Rodent Regatta

Abandon $15.8 million of software and you can bet there’s been some time expensed up to this point that easily pushes this one closer to $20 million in total costs. I worked on a $10 million project in the early 1990’s. I saw the things that could go wrong. That project succeeded, but not without some major restitution from a key provider of software and know-how.

Lexmark to write off Oracle project. The printer maker will take a third-quarter $15.8 million write-off for abandoning the software, but still expects a jump in revenue. [CNET News.com]

Since that time we’ve worked on some sub $1 million projects. The risks are huge. In fact, some of these smaller projects come closer to bet-the-company than at Lexmark. Software is the grease on the business process skids. The transition to new software is the most disruptive initiative any business can take. So often these projects don’t get properly scoped, planned and executed, and it amazes me that we haven’t learned the lessons.