Failed transformations
In this and the subsequent sections, we will take an in-depth look into some failed IDT projects and examine the primary reasons why they failed. Let's first look at the public sector.
Public sector failures
The public sector has experienced a number of significant digital transformation failures. Some failures look very much like private sector failures. However, most public sector failures demonstrate the challenges that are particularly prevalent in the public sector, which we discussed in detail in Chapter 6, Transforming the Public Sector. As we discussed in that chapter, the public sector tends to accumulate a great deal of technical debt and generally has a shortage of qualified technical resources. These challenges, combined with the complexities of public contracting, tend to result in both a reliance on more traditional development methodologies and the outsourcing of transformation projects to systems integrators. To further complicate...