That’s pretty expensive government IT

Jim Donovan points out the top to bottom $117m IT reengineering of the NZ Immigration department equates to $234k per person. With a budget and a timeline like that, it will only take another stroke of legislation to render it all obsolete.

If there is any IT function that needs to be agile rather than waterfall, it is compliance-oriented IT. I have worked on government projects that were started in anticipation of legislative changes, but nobody knows exactly what, or when it will be passed, but the department is expected to carry them out immediately.

Under this scenario, I.T. should only be a matter of record keeping, leaving complex rules to be driven by users. Knowing well that these rules will likely change again in three years time, when the next election comes around.