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Ships Turned Away As Aussie Customs' IT System Melts Down
An anonymous reader writes "Urgent shipments of medicine and goods for the holiday season have been turned away by customs officials due to a massive computer problem. The initial budget for the system upgrade was said to be A$80 million but has since blown out to A$250 million. Customs officials and the government have been forced to admit that they might actually have to revert to the old system if things don't improve. One cargo user said on national TV that he used to process 300 orders daily but the new system is so complex and unusable, he's happy if he can manage 100 orders per day. The system failure is expected to have a massive impact especially on the retail sector this Christmas."
Isn't there a Beowulf cluster available when Peter Jackson doesn't need the cycles?
/. topics in one sentence. Double play!)
(Hey, it's 2 favorite
Simple solution. Push it back 6 months till when it's actually cold!
Grump.
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
I hope my shipment of inflatable Love Dolls makes it through customs, otherwise it's going to be a lonely new year.
This is news generally because of the rarity of this sort of thing. The only real issue I can think of is that our Health Minister has recently announced plans to immunise ALL Australians against bird flu. This could disrupt that (if it was realistic anyway). I guess this is all a part of ever increasing control.
What OS do they run?
What software do they use?
And how will their IT people and/or management continue to justify said choices in the wake of this?
This is the sort of thing that needs "big iron". Machines that have uptimes measured in decades. Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that they're running it all on a bunch of commodity PCs (or the like) with off-the-shelf software?
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Advances in technology..... failures in life....
It'll be interesting to see what the ultimate culprit is. (overpriced IBM/Accenture contractors, Indian outsourcing, Windows, Linux, etc)
But I'm 99% sure it'll have something to do along the lines of:
"Mate, we need a new Customs software system."
"No prob. We'll do it in [whiz bang technoterm du jour]"
"That's it?"
"That's it. [whiz bang technoterm du jour] using [whizbang development process du jour]"
"But what about things like useability? Proof of concept? Customer Support if the design proves unwieldy?"
"Top. Men."
was said to be A$80 million but has since blown out to A$250 million.
And with these latest problems, it's going to get much more expensive. Tra la, la-la-la.
I love Christmas. Nothing says "Baby Jesus" and "Goodwill towards men" then a $250Million computer blowout, 10000 42-inch Plasma Screen TVs, Tickle Me Elmo and credit card debt up the wazoo. It's like some sick, sad joke.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Same here, www.google.com is down, as is www.deja.com
All the news and radio reports I've read and heard (including TFA) have made no mention of ships being actually turned away at this stage. So far they're just saying that the storage space at the ports is rapidly filling up, so if the processing rate doesn't improve soon they will have to look at turning ships away. But as far as I can tell, they're planning to roll back to the old system before that becomes necessary...
For the AU government to let goods travel freely until they fix or bring up the old system. There really is no excuse for what is going on. Yes, that means that the AU government doesn't get its cut of taxes but them's the breaks. The money lost from import fees would be DWARFED compared to the lossess incurred by *not* letting goods through the ports.
--
BMO
We didn't listen! We didn't listen!!! Oh, God - the humanity!!!
http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=6361
Partial quote...
"Customs is doing everything possible to resolve technical and business issues arising from the introduction of the new Integrated Cargo System (ICS) for imports.
"Contrary to some media reports, the new IT system for imports has not failed, nor is its performance solely responsible for the problems that have occurred.
"The problems experienced in part, flow from inaccurate and incomplete information being submitted by some users, which the new system is designed not to accept for security reasons," the spokesman said.
I just can't stand it when they don't post whether it's a windows-based or a unix/linux-based implementation. I need to know whether I can indulge in schadenfreude or whether I have to make excuses.
I was actually part of a company a couple of years ago which put through a proposal to assist with tracking firearms imported into Australia. We were shocked at what we found when we consulted several customs offices.
There was no integrated network system between interstate customs offices.
Sure, they e-mailed each other and did some odd bits of communication, but there was nothing solid in place. Part of our proposal was to put in a system where if a shipment of firearms was sent from Melbourne to Sydney the Sydney office would actually know that one was going to arrive. A step up from their existing system at the time, where the firearms actually left Melbourne, turned up at the Sydney customs depot without prior knowledge and then processed!
Task Mangler
A system that is designed to put a magical sticker on boxes of stuff saying "This is an official box of stuff" costs $250M. And then doesn't work, endangering lives.
