IT Failures in History and How They Could Have Been Avoided - Research Paper Example

? IT failures in history and how they could have been avoided 06/09 IT failures in history and how they could have been avoided Many highly publicized and most funded IT launches during the history have all ended in failures. Several huge technology companies which had eminent market share and large product advantages lost the advantages they would have otherwise had (Flyvbjerg, 2011). Many questions dwell in the mind of an individual when we look at how products were bring about by the companies and did not go on in the industry and why it happened. Many highly innovative products were not known to consumers and thus failed with time. The question arises then why the products were not well known to the consumers? Why did the companies never focus on advertising as they would have? While researching this topic, I realized that some of the products were not globally recognized. Why were the products not globally known to consumers all around the world? May be the communication was not good enough. The most important question that prevails in my mind is that why the communication networks were not used as extensively as they would have to market the high-tech products? (Flyvbjerg, 2011). From this situation of products of IT falling in the market, we can derive that there was a lack of communications all across the globe. Particularly, there is a desperate need for efficient teamwork which makes sure that the whole organization thinks the same way. Famous leaders, such as Cameron have comprehended that a mutual structure for a strong hand by the government will ensure enhanced communications. The communications process should be well recognized and well integrated all across the organization (Sourcing Shangri-La, 2011). The worldwide language of end-to-end business procedure has to be holistic particularly. The whole communication process has to be well integrated within the organization so that it spends enough on advertising and promotion to let people know of the company’s products. The combination of risks, analysis, compliance, quality, and document has to well integrate in the firm. Different stakeholder groups have to be treated differently by the management of the firm to support IT processes with the businesses. Also, bolster the people through continuous improvement of the organization (Sourcing Shangri-La, 2011). These problems, issues and questions have been answered by prestigious leaders in the field of Information Technology. As described earlier, an integrated system of communications has to be used by the company. Obviously, this is not an easy task practically. Theoretically, it seems like it is clear and neat but realistically, it is not. Complete execution of communications also goes through confrontation which is beyond the normal pace of work (The TIME Magazine). It is difficult to shift the whole culture of information technology communications to welcome simplicity and new levels of accountability and visibility in the organization. But, there is an even greater reason for just adhering to things and viewing change as hazardous. It is because management wants to keep a level of control and certainty to itself which is prevalent in the cases of bigger projects. The project control cannot be lost and so all activities need to be coordinated within the organization for a much wide viewpoint. This is the prime way that huge IT failures can be avoided or eschewed and millions of dollars could be saved (The TIME Magazine). Approximately ninety percent of all SMEs close down almost two years after losing data that could never get recovered. According to the Manager Director at City Lifeline, Roger Keenan, SME’s are the ones most susceptible to data losses as six hours of downtime makes pay for a working day. It is important for SMEs to save files not only on hard drives but also on secure and protected locations which are off the site. Also, collocation data centers assist in these disasters when all the information is gone by safeguarding the servers and equipments which are hosted inside. Most prominently, these are designed to secure a business crucial IT system as described by Roger Keenan (Help Net Security, 2011). Some project managers do take certain assumptions for granted such as whenever they bring a change in the organization, they believe that there would be no affect on performance by that change. They also assume that reporting for any project won’t be affected by any structural data modifications in the release. They suppose that the conversation procedures will hold all the required data for the firm. One of their assumptions is that source interface system makes use of timely, accurate data. Further, project managers assume that client can make the updates he or she needs to the downstream systems and the entire business procedure should be accounted for before any profits be achieved. They believe the senior manager maintains the system and a complete, normalized model of data must be grown before anything could be done (Cone, 2007). We can accept these assumptions as in most instances they have led to the completion of the project. But, when the project was completed there were certain damages made and project was completed or negotiated to handle the outcomes of these assumptions which were never addressed. We should question the assumptions as we have to reconsider what are we really doing and also assess any hidden assumptions made during the project. If we question the assumptions, we will try again obviously done (Cone, 2007). When we analyze the failures of business, we learn certain lessons from it. From a Christian perspective, failures are God’s way of testing us; how we handle our failures and go through them is God making us learn from it. Business failures make us realize that failures are a way to achieve triumphs in life. They give us hope, strength and potential to succeed in life. If we don’t learn from our failures, we might fail again in another endeavor of life. Christianity believes that failures should give us the power to fight and be strong for other things that might arise in the future. This topic engulfed many new terminologies for me. SMEs companies which are governed by the Federation of Small companies were a novel concept for me. The understanding is quite brisk as far as the topic is concerned. I learned about how the project managers make assumptions about any project which aren’t actually true and do not even reflect the type of business but yet they do assume things. Some of them can be bolstered by facts or figures but others are definitely questionable. Also, the failures in the field of IT can just be solved by a hood communication network and vast promotions and advertising of the products. The future of these organizations lies in the premise that they take up the challenge of IT failures and use them for greater good of the organization. They should implement certain strategies within the organization that communications are strengthened and an extensive network of communications is build within the firm. If they do so, they can spend some on promotions of their products so that it sells and not just on research and development of the product. The firms should do this; otherwise the failures will remain part of their curriculum. Failures are meant to be learned from. Individuals and people learn from their failures and drawbacks in life to succeed further in life. The labyrinth of life is not without its hardships and impediments. To fight from them and learn is the basic necessity of any person and so it for any organization. The future of such firms lies in the notion that if they conceive something out of their hard luck or failures, they will persist to exist or else, they will diminish from the business market. To survive they have to struggle hard. Bibliography Flyvbjerg, Bent ; Budzier , Alexander (September, 3011)Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think. Harvard Business Revew [ONLINE] Available at: http://hbr.org/2011/09/why-your-it-project-may-be-riskier-than-you-think/ar/1 Sourcing Shangri-La (24th August, 2011) The Root Cause Of IT Failures. Sourcing Shangri-La on global business services, business process management and the search for 'continuous excellence' [ONLINE] Available at: http://sourcing-shangri-la.typepad.com/blog/2011/08/the-root-cause-of-it-failures.html Help Net Security (7th November, 2011) You can count on IT failures. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=11899 Cone, Larry (September 17, 2007) Learning From Failure - Question Assumptions. [ONLINE] Available at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/coneblog/learning-from-failure-question-assumptions-19101 The TIME Magazine. The 10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade, Time Specials. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1898610,00.html Read More