Reply to post: Re: Maybe the FBU shouldn't have sabotaged FiReControl then

Re: Maybe the FBU shouldn't have sabotaged FiReControl then

As for what went wrong, apart from being sabotaged by the FBU and to a lesser extent the CFOA (the Chief Fire Officers Association), it was the usual for a large gov't IT project:

1) The scope was over ambitious: "This is an opportunity of a lifetime, a once in a generation chance to ask for everything we want, we won't get this chance again." If memory serves, there were some 17,000 requirements in the DOORS database, ranging from barely legible half sentences, to in some cases, 1/2 an A4 page of rambling desires. The job to atomise the requirements into single deliverable and testable statements, didn't happen till year 5 of a 3 year project!

2) Typical client / consultancy relationship: Gov't insistence that the requirements were fully specified and were fixed; and the consultancy, having cut the quote to the bone to get the gig, was issuing a change request and bill for every perceivable variation. Change Control was the slickest team in the whole project.

3) Despite claiming to follow an iterative development process, it was big bang in the extreme, attempting in 1 go, consolidate the sometimes wildly different way 46 different FRS's do business. Did you know for example, there were 52 different states an appliance could be in?!?

4) Changing the IT but not the processes. Because each FRS insisted that they have their own statuses and processes, and that no rationalisation was to occur. So the software had to support how they did business currently, they weren't going to change their processes.

I could go on, as you know, it's always the same story. Here's what they should have done:

A) Build 1 South West Regional call centre for Devon say (but could have started anywhere).

B) Develop new software to support Devon's current model, though with the end size and scaleability in mind.

C) Merge Cornwall to this new SW Regional centre, converging best practice from both FRS's, working out all the data and process mappings necessary, retraining staff and rolling out the new kit as required.

D) Sort out all the teething problems and bugs.

E) Commence a rolling programme of merging with neighbouring FRS's over many years, taking time to fully integrate and learn lessons before approaching the next, and the next.

F) Bring online new regional call centres as required, integrating with the current network.