Great!
I'm no grizzled guru by any means, but damn, I know by now that though it *may* seem cheaper to upgrade all in one fell swoop, you're gonna get hosed every time. The bigger the system, the more likely, just because there's no way you can *test* the thing at that scale.
Software is *complicated*. Large-scale software rollouts are even *more* complicated, just because now you've involved hundreds or thousands of non-debuggable, unpredictable people into the equation. No matter how many meetings you have about it, no matter how many different people assure you that they will do "whatever it takes" to make sure it goes smoothly, keep in mind that they probably don't have "what it takes", which would often be some kind of deity-level power.
Let's look now at the "largest e-government projects ever undertaken", introduced "despite industry protests that Customs had not allowed them ample time for the changeover." It's not hard to guess how it's going to go.
Sometimes, you gotta go the slow way... replace the old system bit by bit, make sure you can flip the switch back every step of the way if something goes wrong. At the very least you have to plan it from the start so that you can roll out piecemeal, just in one site, or run the old/new in parallel, etc..
This method results in a more expensive *estimate* at the start of the project. But the actual *cost* in the end can be much, much lower.
Just my 2c...
Perhaps you don't live in the US? We just cut the cord to the rest of the world, sorry.
As of 11:38PDT, I can now reach google, etc. again. Things are better now in the SF Bay area.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
but why not use both systems... it'll like double the output until the get rid of the kinks.
I am having intermittent difficulty reaching slashdot and google from here (verizon dsl in Pennsylvania). But I can reach them fine from my server at work. CNN, Nytimes, wunderground seem ok.
80mil AUD = approx 50mil Euro = 60mil USD
250 = 156 = 188
Computer World Article
ICS is a cornerstone of Customs' massive Cargo Management Re-engineering (CMR) project. This was intended to replace the export and brokerage industry-developed EDI system Customs Connect with a Web-based model co-developed by Customs and a consortium of IT vendors led by Computer Associates. The project aims to facilitate all aspects of Customs involvement in the import and export process including declarations and GST transactions collected at port.
Nother Article
More than seven years to this point of readiness, ICS is a cornerstone of Customs' massive Cargo Management Re-engineering (CMR) project, which will replace the export and brokerage industry-developed EDI system, Customs Connect. CMR is a Web-based model co-developed by Customs and a consortium of IT vendors led by Computer Associates, EDS, IBM and Telstra nee Kaz.
The irony is that the is down, so I can't monitor much outside my own world at all.
I blame the UN.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Funny how to the state, free commerce isn't an option, but blowing $250 million that isn't even yours on a computer system that doesn't work is okay.
"Your papers, citizen! Whoops, my citizen-authorization-scanner just went dead. You'll have to be detained while I get fresh batteries. Oh, and that'll cost $10 - batteries aren't free, you know."
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Yep. Slashdot was unroutable to me about half an hour ago. RedHat too. So it wasn't only the big, big sites. FWIW, Vancouver, Canada.
Whatever it is has cleared up somewhat, but I believe it's something up with the higher tier ISPs. I was able to reach Verisign but not Level 3...
Ah, keynote also has some nice data. Apparently Level3 & Verio have both been having severe problems in the last few hours, and have a high latency connecting to most of the other Level-2 & Level-3 providers:
x ?Login=Y&Username=public&Password=public
http://scoreboard.keynote.com/scoreboard/Main.asp
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Yes
EDS == Everything Done Slowly
But in the Aussie case it could be changed to
EDS == Everything Done Shithousely
Dammit, I hate it with "THE" goes down. A real shame. I fear "A" and "AN" are next. Damn you "UN".
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
The real problem with this system is that it used the principle of "Big Design Up Front". Ask Joel Spolsky about the benefits of "Big Design Up Front" - you get to make all kinds of assumptions about the environment to simplify development, then find when you turn on the switch that this $80M system just doesn't work right.
The little things that get you down? Oh... date formats, validating input, units for measurement, using a communications system intended for overnight batch operations to support real-time interactive operations.
As other posters have mentioned, the bid that got the nod was the lowest one. The bid that should have received the goahead was the one that recommended incremental changes. The one that recommended introducing a new means for handling import declarations - and not cutting over, but rather letting the old one die the natural death of user migration.
