Large entreprise-wide IT projects are large investments with high risks, when considering the cost of development, the costs of training, and lost productivity when systems go down.

BC public schools use BCeSIS for grading. Introduced 8 years ago, the system’s cost has come to 6 times original projections. And although generally functional, the single-server system’s slow response times and significant downtime (such as multi-day maintenance immediately before my HIstory teacher’s report card deadline) has angered many. Now, the government is going to start over, with a new ConnectEdBC (http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/11/05/ConnectEdBC-to-replace-beleaguered-BCeSIS/).

UBC’s Connect system for messaging and secure assignment dropboxing has also frustrated students and professors alike, due to frequent unscheduled outages particularly at high demand times (http://ubyssey.ca/news/ubc-connect-disruptions-352/) Some professors are instead posting entirely on simple course websites.

Translink’s new Compass farecard system is due to roll out shortly. Recently, beta testing with 10000 users was conducted (http://www.theprovince.com/TransLink+busiest+compass+card+tapping+cent+testers+still+fail/8994621/story.html), and it seems the system held up, though many bugs were found. Extensive testing is a positive step which will help engineers refine the system and ensure that large failures (and the great scandals and grief of managers and politicians) are prevented. Of course, 10000 users is a very small part of the total that will be using the new system daily, so only when the system is finally released will we know whether the IT team has succeeded.