Slammed again "One-Eyed" Technology Prophets Reap Costliest Flop in History

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

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FINS SPECIAL REPORT                                            May 20, 1994
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GAO CONFIRMS $200 BILLION INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BOONDOGGLE
"One-Eyed" Technology Prophets Reap Costliest Flop in History


Washington, DC, May 20--In his book, "Technopoly" (1992), Neil Postman warned
Americans to watch out for the "zealous one-eyed prophets who see only what
new technologies can do and are incapable of imagining what they will undue."
Postman suggests that we might call these people, "Technophiles":


     They gaze on technology as a lover does on his beloved, seeing it
     as without blemish and entertaining no apprehension for the future.
     They are therefore dangerous and are to be approached cautiously.


     The extent to which these "technophiles" can waste the tax dollars of
the American people came into view in testimony presented at a hearing on
OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, before the Senate
Governmental Operations Committee, Thur May 19, 1994.  In what may be the
costliest technological flop in American history, the General Accounting
Office and the Comptroller General of the United States informed the Nation
that after spending more than $200 billion on information technology over the
last 12 years, here is what the taxpayers received:


        * it is unclear what the public has received for its money
        * critical information assets are frequently inaccurate, inaccessible,
or nonexistent
        * information systems projects frequently are developed behind schedule,
fail to work as planned or needed, and cost millions more than expected
        * more often than not, agencies' attempts to use information systems to
improve operations have only marginal impact because they are focused on
automating existing inefficient processes


        Without action by Congress and federal executives, and until modern
management practices become the norm, the GAO report warned, here is what
can be expected in the future:


        * billions of dollars will continue to be wasted and customer service
will continue to suffer
        * the gap between public expectation and agency performance will
continue to expand
        * program risks will continue and unique opportunities for improvement
will remain unexploited
        * many low-value, high-risk information systems projects will continue
to be developed unimpeded and undermanaged as leaders blindly respond to
crises by purchasing more technology
        *  most federal managers will continue to operate without the financial
and management information they need to truly improve mission performance
        * many federal employees will struggle unsuccessfully, under increasing
workloads, to do their jobs better as they are hampered with information
systems that simply add on another layer of bureaucracy


[statement by Gene L. Dodaro, Assistant Comptroller General, discussing
GAO/AIMD-94-115, "Improving Mission Performance Through Strategic Information
Management and Technology" (May 1994)].  Dodaro's testimony and report
attempt to lay out ways to strengthen the Government's management of
information and technology based on a set of 11 fundamental management
practices that fall into three basic categories: Deciding to work
differently; Directing resources toward high-value uses; and Supporting
improvements with the right skills, roles, and responsibilities.  The first
category is, perhaps, the most troublesome.  Researchers have found that
managers and organizations often prefer unilateral control over information
rather that valid information, because the latter dramatically gets in the
way of their governing value-in-use: the search for power [ARGYRIS, 1982].


        In a town made for power hungry officials, the goal of "deciding to work
differently" may prove to meet with inexhaustible resistance.  It is most
interesting to note in the context of this expert advice on modern management
systems, as FINS reported earlier, that the GAO has never performed an audit
on the information technology program during the entire period of slushing
through $200 billion of taxpayer funds, which bring us to the present finding
of GAO that "it is unclear what the public has received for its money."