KEY POINTS:
The IT industry has a history littered with expensive and embarrassing corporate technology project disasters.
Over the years businesses and government departments have thrown countless millions of dollars at technology that has failed to deliver.
Generally our interactions with the multitude of organisations that touch our lives are
simpler and better for the assistance of behind-the-scenes technology that drives databases, billing systems and phone networks.
But it is the monumental tech project implosions that tend to stick in people's minds.
IT research firm Gartner says 66 per cent of major projects do not meet business objectives, come in significantly over budget and suffer from crucial time delays.
The IT industry itself hasn't helped instil much confidence among big business. It has had a reputation for selling the technological equivalent of snake oil.
In the 1990s, the concept of "vapourware" was rampant. This was hardware or software that was promised and hyped but ultimately not delivered. Even some of today's big-gun IT entrepreneurs are guilty of a little early-days bluster. Marking his company's 30th birthday at its annual US conference last week, Oracle founder Larry Ellison harked back to the early days when, as a programmer-turned salesman, he pounded the streets "testing the market" for the company's first commercial relational database.
"We hadn't built it yet but, you know, we were hard at work and how long could it take?" Ellison recalled.
Surprisingly, on that basis he managed to sign up the CIA as Oracle's first customer.
Times have changed, however. Today IT vendors are better prepared, their business customers more cynical and more demanding of specifics.
The IT vendor and services market today is also highly competitive and players know credibility and being able to differentiate themselves from their competitors are two vital elements of survival.
"Let us help you grow your business," is a popular marketing cry that comes about partly because of the realisation that CEOs are jaded by the wow factor of technology and will only sign a cheque if they can see a substantial return on investment.
One of local IT developer and consultancy Fronde's differentiation strategies is to embrace what are known as agile software development and project management methods.
Fronde last week launched the Agile Professional's Network, a vehicle for promoting interest in "agile" methodologies.
What is the agile approach? In part it is a strategy to get business leaders behind and engaged in the technology projects they are paying for.
"The problem in IT is that it's almost accepted that many projects will fail," says Steven Graham, Fronde's New Zealand north general manager. "Often there's a lack of teamwork and collaboration, or a willingness to say how things are really going: 'The boss wants to hear the good news, give him the good news and let's hope we can sort it out, we'll be heroes.' But the reality is that often doesn't work out."
The agile approach preached by Fronde includes the message that there needs to be close and regular communications with the client along the lines of "this is where it [the project] is at, this is what's going on, this is the truth as we see it today. Now maybe we can collectively do something about it" Graham says.
Is this philosophy of "truth openness, honesty and courage," as Graham describes it, some kind of weird love-in contractor behaviour? No, it's good business, he says.
"The teamwork and the camaraderie and the retention [of staff] is amazing - people don't leave. It's like a family - they're committed to the outcome of the project."
This view gels with a KPMG study which found New Zealand companies trail the world when it comes to managing the outsourcing of IT and business services efficiently.
Larry Ellison needed the human touch to clinch that first deal which set him on the path to mega wealth, and nothing much has changed since then. Despite its appearances, IT is largely about people.