The final nail in the coffin was Customs insisting that more detail be included in these reports - no longer can you submit 300 reports in a day saying that what you're importing is "1 Box of parts", you actually have to specify what the parts are and how many are in the box - I suspect this is what is causing the problem as the system rejects "invalid" submissions and forces the importers to rework and resubmit their import declarations.
Forget one quote and my post is all screwed up.
I can't reach the ISC:
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Ah, so that explains it. At least sort of. I was trying to go to http://www.internettrafficreport.com/ to find out what's up, but it's currently unreachable for me :P
Sorry for being an ass to you :) That site is also down for me. Wikipedia is also unreachable :( I am in Moscow. At least google and /. are reachable, that's all I really need anyway.
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
Apparently the issue is that the data coming in (mainly from ships) is quite crufty, whereas the system expects nice clean data (GIGO anyone?).
Also, apparently a lot of these Brokers have a vested interest in the old system, as the new one will allow major importers (eg. supermarkets) to clear goods themselves, meaning less money for the brokers.
As for delays and ships being turned back- appears to be mainly FUD, with a little bit of lack of foresight and poor planning.
Seems like a change management failure to me.
One factor seldomly taken in account is the user's reluctance to the new system.
You may have a 100% working new system, with a 1000% improvement over the old system, but if users are not excited about the new system and they do not want to use it for whatever-the-reason (maybe just because he/she now has to learn new things), the new system is going to fail. Users will make sure it fails. I have seen that many times.
and wikipedia
First you animate. Then you SUSPEND!!!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
While the immediate problem is the computer problem, the real problem is that government interferes with such (or any kind of) shipments. First, they setup a new computer system in typical goverment fashion, i.e. the result does not work, and then they send away important shipments because otherwise they would not be able to collect the loot because of their own mistake.
A MOD POINT! A MOD POINT!
MY KINGDOM FOR A MOD POINT!
I find using a voodoo doll when calling them for support to help me so much.
Robert Anton Wilson
I would be surprised if the dockers weren't just going slower ( deliberately ) because the new system can keep track of work/turnover , especially as the docks are all union run and they all love a pay rise and more overtime for doing nothing new .
I say we take off and Nuke the site from Orbit, It's the only way to be sure.
Was the old system running Linux?
The rumour on the grapevine is that the problems don't entirely stem from the software. The data entry now requires details (you want what now?) and that makes it impossible to process cargo as quickly as before. The software is just a convenient scapegoat. The reality is that the old system allowed the data entry to be sloppy (and effectively useless).
Customs should be abolished anyway. It's sooo 19th century.
Linie Aquavit announced they were expanding their line to include Scotch Whiskey, London Gin, Mexican Tequila, and Peugeot motor cars.
They say that in a few years a human-engineered microorganism will be created with a selected set of genes. All very well, and I suppose that won't be released into the wild. But I bet that if they ever do it (release it into the wild), it'll last about 5 minutes against its evolution-designed competitors and generally hostile environment.
The same happens to the IT systems. Legacy systems may be old (how can software be old, anyway?), incompatible, user-unfriendly, and whatever else. But a basic fact so often overlooked is that they have for many years been adapting (or rather being adapted) to their environment (users, other programs, etc). If you look at legacy code you always find odd-looking "if's" with comments like "It must do this to work", or "The other program expects it that way", or no comment at all. The point is that all this spaguetti code has beed polished, adapted and perfected by the work of programmers guided by the reality, as opposed to designers guided by their own desires and incomplete knowledge of the problem.
So the point is that _all_ scratch designed systems will lose all that ancient knowledge embedded into the code, and there is nothing you can do about it (inspecting all the code would be impossible, and the knowledge can sometimes be into OS parameters, shell scripts, scraps of paper with procedures in the drawers of remote users, or even in the brains of world-scattered users) So the only thing to do is to have it into account when designing a new system of some complexity, and knowing that it will take you like a year at least of real running till it's at the same level of functionality as the old. So probably you'll need a year of overlaping systems (perish the thougth).
When presented with that reality most managers will think again if they really need the new system, and at least will be prepared for the problems ahead.
But of course that might not sell the new system, so who's interested in telling those truths to management. Certainly not the seller's marketing dept, their concealing habilities much helped by the fact that they are themselves blissfully unaware of the problem.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Level3 borked a router upgrade in ORD at 0200 Eastern. RoadRunner cable and Speakeasy DSL, among others, were pretty much flatlined by the outage. Cogent is now handling most of the traffic. Things are slow, but getting back to normal.
