Biggest IT Disaster Ever?

lizzyben writes, "Baseline has a major story about a major IT disaster in the UK: 'In 2002, the English government embarked on a $12 billion effort to transform its health-care system with information technology. But the country's oversight agency now puts that figure at $24 billion, and two Members of Parliament say the project is "sleepwalking toward disaster"... In scale, the project... (NPfIT) is overwhelming. Initiated in 2002, the NPfIT is a 10-year project to build new computer systems that would connect more than 100,000 doctors, 380,000 nurses and 50,000 other health-care professionals; allow for the electronic storage and retrieval of patient medical records; permit patients to set up appointments via their computers; and let doctors electronically transmit prescriptions to local pharmacies.'" An Infoworld article from earlier this year sketches some of the all-time greatest IT meltdowns.

Comments

catchy name

[Speare]

NPfIT

Clearly all that NPfIT needs to increase political buy-in and remain on schedule and under budget is a catchier name for the act. A good catchy feel-good name can bury a lot of dead bodies. Take USAPATRIOT for example. When in the private sector, adding punctuation or coining a new non-cultural word has its benefits too. Consider Cue:Cat: and Flooz.

Fifth Largest IT Disaster

[ReidMaynard]

In 2003 my "D" drive crashed, restore of backups failed, and I lost all my, um.... graphics.

Windows troll?

[smittyoneeach]

Windows troll?
Obvious. Droll.
Redmond tops neither
The IRS hole
Or a clean and sparkling soul.
Burma Shave

Re:You Try It Sometime

[slashflood]

see if getting a metric ton of vendors

There's the rub.

Re:Honorable Mention

[IDontAgreeWithYou]

But... But... R'ing TFA means I won't get teh frist psot.

Compassionate Conservatism

[metamatic]

A Compassionate Conservative is riding in the back of his limousine when he sees a man eating grass by the roadside. He orders his driver to stop and gets out to investigate.

"Why are you eating grass?" he asks.

"I don't have any money for food," the poor man replies.

"Oh, well, you can come with me to my place to eat!"

"But I have a wife and two children."

"Bring them along too!"

So they all climb back in the limo. As they're driving along, the poor man says "Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you."

"No problem, I'm glad to do it," says the Compassionate Conservative, "The grass at my place is almost a foot tall!"