Failing IT Projects Can Have A Negative Impact On A Business

System Analysis and Design

Assignment 2

Calvin Reed

13012647

Question 1:

Failing IT projects can have a negative impact on a business; here are four failed IT projects and the reasons behind their failures:

1. “IBM’s Supercomputer Project”

In 1956 there were some employees at IBM that wanted to build the fastest supercomputer the world has ever known. After 5 years of hard work they created the IBM 7030 which is also known as “Stretch” the company’s first supercomputer. IBM gave the first produced unit to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1961. The supercomputer was able to handle up to half a million instructions per second; it was currently at the time the fastest computer in the world and stayed that way until 1964. However

They wanted an increase their increase efficiency, so FoxMeyer Drugs purchased an SAP system and a warehouse automation system as well as hiring Andersen Consulting to integrate and implement the two systems, it was told to be a 36 million dollar project but by the time it was 1996 the company was bankrupt and then had to sell the company to a competitor for 85 million dollars. There are reasons for failure, FoxMeyer Drugs had set up an unrealistic goal and wanted the entire system to be implemented and working in a year and a half. Another reason is that the employees whose jobs were affected by this new system were not happy with the project. After the warehouses were closed, the first warehouse that was going to have the new system implemented was affected badly with stock being damaged by workers and orders not being done. The new system turned out to be less productive than the previous one. In the end no one plans to fail but even if it does happen the business needs to make sure that the business will survive even if this project fails. In this case FoxMeyer Drugs did

Each story needs to have the tests written first before the solution can be programmed. These are two major types of tests: unit tests, which test the correctness of a small piece of code, and acceptance tests, which test the business function. The developers are the ones who write the unit tests and the users write the acceptance tests.

Pair Programming:

Instead of simply requiring one programming to watch another work, pair programming divides up the coding work. The one programmer for example will focus on the design and checks the algorithms while the other programmer does the code. They will then switch over time and hold discussions to improve the result together.

Simple Designs:

XP views design as an important job, such that it is done continually throughout the project in smaller chunks, while still reviewing and testing it along the way. Simple Design is one that accomplishes the desired result with as few classes and methods as possible and that doesn’t duplicated code.

Refactoring the