Surprised there isn't a story about this on the frontpage.
Unloading ships at a dock? Wasn't this perfected in the 12th century or so?
I love open source software too, but isn't the budget blowout on this (triggered by scope creep etc. like most projects) going to be the cost of services (ie. people), rather than the software itself? If anything, it would be harder to find enough people skilled up OSS people in Australia and that would make the project cost even higher than with proprietry systems.
This Customs IT project is definately a disaster, but I haven't seen too many stories about open source projects on a similar scale that have been under budget and on time to balance it out. Anyone got stories/sites out there about OSS large-scale project success stories? I need ammo to convince my boss on some upcoming work :)
In a closely related current issue federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran displayed the scientific illiteracy so recently evident in more governments than ours by getting all in a tizz about some Canadian pigeons that flew in ahead of the customs slow down only to be discovered to have viral antibodies but not live viruses and be sentenced to immediate death for having beaten the dreaded avian flu or, in four cases, Newcastle disease.
If only we could do the same to politicans carrying antibodies, let alone their sick computer systems.
Better not think about juxtaposing the importation of pigeons from the other side of the world with the wish of local authorities to wipe out the feral pigeons already settled in here.
Don't worry, it gets worse. Just check out the support for teaching "intelligent design" from the general practitioner our over-tired and under-opposed federal government have given responsibility for education.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
Looks like http://www.internetpulse.com/ indicates that Level3 had a recent outage.
Survive a nuclear blast indeed :)
after EDS let their old mainframes walk out the door.
Is it a big suprise that EDS fucked the upgrade as well?
POKE 36879,8
The new system looks nicer but works worse....
Thats interesting. I've been seeing some Level 3 issues at LINX in London. Thought it was just me...
I think the biggest single failing in the implementation of this rollover is the absence of change management: training, information etc, for the user population. That the new system doesn't accept utter garbage in is a Good Thing(tm) but only if users and thirdy-party tool vendors have the time and information to adjust. I'll bet that there was adequate time for transition built into the original plan but, as the technical programme slipped to the right the cut-over deadline didn't (political reasons?). The first casualties in this situation are testing, documentation, training, and change management.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
Dear Project Director,
...I think it's time you opened the third envelope. Good luck in your future endeavors.
Your situation reminds me of the old IT parable that goes something like this...
On his first day on the job a new IT Director has a meeting with the outgoing one. At the end of the meeting the ougoing IT Director hands the new on 3 envelopes and tells him to use them to get out of his first 3 major meltdowns, "just make sure you wait to open them until you need them."
About 3 months later the new IT Director has his first major disaster and remembers the envelopes. Opening the first one he sees, "Blame Me" in big bold letters. Which he does and it works.
Six months after that the second blow up happens and the second letter reads, "Blame the Vendors" which also works.
One year later when everything falls apart the new IT Director opens the third letter full of hope. It reads, "Write 3 Letters."
Sincerely,
The Guy Before You
"Never limit what you know to what you do", Me
The article also answers other posters questions about the platform it was delivered on. Certainly no cheap linux stuff used here !
But really interesting is this:
With so many cooks in the kitchen, shouldn't problems be expected ? How could you ever figure which one can is responsible for the mess now emerging ?
Open-source projects sometimes have more cooks, but could the commercial agendas in a closed source project with patents etc.,. destroy the synergies ?
plurality should not be posited without necessity. - William of Occam
ROFL
...but does it run Linux?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized!
If you're bringing in a complete new computer system then you're
simply asking for trouble if one night you switch the old one
off and switch the new one on. New systems (especially ones this
large and important) should be bedded in, run alongside and
mirroring the old system (but not taking over from it) in the
live enviroment while bugs are shaken down and other types
of problems solved. You NEVER EVER put it live without running
in parallel first. EVER! If the companies or port authority who
brought this system in have done this (and it doesn't say in
the article but this seems to be the implication) then heads
should roll as this is basic IT practice.
It is a troll. But now the post is modded "insightful" by similar rednecks who will also go on to upmod other inane posts referring to the direction toilet water flushes, sheep and crocodile references, and similar cutting-edge wit.
I have seen this so many times. Big project, Big Budget, Big Names, Big Price, Big Stuffup.
