshop on Software Specification and
Design Case Study.
Flowers S. Software failure: management failure, John Wiley & Sons
Chichester (1996).
Hougham M., London Ambulance Service computer-aided despatch system,
International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 103-110,
1996.
3
Background
1980s, LAS was under enormous pressure to
increase its performance
LAS not reaching the nationally agreed Operational
Research Consultancy (ORCON) performance
figures for reaching patients
Specified time for the ambulance crew to receive the
instructions triggered by an emergency call was 3
minutes
Crew was then required to arrive at the scene of the
accident within 14 minutes.
In this process what is the crucial metric
here?
a number that
increases with
the influx of
commuting
workers
during the
day and
carries over
5,000
patients daily
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geographical
area of 600
square miles
surrounded
by the M25
motorway
11
12
CAD system was seen as a catalyst that could justify the changes to working
practices that the management team wanted.
By taking decision making away from the control room staff the system
would reduce any power they had, again allowing for more change
13
On the LAS
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
14
A specification in flux
At this stage, no formal approval or sign off of the completed
specification i.e. the specification was not frozen.
As can be seen from examples in more recent projects (see NHS
connecting for Health) this can culminate in design changes at
project execution which cause more delay than the sum of their
parts.
16
Example
17
19
20
24
A gap hypothesis
Despite the advent of increasingly flat pyramid
organizations, the gap between a project contract
and the project implementation appears to be a
prime factor in a projects success or failure.
This gap is mirrored in the CAD project, amplified by
the autocratic behaviour of executives. The Chief
Executive of the LAS set the project deadline for the
CAD project which was described by one of the
Inquiry team as,
[i] The TAURUS project was an attempt to create an automated securities dealing system throughout the Stock
Exchange, Bank of England and other financial institutions in the city. It was abandoned in March 1993 at an
estimated cost of 400 million.
[ii] Currie, W., (1994), The strategic management of a large scale IT project in the financial
services sector, New Technology Work and Employment, pp.22.
[v] Currie, W., pp. 25.
27
,
29
30
The procurement
A sub team created from the original
system requirement specification team to
choose the consortium.
Had to evaluate the tenders
31
Procurement chronology
The CAD system was put out to tender on the 7th Feb
1991
Consortium was picked to build the system by May
1991.
The winning consortium of Apricot, System Options,
and Datatrak had to complete the system by 8th
January 1992.
The tendered bid from the consortium of 973,463 was
700,000 less than its nearest rival, yet there was no
questions from either the LAS or the external assessor
(Scottish Ambulance Service) of the procurement
process as to how the consortium were going to
achieve the same objectives with 70% less capital.
32
The culture,
the procurement process,
the inexperience of the contractors,
the lack of involvement by the end users,
the absence of any project management
34
At the start of the project a company associated with one of the unsuccessful
tender bids offered to implement an independent Quality Assurance system,
but this was not even considered. Again, cost was cited as the main reason
36
Figure 10.4
38
40
Why PFI/PPP?
Is there a global lack of responsibility to
make decisions regarding the choice and
implementation of projects, which can be
mirrored, by the lack of decision-making that
appears at an operational level?
Risk transfer
It could be speculated that transferring projects
to the private sector has been exacerbated by
the trend to reduce or eliminate the amount of
actual projects carried out in-house by public
sector organizations hence losing the
necessary operational expertise required to
identify a good or a bad project proposal.
At the LAS there was very little thought given to
the feasibility of the project both technically and
operationally, possibly because of a lack of
knowledge of information technology.
43
[i] Currie, W., (1994), The strategic management of a large scale IT project in
the financial services sector, New Technology Work and Employment, pp.22.
44
[iii] Janis, Irving, (1982), Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decision and Fiascos, Houghton Mifflin.
45
Conclusions
Conclusions
,
In conclusion it appears that there is
potentially a place for project
management methodologies like PRINCE2
although like salt it should perhaps be
used sparingly
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