Abstract
There are numerous IT projects that were responsible for causing serious problems in different fields of life. The worst cases in which there was a great loss include the online Chemical Bank transaction fault, the NASA spaceship problem, and the Therac-25 machine failure. These projects were developed and supervised by highly reputed institutes and organizations, but still, their failure was a question mark. The main causes of the failures are the highly complicated codes running at the back end, where a fault could be expected anytime, anywhere. Any IT project’s quality could be improved only by finishing it through proper quality assurance techniques and applied methodologies.
Introduction
Information technology is not a simple field of study and implementation. The people involved in it need to track their every step from start to end for an efficient implementation of the system. Failures could always be expected, and through hundreds of revisions during the final application, the system is finalized. Most of the time, corporations are unable to figure out after implementation and updates whether they are doomed or have failed to overcome the issues. The outcome is not well defined, and there are indeed some reasons why the mega projects that were supposed to change the entire world failed. These reasons include the lack of leadership on the projects, overuse of multitasking, lack of accountability, insufficient and inefficient communication, no proper plans or timelines, lack of adequate user testing and the wrong diagnosis of problems, and higher expectations of solutions. The main aim of the paper is to discuss some of the world’s mega-projects that failed because of the poor quality of IT project implementation.
Discussion
There are some terrible examples that caused the loss of millions of dollars. In 1981, the space shuttle’s five onboard computers failed to work efficiently to perform a perfect landing, which caused the failure of a project that was started in 1977 with such high expectations. People from all over the world hoped to step into the modern world with such great success. The main reason for the failure was the computers’ lack of compatibility in working in the absence of one another. The machines were unable to manage the landing and control the system at all. The overall blame was on the information technology implementation. It has been explained that if the computers used had been a little more expensive and updated, and the testing phase had also been updated in some ways, then this failure would not have happened. The programmers explained that the shutdown problem was discussed and adequately tested on all the computers, but still, the issue was not diagnosed at all.
Another one of the most highlighted examples of the disastrous implementation of IT projects in the field is radiation therapy gone wrong, resulting in the deaths of two patients in the hospital. The patients were supposed to receive radiation to the affected parts, but because of the higher strength of the radiation and uncontrollable dosage, intensive damage was caused, which resulted in the deaths of the patients. The research team for the investigation conducted some interviews with the experts at that time, which established that there is a range in which the patient should be given the radiation, and above that range would cause fatal side effects, the most prominent being death. The Therac-25 machine was designed to cure cancer, but the percentage of benefit was remarkably lower than the damage. The cancerous cells were supposed to be killed, and their function would end, but the work of the machine also extended to killing some of the most critical healthy tissues. Here the blame was totally on the software being used, as it had some major glitches.
One of the most critical issues raised during the very initial implementation in banking history was a mistaken deduction of fifteen million dollars from one hundred thousand customers’ bank accounts. Chemical Bank mistakenly committed this error through a one-line code error in the automated software of the updated system. The failure was that if a customer used an ATM for the withdrawal of $100, the system automatically deducted $200 from his bank account. The receipt had printed only the one hundred dollars in the withdrawal. This affected a huge number of customers, which was an alarming situation in the overall banking world. The people had trusted the banking organizations, and because of this glitch, there were numerous withdrawals. The issue was handled precisely within a specific period, but this issue was noticed internationally, which raised concerns about the reliability of information technology in such a sensitive and highly customer-oriented market. The problem was analyzed, and it was found that one line in the loop was coded correctly but was not implemented according to the requirement.
Mostly, the output is considered during the implementation of information technology projects. The way of application and accuracy is recognized, but the complexity of the work leads to some logic, syntax, and primary exceptions. The very fundamental errors are corrected at the time of compilation, and the consistency is also measured during the time of finalizing the work. At the testing stage and real-time implementation, most of the work is also corrected, which results in even removing the basic level exceptions. When all the functions are compiled and timely executed, the system becomes close to perfection, but still, in the code, there are some essential things that are ignored and are not implemented as required. These issues cause fatal damage and disasters. They are only corrected by the step-by-step implementation of the quality management techniques that are discussed above.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it can be elaborated that the system would be improved not just by adding some functionalities but also by reviewing the previous working of the projects. History contains the world’s most significant mega projects, which failed, and the original benefit was not obtained at all. Quality management and quality assurance are some of the best techniques that would help in the successful implementation of IT-based projects (Schwalbe, 2015).
References
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
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