I believe that a system like this is reasonably simple and can be created by a very small team.
With big projects you end up with teams of project managers micro managing everything. This is why it gets so diffiult. I was once on a project where my part was to copy files intact from remote locations to a central site. What a mess. The project manager had designed a process that failed every time. Not to mention the bandwith upgrades that happened after the file transfers. All they needed was one person with the know how to get it done and a small team of switched on IT persons to manage the entire thing.
Companies are concetrating too much on process and management than getting the work done. These types of projects are not that difficult.
The internet traffic reports indicate Level3 is having severe routing problems. As at 0300 10/21 PDT.
From whirlpool.com.au
On October 21st we began receiving numerous calls from multiple location of routing issues. Upon further investigation we discovered that Level3 appears to be a common factor. We have discovered that Level3 is having major network issues nationwide. We are in the process of shutting down our Level3 peering at all our locations. We have opened ticket 184739 to track this issue. Currently Level3 does not have an ETR.
Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
"Design detail in the 19,000 pages of analysis for ICS includes 800 screens, 16,000 business rules, 70 complex business messages, 850 database tables, 3700 executable load modules, 1800 CICS transaction types, 55 batch jobs, 90 reports and 35 system interfaces."
That is $13k per page of design document. Even if you through in a couple of mainframes and a lot of spaghetti code, it still doesn't sound reasonable to me. It is sad to see how goverment tax money is always mismanaged like this.
Anybody notice the careerone advertisement on the sidebar about an open CIO position. Unfortunately it was unrelated with the story.
What's that Iraq's WMD have to do with this?
the first question i would be asking concerns if it was a software or infrastructure problem. What does it matter what system its running on if the code simply doesn't perform the way it should
``IMHO new systems should aim to be initially funtionally neutral to the end user. Process changes should come in once the new system has been debugged and accepted.''
I don't think that's gonna work. Say you replace your old system by the new one. It's functionally the same, and it's fully debugged and accepted. So now it's time to introduce those changes. Oops, now it's not fully debugged and accepted anymore!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
But then, it doesn't even have to be large scale.
Look at the IRS debacle, or that of the FBI. Improved I.T. systems are a panacea. Unless you address the inherent policy and operating issues you CANNOT design a system that meets requirements set forth under the old paradigm.
What happens here is that some higher level wag gets a call from MS, or Oracle, etc. They come in, do the song and dance, and next thing you know they're rushing through the project. Not once did the high level wags do any due diligence. Had they done so they might have realized that first they should look at the mechanics of what they do on a day to day basis.
But this is a typical tactic used by the big I.T. vendors. And people wonder why OSS is coming up.
I was just reading the article and thinking, with a cock-up this big, it must be EDS.
You have confirmed my suspicions.
Ah, EDS. Is there nothing they can do?
Here in the UK they are responsible for billions of pounds of taxpayers money wasted on government systems that still do not work. I have yet to hear of an EDS success story.
EDS, is that you?
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
Well, your statement just goes to show that you don't have a good concept of what a troll post is. Bet you have trouble with flamebait also. Oh, and by the way, you obviously have problems with the funny mod on a very basic intellectual level. But then an IQ test isn't required to post on slashdot.
Sounds like a typical J2EE roll-out.
I just wish it were easier to get guns out of Australia. I've attempted to import pistols from Australia to the U.S. twice in the past and failed both times because there was just too much red tape, too many levels of approvals, and time frames were just ridiculously long. With the way the Australian government seems to want to cut down on the number of guns, you'd think they'd work really hard to make it easy to ship them out of the country. But noooo.
Look, I know you're just a troll, but I have to ask anyway:
You say: "It was disproven long ago. There is NO CREATOR, and there never was."
I'm very curious about the when, where, who and how of that proof.
Do you have links or references? Can you explain the proof to me?
I ask because I have never before heard anyone claim that there is PROOF of the nonexistence of a Creator before.
(I have heard many people say that there is no proof of the existence of a Creator, but I hope you see the difference.)
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
.. it was stolen!
Neither article clearly states if it is design problems or bugs that are causing the back up.
1) If its design, then I expect its a problem that the designers never talked to the people actually doing the work to see what they really needed.
2) If it is bugs, then clearly there wasn't enough testing before release.
