Obviously, this will be a personal opinion rather than anything we've seen in audits, and I will try to keep that limited.
IT projects are complex. I think one thing that happens is oftentimes users don't know exactly what they want in an IT system until they see it.
Here I'm going a little bit off your question. One thing we've noticed—and it's in a number of these reports—is that many times a system will be built, but then there is no quality control over the data that's being collected and put in the system. Again, organizations are building systems, but then they're not making sure they're getting the data they need to make the most use out of that system.
I think it's about the complexity: the complexity of the technology, the complexity of knowing the user needs, and being able to get that all programmed.
I think in the case of Shared Services Canada we've also seen again that here they were trying to put together 43 departments, 23,000 networks, 485 data centres, and that's a lot of things to try to bring together. It really takes extremely good project management and having very good control over what is going to be delivered and making sure that the scope of the project doesn't just keep growing.
I think it boils down to their being extremely complex and they have to have good oversight; they have to have good management, and they have to set realistic expectations. Then they have to be able to correct the course to be able to deliver something within a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost.