How Business Automation Projects Fail, Part 2
22 August 2009
In part 1 of this series I wrote about a simple case where failure to define requirements for a software purchase ended up costing the business several thousands of dollars worth of wasted effort that had to be re-done. The software purchase price was just a few hundred dollars, so it seemed okay to take shortcuts in the selection process. The resulting loss was more than anyone bargained for.
In part 2, this post, I’m writing about a much larger purchase of custom-developed software. This is a true story of a project that could have turned into a disaster. It could have sunk a new startup company before it ever got off the ground. It could have failed badly. But this one actually has a happy ending. Disaster was averted because the business owner stopped in the middle of the process to ask some key questions, and he acted on the answers.
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