Either case bad management is to blame. Of course managers will deflect the blame somewhere else and go on to screw up other projects.
Think Deeply.
I used to work at EDS - Customs about 3 years ago. That they fucked this one up doesn't supprise me. They are top heavy and most of the managers there are powerpaths (look it up). The workers that are left are worked to the bone with little recognition. I still have a few friends left working there. Most are trying to leave.
This is so bad it's almost funny.....in a morbid, tragic way.
I really hope they get their arse kicked for this one.
Someone pointed out, in yesterday's article about a pro-Apple bias in the media, that Microsoft seems to enjoy its own media luxuries, and this article seems to be a timely example. You will note the total lack of mention of the OS software at play in Australia's new Customs system.
While we can't be certain that Windows is involved, or that the OS itself is at fault, it is quite likely, due to Microsoft's dominance in the market, and high levels of required maintenance, respectively.
I posted this in previous articles, so this is a little redundent, but there are now numbers coming out indicating that ~40% of ERPs fail. They are significantly over budget, significant schedule slips, do not provide the needed functionality or just flat out do not work.
In other words: "if it aint't broke, don't fix it."
And if it is broke you will need to do alot of work to properly replace it (good requirements, planning and testing) and maintain strict oversight over your contractors. There is no magic bullet, just smart and dedicated people doing hard work.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
When large new systems like this one wreak this much havoc, I think lessons learned need to be disseminated to the entire industry.
I've seen many interesting posts about why Australia failed in this new system, but it's mostly conjecture. They should (and I'm guessing, will) conduct a deep and thorough post-mortem and find out what went wrong, down to the lines of code, scheduling decisions, rollout decisions, etc.
And (here's the controversial part) they should provide every single document to the public.
When projects gone amok have international impacts like this one why can't the rest of the industry learn from the mistakes by having access to the post-mortem. Involved companies want to maintain control of their Intellectual Propert, but in cases like this, EVERYTHING should be made public. Actually at this point companies involved really aren't protecting IP, but would be hiding behind that canard to deflect the embarrassment of public scrutiny.
Many similar failures wrought similar havoc. Denver International Airport (DIA) spent millions (don't remember exact numbers, but I'm guessing it was in the $100's of millions) of dollars for their dramatically failed automatic baggage handling system. Today DIA not only handles baggage the old fashioned way (carts and tow-tractors), they have to do it through too-small tunnels not designed for the task because of the hubris of the project they wouldn't need to.
So, for now, all we have is conjecture from government officials and slashdotters, one demographic of which already shows some deep insights and possible explanations. But that's all we have.
I hope cause and effect is investigated, and I hope the IT industry gets the opportunity to understand the failures and learn from them.
In an enterprise scale project like this, there should be NO direct interaction between the developers and the users. There are probably dozens of developers across multiple systems, and hundreds of users. If the end users are allowed to talk to developers directly, the project is doomed to fail because the development process will turn to utter chaos with no change control. Remember that the users, in this case, are probably dock workers and desk clerks.
This is what project managers and business analysts are for.
Business analysts should be analyzing how the users perform their work, and defining requirements based on that. A good business analyst will know what is good for the user, and will know their processes and roles very well. What the users "want" has nothing to do with it-- as long as the interfaces are usability tested and the users are properly trained on the new software.
The reason this failed was due to organizational and process issues-- it had nothing to do with any particular technology.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
That would mean project managers, team leaders and assorted what-nots admitting that they DON'T know it all allready.
Heaven forbid that they actually admit that they don't know what's happening, what they're doing or how the users are going to react.
They'd never get the contract that way.
That's NOT what they signed up for. Their contract said nothing about trying things out or throwing things out when it becomes obvious that they don't work.
Prototypes are absolutely essential in project management and something management can not fathom as it is anathema to the concept of a manager. The only time its ever tried and applied is during the execution of a war.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Integrated Cargo System (ICS)
The cornerstone of CMR, ICS is an integrated system giving enhanced risk assessment at the border and allowing more efficient cargo tracking. Its software suite has 23,000 function points.
It operates on an IBM OS390 mainframe [they mean zSeries] running z/OS with transactions in a CICS environment with DB2 database management. MQ-series provides the mainframe interfaces with the CCF gateway and other business applications. [CCF is a Customs communication system, I believe].
Customs' Web-based user interface, Customs Interactive (CI) has a WebSphere Java application server front end. CI system software is hosted on infrastructure managed as part of the CCF gateway.
