Why do systems fail!

If you happen to work on a system implementation project you will understand the pains that are taken to ensure the success. Yet... Systems fail.. and surprisingly more often than you may think.

What causes this established systems to collapse and hinders new ones from taking roots?

I have been zeroing on a few reasons:

• Intergrity: The biggest reason for a system failures.
• Mismatch: Between the environment and the system. Environment is dynamic and so the system has to keep on evolving to keep abreast.
• Focus: Systems are secondary to processes. They are meant to support the processes and not vice-versa. Very often, in our zeal we forget this simple fact and start demanding the process to fall in line with the system.

New system implementation most often fail because they fail to incorporate the PEOPLE factor. People are the single most critical factor in the sucess of new systems. They have the knowledge to put the system in place, as well as the will to put it in place.

Get the PEOPLE factor right. Everything thing else are minor details of the puzzle and sooner or later fall in place.