Why are computer systems so difficult to build
J.L. Hardee, Antje H L Voelker · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 1988
The difficulties experienced in computer systems development have been widely documented and discussed over the past two decades. According to a recent survey, 75 percent of all systems development efforts are either never completed or, if completed, never used. There is a growing consensus that most computer system problems relate to social rather than technical aspects of systems development and implementation. This paper argues that the development success rate can be improved, but only after a broader conceptual view of systems development matures that is sensitive to social, organizational, and political issues. Furthermore, this conceptual view can only be developed after we have destroyed some of the fallacies in current systems development practice that are largely responsible for the insensitivity to these issues. The paper lists and describes some of the most serious of these fallacies. 15 refs.