Honolulu's Department of Planning and Permitting spent $7.3 million on the HNL Build platform to replace its 28‑year‑old POSSE system, but within weeks staff labeled it a disaster as tasks slowed, audit trails vanished, and a survey of over 150 employees gave it the lowest possible rating.
This article recounts a disastrous 12‑year software project with over 6 million lines of C++ code, outdated CORBA middleware, chaotic version control, and absurd management practices, illustrating how technical debt and bureaucratic mismanagement can doom even the most ambitious engineering efforts.
The article analyzes why user profiling initiatives frequently collapse, highlighting surface mistakes such as confusing past behavior with future predictions, mixing behavior with motivation, and mistaking correlation for causation, while also exposing deeper issues like unrealistic business expectations, over‑reliance on static tags, and insufficient predictive modeling and causal analysis.
The Indian tax e‑filing portal built by Infosys collapsed shortly after launch due to inadequate testing, poor project management, and repeated technical glitches, highlighting critical lessons for large‑scale IT operations and delivery.
This article recounts a twelve‑year‑long French government software project that amassed over six million lines of C++ code, suffered from outdated technology, chaotic version control, absurd management policies, and ultimately collapsed, offering stark lessons for developers and project leaders.
An ex‑consultant recounts a twelve‑year French government software project that spiraled into a disastrous 600‑plus‑million‑line C++ codebase, plagued by outdated technology, chaotic version control, absurd management practices, and massive inefficiencies, ultimately ending in prison for its leaders.
