WRITTEN ON October 21st, 2004 BY Jim Norton AND STORED IN Across the Board

The day of the well meaning, but generalist, amateur has gone. This has long been understood in key sectors like the construction and oil industries. Why can we not read this experience across into major public sector projects?

I believe that the public sector (and sometimes also the private sector!) systematically under-estimates the investment required in people to make such change successful.

This includes communications, training, testing, performance measurements and pay, and evangelisation. These elements require at least as much funding as ICT in any major business change project. I would argue that much of the historic underperformance in this area stems from lack of recognition and funding of the ‘people’ dimension rather than technology failure.

(these points are condensed from an interview with Malcolm Mills for the IEE.)