...
Design detail in the 19,000 pages of analysis for ICS includes 800 screens, 16,000 business rules, 70 complex business messages, 850 database tables, 3700 executable load modules, 1800 CICS transaction types, 55 batch jobs, 90 reports and 35 system interfaces.
So they certainly didn't pick a few cheap PCs running the latest whizbang toyware. This is solid, proven hardware. CICS is the "old faithful" of massive transaction processing, DB2 is an old workhorse learning new tricks these days, and WebSphere is a good J2EE app server (if quite complex) with good support. And MQ is a robust guaranteed-delivery messaging system on which you can run JMS and other messenging frameworks. Overall, good choices.
I'd say that the problem is the complexity of the software... 23,000 function points? 1800 different transactions? A system of this complexity cannot reasonably be created in such a short time frame (2 years). They probably had a Mongolain hord of the lower bidding coders develop this thing without time to do any cross-project concertation, and it smells of overburdened teams working in isolation, trying to implement paper specs that aren't waterproof.
You want slow integration with a succession of prototypes for such a project. I would bet this prototyping phase was too short and that integration of parts written by isolated teams was rushed.
If you know an IBMer working in WebSphere or MQSeries on z/OS, you can ask him to bring you back a souvenir from AU, 'cuz chances are he'll be there a lot soon...
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Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
The old water-cooled systems that sprawled all over the place and took several very large cabinets have been replaced over the past decade or so with CMOS boxes roughly the size of a fridge or three.
You still might need several cabinets depending on the type of peripherals attached (and automated tape silos are not small), but while the hardware is still related in terms of basic architecture, instruction set, and operating system, basic mainframe technology has come a long way in the past 10-20 years.
The Unisys Clearpath mainframes I've worked on use either MCP (for those descended from the Burroughs A-series line) or OS2200 (for those descended from the Sperry 1100-series), and IBM mainframes typically run Z/OS (descended from OS/390). You can get some idea of the size of these boxes by reading the spec sheets for some of them
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
The movement to teach creationism or intelligent design in a science classroom is ill advised because it presents a non-scientific hypothesis as a scientific theory. Creationism and intelligent design represent a system of religious beliefs founded upon faith. They do not provide an experimentally verifiable or falsifiable set of ideas. They are not scientific theories, and we cannot teach them to our children as science if we hope to compete in an ever more technological world.
Evolution, on the other hand, has resulted in a great number of experimentally verifiable ideas. Through the fossil record, scientists have evidence of natural selection. By examining creatures with very short live cycles, scientists have been able to directly observe and maniuplate natural selection. The structure of our own DNA is the strongest evidence yet that we, too, are subject to natural selection. New ideas are only called theories if they can be verified or falsified. It is a very different definition of theory than exists for the general public, who confuse "theory" with "hypothesis".
Many people believe that to teach evolution is to teach that there is no God. Evolution does not explicitly discuss God because we cannot test for God, and this is evidence for some that evolution teaches atheism. I know religious people who take evolution and natural selection as evidence of God, and have heard them call DNA "God's fingerprints".
What does evolution mean? Is it evidence that miracles do not happen, or is it evidence that God was here? That is an interesting theological question, and one for which there is no experimental test. It is not a scientific question, so it should not be taught in a science classroom.
Violets are blue
You haven't had sex
'till you've had a love ewe.
If you go to North Beach in San Francisco you pretty much have to walk past a street of sex shops to get to the Italian restaraunts. No lie, one of them had a bunch of inflatable sheep hanging in the window with that rhyme as advertising.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) looks for that kind of stuff. Customs looks for stuff like pronography, guns, drugs and liquor.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Sorry for being an ass to you :)
;) You made me laugh.
I deserve it
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Its like throusands of routers dropped their routes all at once.
~AC
I'll bet I could rewrite that Java app in 3 days into RoR and they'd be flamin' boats in and out of the port, thanks to my speedy code.
RoR is the greatest, Dude!
EDeliver Something
Speak truth to power.
Eventually Deliver Something
Speak truth to power.
...you've managed to embargo...yourselves!
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Australia should be self-sufficient and make more goods out of their natural, renewable resources.
There are a lot of things you can make out of a kangaroo skeleton.
Share and Enjoy!
