ITP
9,4
8
More than a failure? The
computerized reservation
systems at French Railways
Nathalie N. Mitev
Information Systems Research Centre, University of Salford,
Salford, UK
Introduction
Information systems (IS) failures have attracted renewed public attention in
recent years, due to a series of spectacular cases: the London Ambulance
Services (Watts, 1992), Taurus at the London Stock Exchange (Willcock, 1993),
the Wessex Health Authority (Kelsey and Brown, 1993), the alleged £77 million
write-off at the Foreign Office and a project abandoned at the Ministry of
Defence at a cost of £10 million (Kelsey, 1993), and also outside the UK, for
instance the computerization of the French judicial system, abandoned after
having wasted FF3.4 billion (Chemin, 1993; Jacquin, 1993; Leclerq, 1993), and
the more recent disastrous implementation of computerized reservation
systems at French Railways.
Poor management, ignorance of information technology, human error,
inappropriate or faulty technology, lack of consideration of human factors, are
some of the explanations commonly put forward. Some solutions are
recommended, such as getting human factors and organizational design
specialists’ advice at the system design stage (ACST, 1993; Patel, 1993) or
adopting Japanese-style work practices and management styles. Some purely
technical solutions are also suggested, such as computer simulations which can
show how a complex computer system will work before any money is spent on
development or installation (Maran, 1994).
One major assumption underlying these statements is that failures are
atypical and irrational and that they can be corrected using managerial and/or
technicist means. The dominant trend is to see the introduction, design and
development of information systems as a rational decision-making process
carried out on behalf of management. Much of the literature on organizational
issues in relation to information technology “reflects a rational-economic
interpretation of organisational processes, and a positivist methodology”
(Walsham, 1993). Designing IS is equated to engineering, and it is believed that
if the practices of the engineering professions are adopted there will be a decline
in the number of failed projects in IS (Ewusi-Mensah and Przasnyski, 1995).
Social and political factors, often conflicting, are rarely taken into consideration,
whether in the private or public sectors. An example of controversial social and
Information Technology & People,
Vol. 9 No. 4, 1996, pp. 8-19.
© MCB University Press, 0959-3845