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back to article DfT scraps IT projects worth £15.4m

The Department for Transport has cancelled three major IT projects in the last year prior to their completion. The three projects scrapped by the department were known as TVTTT, VINI and ISYS. TVTTT, which involved tracking vehicles through the trade, had cost £7.8m when cancelled. It was ended "as another project was found to …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Chris Mole

    He's my MP. He was a researcher at BT Labs. His wife works for BT.

    When a friend formally raised their concerns about Phorm, his response was to send them BT's press release. Great value for money and transparency.

    He serves Lord Adonis, yet in East Anglia we have very poor transport links - the A14 to the midlands is at capacity with lorries from Felixtowe and Harwich (less traffic due to the recession, however, one small accident and the road ceases to function - no hard shulder). The A12 to London is just as bad (but not quite so many lorries use it as the A14).

    The Ipswich to London train service is dire - the carriages are about 40 years old, the trains are slow and expensive - the franchise owner has removed the awar winning dining cars (but kept first class) and the entire focus is on profit - not customer service.

    Chris Mole is interested in promotion, not serving his local voters.

    He is technically qualified and experienced. He should be more open about these IT issues and their causes - but he won't because it would look bad for the DfT and Lord Adonis. Why, after SO long, do we have to have a driving licence that's not valid without an A4 piece of paper ?

    Politics needs reforming. There is no John Lewis in Ipswich, no Wagamama, no Porsche dealer. Chris knows Ipswich is a poor commuter town, he can't lose his seat, he cares not.

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  2. Jonathan

    excuses

    1. TVTTT "as another project was found to be better and less costly",

    2. VINI "Changes in vehicle excise duty led to the need to concentrate on other DVLA systems"

    3. ISYS "proved to be unsuitable as the software response times were too slow. However, this project helped us to define our requirements and feed into the wider initiative on records management

    a Munich Agreement and 2 Concorde's?

    "the Civil Service's five standard excuses"

    A The Anthony Blunt excuse

    There is a perfectly satisfactory explanation for everything, but security prevents its disclosure

    B The Comprehensive Schools excuse

    It's only gone wrong because of heavy cuts in staff and budget which have stretched supervisory resources beyond the limit

    C The Concorde excuse

    It was a worthwhile experiment now abandoned, but not before it provided much valuable data and considerable employment

    D The Munich Agreement excuse

    It occurred before important facts were known, and cannot happen again (The important facts in question were that Hitler wanted to conquer Europe. This was actually known; but not to the Foreign Office, of course)

    E The Charge of the Light Brigade excuse

    It was an unfortunate lapse by an individual which has now been dealt with under internal disciplinary procedures

    According to Sir Humphrey, these excuses have covered everything so far. Even wars. Small wars, anyway.

    (The Complete Yes Minister, p. 338)

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  3. Rob
    Unhappy

    Should we be greatful for this honesty?

    At least he's admitted what projects they've canned, are the other departments saying they haven't canned any IT projects becuase they are too bloody minded and/or scared of public reaction?

    Someone let me into the asylum, the people make more sense in there.

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  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    His is the *only* govt dept which has cancelled IT projects?

    I think not.

    Except all the others were "re-scoped," "de-scoped" "awaiting review" "de-prioritised" and any of the 101 other terms of bureaucratic BS used to avoid the actual *admission* that the project is a corpse.

    I was going with WTF but actually having even the minuscule level of honesty to admit this much does deserve a thumbs up.

    45 days likely, 80 days maximum

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Clever trick

    MPs now have us being GRATEFUL that they are being honest. Amazing.

    Hard working. Intelligent. Articulate. These are good qualities, honesty is a pre-requisite.

    You'll be grateful they are not Russian Spies next. Hang on a minute...

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  6. Jean-Paul

    How come...

    it feels this report makes it look like a bad thing....The decision not to go ahead with a project is one that should be evaluated by the project board at every stage boundary within a project lifecycle.

    I'm with John Smith, others use much more creative language or should be monitored more closely as to which decisions made them continue. Hold those executives to account :-)

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  7. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Down

    turning it upside down

    What does it take to get a project canceled at the *other* departments?

    And IIRC wasn't a case management system at the SFO binned recently?

    Oh wait, that's an "Executive agency," nothing to do with the Ministry of Justice, no sir, independent , hardly a part of government at all etc.

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