Didn't customs know that "Computer Associates" is an anagram for "It comes as crap to use"?
I have met many people who can write codes... but only very few who do it well. It is time to let "software engineers" become liable for their work. Most are lucky I am not making the software upgrade decisions, there would be none, and they would be out on the street.
There is no good reason why programs are not perfect at the time they are put in place. If you reject this statement, then you are the bad programmer I am talking about. Using a brain solves most problems before a beta tester even gets a chance to take a look. Any other problems need to be caught by the beta step. If I design a bridge that collapses, or just crumbles a bit dropping junk on those underneith, I would be a bad engineer.
Rate me a flame, a troll, or whatever.
The system must have been coded in India or some other third world code mill via an outsourced project conducted by some stupid government bureaucrat seeking to low ball a budget estimates.
Democrats and Republicans are like AIDS and Cancer, I want neither!
"...government subsidises..." in Australia????? today??? you've got to be kidding.... America... Europe, yes. Australia??? Not in the past 15 years... Maybe you're stuck in the 80's... Just as a warning then, throw out that denim jacket. (No, it's not going to come back into fashion)
;) ) handle livestock, help birth a animal as large as/or larger than a sheep... treat some fly strike (Every one from PETA should have to treat fly strike as an initiation to their membership). Carry out milking two times a day , Cows don't take breaks on the weekend you know... that don't take holidays at all!!!
Another shock... Australia has a large sparse rural community. Not everyone lives in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Darwin, Perth or icky Canberra. So what you are saying is right... 3.7% of GDP.. not much, but the generated affect on rural communities... might count for a larger
(From a N.S.W perspective) Maybe your thinking drought assistance??? Seeing a large of farmers haven't had an income for the past 3-5 years.... Try putting yourself in their position.... in some cases having to take loans or extend loan repayments for (3-5 years !!!!!) to keep their livestock alive, farms going etc...
Sure you might have a credit card debt, or loan to payback but the job you do from 8:30-5:30-6pm five days a week actually brings you in an income and you live relatively secure. What if the job did from 7-7:30-6:30pm 6-7 days a week wasn't bringing you in an adequate income all because it hasn't rained? How would you cope?
As others have stated though... Sure, dump the agricutural industry... let native regrowth take back the land and water systems... what then for rural communities?
You want to import all of our fruit, vegatables, cotton, leather, milk, cheese, wool, wine (big irrigators), fish (I'm guessing you haven't heard of fish farms...), rice, cereals (wheat etc) bread, sugar (soft drinks, beer, all fast foods, ethonol), juices, meat, soy??? Take a look at the bigger picture... take a year off and go work as a farmhand/shearer/station hand and see what really goes on. Take note of the working conditions (No ADSL/CABLE!!!, poor mobile coverage) and rates of pay... Find out what oat/wheat dust feels over your skin on a 40 (C) degrees day, (a slight itch
Maybe they should have invested a little more in software testing...
----- Forwarded message from *name removed* -----
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 12:16 +1000
From: *name removed*
Reply-To: *name removed*
Subject: CUSTOMS CMR
To: INVALID_ADDRESS@.SYNTAX-ERROR.
Good morning all
As you will probably be aware Australian Customs have as of 2.00 AM
on the 12th of October changed to a new computer system. Unfortunately the
system looks like it is experiencing major problems in both customs and
software providers side of things.
What this means is that we are experiencing major problems with
relaying data to customs and quarantine, in turn they are having major
problems relaying data back to us & to people such as the airlines, wharfs
and freight depots etc.
At this moment all the customs & software providers help desks are
being swamped with enquiries for brokers etc and we are basically being
given aan incident number and being told that the first available person
will get back to us.
Ultimately the flow through effect will be major delays in the
clearance and delivery of cargo through both Wharfs and airports
throughout Australia.
We will endeavour to keep you up to date with any developments and
appolgise for any inconvenience.
regards
*name removed*
Customs Manager
----- End forwarded message -----
Why would you want to do that? (Serious question) What would you hope to accomplish by doing that?
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.
I didn't state my belief in my original post, because I thought it was irrelevant to my question.
When making my follow-up post I pointed out that I hadn't claimed that there was proof of God's existence, and I thought that someone might get the idea that I didn't believe in Him, and wanted to clear up that potential confusion.
Now, for similar reasons, I should probably point out that I have seen very strong evidence of God.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.