Never too late to get to the right starting point

WRITTEN ON January 22nd, 2008 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Design: user-oriented, Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

Overheard from supplier which recently withdrew from the National Identity Scheme procurement:

“Our biggest bugbear was that they [the IPS] still haven’t decided what it is they really want. They don’t know whether they want something that is all about security, or whether they want something that is all about customers/citizens. The two require different solutions. There’s just too much confusion still in play.”

3 Responses to “Never too late to get to the right starting point”

Andrew Watson wrote on January 24th, 2008 4:42 am :

Maija Palmer and Jimmy Burns write in the Financial Times:

“Two prominent companies have pulled out of the procurement process for the controversial multi-billion pound identity card programme amid growing concerns that the government is planning to delay the roll-out of the project.

The Financial Times has learnt that the IT services company Accenture and the defence company BAE Systems have decided not to pursue contracts linked to the biometric identity card system, with IT experts warning that some suppliers are growing increasingly frustrated with the government’s indecision.”

I wonder if these two stories are in any way related?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05ec0a02-c9f5-11dc-b5dc-000077b07658.html

ukliberty wrote on January 24th, 2008 3:20 pm :

From the article Mr Watson linked to:

Last night the Home Office confirmed a further leak suggesting that smaller volumes of ID cards should first be issued from 2010 onwards to young people to “assist” them in opening up their first bank accounts as well as to individuals employed in “positions of trust”, such as teachers and social workers.

The British Bankers’ Association said that it had not been involved in any discussion on the use of ID cards by young people.

“This has come like a bolt from the blue,” it said.

Lack of stakeholder engagement is one of the most common causes of project failure. How nice to see the Government perpetuating that fine tradition.

Charles wrote on January 24th, 2008 4:16 pm :

They want what all career politicians want, on either party

1. To be re-elected.
2. To do nothing. “I didn’t do it.” (I didn’t do anything.)
3. To take credit for everything that works.
4. To avoid responsibility when it fails.

The fundamental problem is that few if any polticians have a clue about ICT, they seem to think ICT exists to give them a board position when they’ve left government. Harman, Hewitt (who actually once used the phrase ‘Database thingies’), Milburn, Darling, and Mandelson (The unholy three who screwed up ICL Pathway, after Harman did a runner,) have all been so badly burned by their own incompetence, that they no longer dare trust anyone, and so they outsource all work. They’re now moving to outsourcing all responsibility, because fear, uncertainty and doubt has taken over.

None of them want to appear in Private Eye again, so they’re trying to work out a way of letting it die, without anyone having been involved.

Fortunately, they’re going to be elected out next time round.