Humour

The IT lessons of history

Sometimes the lessons of history are clear, but since most businesses do not actually read history books, they tend to repeat history, writes T A Balasubramanian.

In the Moghul Corporation, known plainly to most people as the Moghul, there is a ritual in progress once more. Here, Baba Bahadur, the patient and long-suffering CIO of Moghul, faces up to the might and weight of the scrutiny of the durbar and it’s heavyweight royal inner circle.

The king, of course, is the owner and CEO of Moghul, Aurangazeb, who is known in the halls and corridors of the Moghul as Moghu-e-Aura, or simply, the Aura. During these elaborate meetings, Aura presides, extending his benevolent attention to his underlings. He is amply supported by Nana Findaloo, Moghul’s inexhaustible CFO and Chief Vizir.

Today, Baba Bahadur is to put up a credible front to show that his spending on IT projects does not always create a deep crater in Moghul’s treasury. Bahadur makes a record of the session in this first-hand account.

As usual, Findaloo begins the ritual darkly by saying, “The first thing I’d like to talk about, Bahadur, is IT project failure. As you know from all the available history books, IT ventures tend to flop a lot.”

I try to be reasonable, even jocular. It has been just over a week since I have presented my budget for three IT projects, two continuing ones and one absolutely new, each designed to give a new thrust to Moghul’s doddering IT infrastructure.

“Nanaji, it all depends on how you define ‘fail’. If we set up a project in full faith, and it misses a few deliverables, or if it has to be changed radically midway, that does not necessarily make it a flop. Not exactly perfect, but then nothing and nobody is perfect, huzoor.”

Nana looks meaningfully at his lord, Aura, who smiles lazily, his eyes dreamy and distant. He is probably thinking about the special feast he has been invited to tonight at the Akbar Mahal, a newly opened restaurant.

“The lotus is perfect,” says Aura, thoughtfully, to nobody in particular. “Huzoor, did you notice that we have to take a holiday tomorrow, since it happens to be my great-grandfather’s birthday? You IT and finance guys work too hard. Not good for your hearts, I say.”

Aurangazeb waves his hand in the air languidly. The durbar breaks into a ripple of murmurs as the news of the unexpected day off travels around, and everyone makes a note of the date so that it can be productively used again the next year. A round of applause is heard, and Aura smiles benevolently.

“I’m not looking for perfection, Bahadur,” says Nana, impervious to the distractions created by Aurangazeb and the assembly. “But what you call less than perfect, the consultant Duckbill & Goose calls overstretched, overhyped and overblown. But mostly, they are over here on my table each day, demanding more money.

“Might I say, Nanaji, that it is an over-reaction?” I hazard, trying to lighten the black mood.

Nanaji is not impressed. “I have gone through your budget proposals. If the D&G report is correct, and I don’t see why they should be wrong, most projects end up with fewer features than you promised, they cost more than you said they would, and they take longer than you expected. That puts me in a terrible quandary. If we pull the plug on your ongoing projects, we have wasted crores of rupees. If we don’t, we risk wasting more.”

“Nanaji, with all due respects to D&G, that is always a difficult choice, and I do not see how we are in such a quandary.”

“What else can you call your wireless project? Your campaign promised all sorts of RoI for adopting a wireless network. You said we could save on networking costs and get more productivity because our workers could access the network from anywhere. But it has not worked out that way, has it?”

“Ji huzoor, of course there were problems. But by doing that project now, we are shifting directly to next-generation technology. And we do save money at the same time.”

“Yes, Bahadur, but when? After we have overshot the budget and spent twice what you planned? Once the project started, you said there was a problem because our buildings had metal in them, and that interfered with the signals. So you broke down and rebuilt all the walls. To date, that has cost an extra half-crore. Everything has been sliding that way. Our support costs were sliding and turned out to be twice what you said they would be because you had to fix a security gap in the wireless protocol.”

“Nanaji, this is the nature of software projects and, honestly, it is an inherent feature of any big challenge. What about when we take on a big merger? Remember when we acquired Gwalior? That started out as a happy story about synergies and complementary product lines. But after it was finalised, we started hearing about cultural differences, branding conflicts. That project did not come off exactly as you hoped it would, either.”

“I’m not asking you to make IT projects fail-safe, Bahadur. That would be as foolish as you asking me to always keep the profits going up. What I’m asking for is a lot more discipline, especially up front. To measure risk. To consider all the forces that might affect a project, not just the ones from within your own cabin. Think of it this way: replace the word project with the word product. What if half of Britannia’s badam biscuits crumbled before you could eat them, and another quarter did not have any badams?”

“Nanaji, we have been trying to address your concerns on two levels. One, we’ve established a project management office to balance our project portfolio. We are starting to use some basic risk analysis. And two, we have adopted some agile development techniques to improve code quality and production efficiency.”

“We need more discipline and empirical analysis, Bahadur. Because all it takes is one troubled project to mess things up royally. When I got the update on your wireless project, I started thinking about Aurangazeb’s last campaign at Wagingera. I’m not talking of the present one, our CEO, but the Aura in history.”

“What happened in the last campaign, Nanaji?”

“The Wagingera fortress was empty when the emperor finally entered to conquer it. So much for the efforts made in the previous months, when hundreds of troops laid siege to what they thought was a great prize.”

“Ah, the lessons of history, Nanaji.”

“The lotus is perfect,” says Aura, once more, as the durbar adjourns.